The Secretary for Security, Mr Wong Sio Chak, said a four-day visit to Guangdong Province by a group of Macao young people would foster innovative thinking and technological development in Macao in order to advance the city’s contribution to overall national development.

Secretary Wong made the remarks on Thursday (25 July) before leaving Zhuhai to return to Macao. He had led a delegation of 100 young Macao people on a visit to Guangdong from 22 to 25 July, calling at places including Guangzhou, Dongguan, and Zhuhai.

During the four-day visit, young people taking part in the delegation were presented with fresh insights about the country’s development in the field of information technology. They gained fresh knowledge via stops at technological facilities. The places visited included: the home of the “Tianhe-2” supercomputer at the National Supercomputer Center; the China Spallation Neutron Source facility; and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao 3D Printing Innovation Hub.

The trip to Guangdong – covering some cities that are part of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area – was a significant opportunity for young Macao people and Government officials to see first-hand the development effort relating to that city-cluster initiative, said Mr Wong.

In his remarks to reporters, Mr Wong said he hoped delegation members would be motivated – having achieved a grasp during the visit of the country’s latest situation – to link their personal development to Macao’s development and the country’s overall progress development-wise.

Government officials that took part in the trip would for their part also be inspired to put forward public policies in a spirit of innovation and of forward thinking, Mr Wong added. 

The Guangdong visit was part of a programme of five tours to mainland provinces that has been 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 involved a total of 500 young people. They were accompanied on their respective trips by senior officials of the Macao SAR Government, and officials of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Macao SAR. Each delegation visited a single province on the mainland, namely either Hebei, Guizhou, Jiangsu, Guangdong or Hunan, on various dates between 14 and 25 July.

The visits were part of the celebrations for this year’s ‘two anniversaries’ and were 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.