The Chief Executive, Mr Ho Iat Seng, today met with officials of Hainan Province to exchange views on economic and trade matters, tourism, high- and new technology development, financial services, traditional Chinese medicine and significance of cultivating talented individuals to support development.
During a meeting held in Hainan with the Secretary of the Hainan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Mr Shen Xiaoming, Mr Ho said Hainan and Macao had huge room for cooperation in fields such as tourism, education, and science and technology. In particular, the two sides should work further on tourism, as flight times between the two places were relatively short.
The Chief Executive is leading a delegation to Hainan for the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2021. Mr Ho arrived in Hainan today and will attend tomorrow (20 April) the Forum’s opening ceremony.
During the meeting, Mr Ho said Macao had not recorded any local case of COVID-19 infection for more than a year, and was a healthy, safe and quality destination for travel. The city had capacity to accommodate an annual 40 million visitors. Recently, Macao had had around 300,000 boundary-crossing movements each day. In addition to a series of initiatives to help the Macao public in the face of adversity wrought by the pandemic, the Government had also launched a number of measures that seek to boost internal consumption while attracting a greater number of visitors to Macao.
The Chief Executive gave a briefing on the directions of Macao’s economic development in the second half of this year. To propel economic diversification, Macao would spare no effort in advancing development of four major sectors: traditional Chinese medicine, modern financial and insurance service, high and new technology development, and culture-related matters. Macao had initiated study on talent-development policies and other supporting measures, in order to sustain a sufficient number of talented people for development of those sectors, Mr Ho added.
Hainan’s Secretary Shen shared insights on the latest progress on economic development and free trade port development initiatives there. He noted Hainan and Macao had similar economic structures, and said both places were working to strengthen the resilience of their economies. The pandemic had brought Hainan not only difficulties but also opportunities. The province had seen a growth in consumption, education, healthcare, high and new technology development, talent development, and ecological and environmental matters.
Mr Shen pointed out that Hainan looked forward to working more closely with Macao in order to strengthen cooperation with Portuguese-speaking countries, bolster governmental and people-to-people exchanges, and promote a model of multi-destination tourism.
Members of the Macao delegation attending the meeting included: the Commissioner of the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China in the Macao Special Administrative Region, Mr Liu Xianfa, who had been invited to join the Macao delegation as an adviser; the Secretary for Economy and Finance, Mr Lei Wai Nong; and the Chief-of-Office of the Chief Executive’s Office, Ms Hoi Lai Fong.
Hainan officials additionally present were: member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Hainan Provincial Committee and head of the United Front Work Department, Ms Fu Caixiang; member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Hainan Provincial Committee, Secretary-General of CPC Hainan Provincial Committee, and head of Hainan Office for Comprehensively Deepen Reform and Opening Up (Office of the Hainan Free Trade Port Working Committee), Mr Sun Dahai; and Vice Governor and Secretary-General of the Hainan Government, Mr Ni Qiang.
The Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2021 – being held until 21 April – takes as its theme “A World in Change: Join Hands to Strengthen Global Governance and Advance Belt and Road Cooperation”. The Forum is mostly being held via in-person meetings. Some sessions will be held virtually to facilitate the participation of international representatives, to ensure the events are held in line with epidemic-control measures.
