To help local youth further understand the Mainland’s work to ensure the quality and quantity of food for supply to Macao and experience the efforts taken by the Mainland to satisfy the needs of the Macao public and protect their “safety of every bite of food”, the Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM) held the “General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China (GACC) and Youth of Macao Exchange Forum” in the afternoon on 6 June. During the forum, representatives of GACC and the youth of Macao exchanged ideas on issues such as the history and the development of regulation of food for supply to Macao, food import and export policies and regional food safety cooperation. About 200 youth representatives from the various local associations and tertiary academic institutions attended the forum.

The theme of the exchange forum is “protection of food safety and love for the home and country”. During the forum, Zhao Qian, Level III Principal Staff Member of Division II of Plant Quarantine of Department of Animal and Plant Quarantine of GACC, and Huan Ping, the Head of Division of Food Safety of Gongbei Customs District, gave the attendees an introduction to the regulation of fresh and live food for supply to Macao, the overall direction of food safety regulation and the regulatory requirements of import and export of food in China, etc., so that the local youth can have a deeper understanding of the food safety regulation and organisation of source of fresh and live food and agricultural produce for supply to Macao and regional cooperation on food safety. Local youth from different fields and professions actively engaged in exchange of ideas with the representatives of GACC and expressed their opinions on facilitation of entry of food produced in Macao to the Mainland market, making use of more food safety policies advantageous to Macao and food safety regulation and law enforcement during the forum.

Most of the fresh and live food and agricultural produce in Macao are supplied by the Mainland. For many years, with the support of GACC, the Mainland and Macao have continuously made advances and actively pursued cooperation on food safety. In recent years, innovative measures such as “tripartite cooperation”, “advance inspection and cooperation in supervision” and facilitation of customs clearance were established to continuously strengthen the mechanism ensuring the supply of food and increase the types of food for supply, in an endeavour to ensure that the food and agricultural produce for supply to Macao are “better” and “fresher” and establish a strong foundation for food safety regulation and cooperation.

This exchange forum is one of the activities in “Joint Efforts in Food Safety for Double Celebration” Activity Series. IAM hopes that through the forum, the local youth can learn more about the efforts taken by the Mainland to ensure the safety and stable supply of materials like food and agricultural produce to Macao and the opportunities brought about by national development. IAM hopes to encourage the youth to start from themselves and actively play their part in the establishment of the national food safety mechanism together at different levels.