BEIJING – Officials from Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau said yesterday that they will join hands in implementing plans for developing cooperation zones.
The State Council Information Office held a news conference on the development of Hengqin in Zhuhai and Qianhai in Shenzhen in Beijing yesterday. Officials from Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau participated in the press conference by video link from their respective places.
The central authorities have recently issued a general plan for building a Guangdong-Macau in-depth cooperation zone and a new plan for further developing a Shenzhen-Hong Kong cooperation zone.
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government welcomes the Shenzhen-Hong Kong plan, said Lee Ka-chiu, chief secretary for administration of the HKSAR government.
Lee said the HKSAR government is confident in leveraging the institutional advantage brought by the “One Country, Two Systems” principle, adding that the HKSAR will participate in developing the modern service industry of the cooperation zone to explore growing space for its professional-service business.
André Cheong Weng Chon, secretary for administration and justice of the Macau SAR, also said the regional government welcomes the Guangdong-Macau plan, and is grateful to the central authorities.
Cheong said the zone will become a new platform to boost Macau’s appropriate economic diversification, a new space that makes the lives and work of Macau residents more convenient, a new model to enrich the practice of “One Country, Two Systems,” as well as a new high ground for building the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area (GBA).
Cheong described the Guangdong-Macau in-depth cooperation project in Hengqin as a “historic opportunity” that would help transform Macau’s economy and create new jobs for young people from Macau. The policy secretary also said that the large-scale and long-term undertaking would also provide Macau with new development platforms, diversify its economy and create a “new space” for Macau citizens to improve their living standard. The in-depth cooperation zone covers 106 square kilometres, more than three times the size of Macau’s about 33-square-kilometre land area.
The two zones will bring new major historical opportunities for the reform and development of Guangdong in the new development stage, said Lin Keqing, executive vice governor of the province. – Xinhua, MPD
Secretary André Cheong Weng Chon (left) attends yesterday’s press conference by the State Council Information Office about the central authorities-approved development projects for Hengqin (Macau-Guangdong) and Qianhai (Hong Kong-Guangdong) in Beijing via video link from Macau yesterday. – GCS
