The five parallel forums held during the 12th International Infrastructure Investment and Construction Forum (12th IIICF), including “Giving Full Play to Macao’s Role as Platform, Promoting China and Portuguese-speaking Countries to Jointly Advance the Belt and Road Co-operation” and “Carbon Neutrality and International Power Energy Co-operation”, came to an end. The parallel forums covered a wide variety of topics, such as the trends of international infrastructure in carbon neutrality, energy conservation and emissions reduction, financial innovation, green infrastructure development, zero-coupon bonds, and infrastructure financing. Meanwhile, issues relating to how to promote the collaborative innovation and development of overseas consulting services and contracted projects, as well as the development of Macao as a co-operation platform between China and Portuguese-speaking countries to assist Mainland and Macao companies in their joint exploration of the markets in Portuguese-speaking countries, were discussed.
Leveraging Macao’s role as a platform to boost financial development in China and Portuguese-speaking countries
During the parallel forum “Giving Full Play to Macao’s Role as Platform, Promoting China and Portuguese-speaking Countries to Jointly Advance the Belt and Road Co-operation”, Assistant Minister of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China Ren Hongbin suggested that entrepreneurs in Mainland China and Macao should pool resources and draw on each other’s strengths, while helping Macao serve as a significant link between China’s domestic and international economic circulations. He hoped that the Mainland-Macao Belt and Road Business and Professional Services Council (BRBPSC) can combine Mainland companies’ industrial advantages with Macao’s advantages in professional services such as modern finance, accounting and construction, wide connections in terms of returned overseas Chinese and their relatives, and inherent extensive ties with Portuguese-speaking countries. In so doing, the BRBPSC will strengthen the exchanges and co-operation between companies from Mainland China and Macao, and support Macao in its construction of a co-operation platform between China and Portuguese-speaking countries, and eventually contributing to the deepening of economic and trade co-operation between China and Portuguese-speaking countries.
Secretary for Economy and Finance of the Macao Special Administrative Region Lei Wai Nong remarked that positioned as a Commercial and Trade Co-operation Service Platform between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries, Macao actively makes use of this development positioning to serve the national needs and give play to its own strengths. In the future, Macao will continue consolidating and leveraging its advantages as the co-operation platform between China and Portuguese-speaking countries, seize the opportunities brought by the current recovery of international infrastructure co-operation in a timely manner, and strengthen exchanges and co-operation with Portuguese-speaking countries. While actively integrating into the larger picture of national development and boosting its moderately diversified economic development, Macao will further intensify co-operation in infrastructure between Portuguese-speaking countries and countries along the Belt and Road routes, to jointly facilitate the high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative.
Accelerating the global energy transition and achieving green and low-carbon goals
At the parallel forum on “Carbon Neutrality and International Power Energy Co-operation”, representatives from renowned companies in wind power, photovoltaics, energy storage, hydrogen energy and power grids were invited to share their views on how to build a new power system with new energy sources, which is a key research area in the industry. Chairman of the China International Contractors Association (CHINCA) Fang Qiuchen noted in his speech that carbon peak and neutrality goals are one of the most discussed topics in the world and that the energy industry, as the industry with the highest carbon emissions, is of paramount importance in achieving the global carbon neutrality target. Governments around the world have reached a general consensus on and agreed to take action to achieve carbon neutrality, and it is expected that new energy sources will have ample room for development in the future. Chairman Fang believes that the international community needs to strengthen co-operation in the areas of energy transition and technological innovation to further promote the development of new energy in terms of technology and cost.
Vice-President of the Power Construction Corporation of China Li Yanming shared in his speech that the world is currently undergoing an energy transition, with new energy sources such as wind, water and solar power gradually being developed and utilised on a larger scale. In 2020, new energy sources accounted for 82% of the world’s total capacity expansion, becoming the world’s main source of power for six consecutive years with rapid growth. Vice-President Li also mentioned the shift of global energy consumption to emerging economies, and China is expected to account for 36% of the world’s total capacity expansion by 2035. In the long term, reducing coal consumption and increasing the share of new energy sources are the two most important ways to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality.
