A four-day visit to Guizhou Province by young people from Macao offered them first-hand knowledge of the latest social progress on the mainland, and helped to nurture among the visitors acceptance of their identity and their sense of belonging.

The Secretary for Administration and Justice, Ms Chan Hoi Fan, who led a delegation of 100 young people to Guizhou from 14 to 17 July, said the visit had been a success. The delegation arrived in Macao on Wednesday afternoon.

She told reporters on Wednesday (16 July) that Guizhou was considered a microcosm of the country’s development and progress, and visiting the Province had offered the young visitors insights on how the country had risen and grown in stature over the years.

While in Guizhou, the delegation visited a school and several attractions, located respectively in Guiyang Municipality, Pingtang County, and Congjiang County, and met with officials of the Guizhou Provincial People’s Government and representatives of Guizhou Youth Federation.

Ms Chan said the visit enabled all the delegation members to gain a better understanding of Guizhou’s latest progress and thus created a stronger basis for further Macao-Guizhou ties, including cooperation relating to information technology.

As approved by the Central Government, the Macao SAR has joined the country’s overall effort on poverty relief: Congjiang County is a focus of Macao’s assistance. The Government would continue to assist Congjiang in its efforts regarding poverty alleviation, Ms Chan added.

The Guizhou visit was part of a programme of five tours that are jointly organised by: the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) Government; the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Macao SAR; and a body formed by Macao youth associations.  

The whole programme involves a total of 500 young people. They are accompanied on their respective trips by senior officials of the SAR Government, and officials of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Macao SAR. Each delegation visits a single province on the mainland, namely either Hebei, Guizhou, Jiangsu, Guangdong or Hunan, on various dates between 14 July and 25 July.

The visits are part of the celebrations for this year’s ‘two anniversaries’ and are designed to assist Macao’s young people to grasp – in a comprehensive and intensive way – the latest aspects of national development.

The two anniversaries are the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, and the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Macao SAR.