A law firm director based in Hengqin told a media delegation during a visit to the island last week that “from a legal perspective” she expected that it will be possible before long for Macau residents – including those not holding Chinese nationality – to travel directly between the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) and the adjacent island’s Guangdong-Macau In-depth Cooperation Zone by bus thanks to more relaxed border checkpoint procedures.
Chen Yi, director, lawyer and partner of ZLF Law Office, made the remarks during a meeting with the local Portuguese- and English-language media delegation in her office on Friday.
Chen said she was looking forward to a “more open” customs and immigration clearance policy between Macau and the zone in the not-too-distant future.
“From a legal perspective, allowing Macau residents, including non-Chinese citizens, to take a bus [directly from the MSAR] to Hengqin is a general trend that can be expected,” she said when asked about the issue by members of the delegation.
Commentators have described the possibility of increasingly more relaxed cross-border transport between Macau and Hengqin as a “through bus” arrangement.
Chen added that the general trend of the authorities is to introduce more and more of Macau’s civil and commercial laws to the zone. Moreover, thanks to the desired process of progressive inclusiveness between the two places, Chen said she believed that it will gradually become easier for people from both sides to travel between the MSAR and Hengqin.
Organised by the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in conjunction with the Office of the Commissioner of the Foreign Ministry in Macau, the media delegation visited Hengqin on Thursday and Friday.
The two-day fact-finding trip included a visit to ZLF Law Office, the nation’s first mainland-Hong Kong-Macau law firm.
Chen told the delegation that the firm mainly provides services for mainland clients concerning legal matters in Portuguese-speaking countries such as Brazil and Portugal. It also provides research and consultancy services for government entities in the mainland, Hong Kong and Macau.
According to Chen, ZLF handles more than 20 major cases per year, including asset disputes between Macau-based banks and customers in the mainland.
Chen said she believed that the in-depth cooperation zone will increasingly absorb aspects of Macau’s civil and commercial codes, such as concerning marriage, inheritance, company establishment and trade-related legal matters.
And that’s why, Chen said, one could expect that for Macau’s non-Chinese residents it will sooner or later be more convenient to travel between Macau and Hengqin thanks to the authorities’ possibly more open border-crossing policies between the two areas in the coming years.
The delegation, which comprised 25 English- and Portuguese-speaking journalists and officials from the Liaison Office, Macau Government Information Bureau (GCS) and Foreign Ministry Commission, also visited the popular Chimelong theme park, the exhibition hall of the Guangdong-Macau In-depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin, Hengqin Macau Youth Entrepreneurship Valley, Zhuhai UM Science & Technology Research Institute, Guangdong-Macau Traditional Chinese Medicine Technology Industrial Park and the Macau-invested Authenmole Biotech plant. The well-organised visit’s aim was to familiarise the delegation members with the zone’s rapid progress and the authorities’ vision for future cooperation between the two sides in tourism, innovation, research, science and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) development.
The delegation also visited the Hengqin Sumlodol Camping Park and Flower Sea Corridor (a kind of promenade).
The Liaison Office was represented by Tian Xiaoping, deputy director-general of the Department of Publicity and Culture. The Foreign Ministry Commission was represented by Li Lingxiao, first secretary of the Department of Public Diplomacy and Information. GCS was represented by Inês Lam Pui Cheng, chief of its Research and Publicity Department.
Han Chao, assistant director of the Liaison Office’s Department of Publicity and Culture, was also a member of the delegation.
The delegation visits Macau-invested Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) health company Authenmole in Hengqin last Friday.
Families visiting Hengqin’s Chimelong theme park last Thursday.
A boy is playing the xylophone at the Sumlodol Camping Town last Friday in Hengqin.
The delegation visits the Zhuhai UM Science & Technology Research Institute for a briefing on its Nano Foam Concrete Laboratory.
The Macau Portuguese and English-language Press Delegation poses at the exhibition room for the Guangdong-Macau In-depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin last Thursday
Chen Yi, director and senior partner of ZLF Law Office, briefs the delegation about her company and Hengqin’s legal development, in Hengqin last Friday. Photos: Maria Cheang Ut Meng
