Central People’s Government Liaison Office Deputy Director Zhang Rongshun said yesterday that certain legislative measures by both the central government and the local government will be required for the future operation of the mainland-Macau joint checkpoint on Hengqin Island in Zhuhai.
Zhang made the remarks while speaking to reporters at the Macau Science Centre in Nape on the sidelines of a seminar about the relationship between the “One Country, Two Systems” principle and the nation’s strategy to implement its reform and opening-up policy. The one-day seminar, organised by the Macau Basic Law Promotion Association (ADLBM), marked the 19th anniversary of the establishment of the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) on December 20 last year.
Zhang, who was posted to Macau last year, is one of the four deputy directors of the Liaison Office in Macau.
Secretary for Security Wong Sio Chak first revealed in June last year while speaking to reporters that the local government had recently proposed to the central government that Macau’s Lotus Flower Bridge border checkpoint be moved from Cotai to Hengqin Island in Zhuhai, adding that a “new mode of clearance” should be adopted after the relocation of the Macau-side checkpoint to the island of the neighbouring city.
Wong did not elaborate at that time what the new mode of clearance should be.
Macau’s border checkpoint in Cotai is linked to Zhuhai’s border checkpoint in Hengqin via the Lotus Flower Bridge across a narrow river between the western shore of Cotai and the adjacent island administered by Zhuhai.
The Cotai-Hengqin checkpoints came into service in March 2000. A temporary building for the Hengqin checkpoint started operating in December 2014, after which the original checkpoint building was demolished for the ongoing construction of a new border checkpoint-cum-public transport complex, which will also include commercial buildings, on the same site.
According to mainland media reports last year, the Macau government submitted a report to the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office of the State Council in May last year about a preliminary study of the feasibility of moving the Lotus Flower Bridge checkpoint from Cotai to Hengqin Island.
According to the mainland press reports at that time, the Macau government hopes that the future checkpoint complex in Hengqin will make it possible for the Macau-side checkpoint to move there.
Central People’s Government Liaison Office Deputy Director Zhang Rongshun speaks to reporters at the Macau Science Centre yesterday. Courtesy: TDM
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