“The 2nd Macau-Qingdao Beer & Cultural Festival and the 1st Macau-Qingdao Week” kicked off yesterday at Wynn Palace in Cotai.
According to a statement by the event’s organising committee yesterday, the beer-fest, featuring China’s world-famous “Tsingtao Beer” as well as “Macau Beer” and “Portuguese Beer” is taking place at Wynn Palace South Entrance, opens daily from 6 p.m. to 12 a.m. to December 31.
During the “Macau-Qingdao Week”, the statement said, Qingdao agricultural products such as delicacies featuring the renowned “Jiaozhou cabbage” and its cultural and creative products such as sugar paintings, as well as intangible cultural heritage handicrafts such as paper-cuttings will be available for visitors to experience “a taste of Qingdao” at the fair, aiming to spread more knowledge about Qingdao to both residents and tourists.
The event is co-hosted by Wynn Resorts (Macau) S.A. and the Macau Leisure Tourism Services Innovation Association, in conjunction with Tsingtao Brewery Group Company Limited, Qingdao Huangdao Development (Group) Company Limited, and Macau Beer Company Limited.
Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) Director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes said in a speech at the venue yesterday that the event, which showcases both “tourism+culture” and “tourism+gastronomy” from Qingdao and Macau, aims to boost the exchange of ideas between the two cities, while maximising the unique advantages of each destination.
Deng Yunfeng, deputy secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Qingdao Committee, said in his speech: “At this year’s event, Qingdao is showcasing close to 20 speciality products and intangible cultural heritage handicrafts to give Macau residents a better understanding of Qingdao and to establish an important brand network between the two cities.” Deng added that he expected the event to continue to be held every year in an effort to help Qingdao open up even more to the outside world, while giving Macau the opportunity to boost its economy in “a much more diversified way” and to “actively integrate into” the overall development of the country.
Tsingtao Brewery was founded in Qingdao, which was then under German administration, in 1903.
Exchange session for Qingdao-Macau and Portuguese-speaking Countries
Meanwhile, aiming to bring local, Qingdao and PSC entrepreneurs together in Macau to share their ideas and explore potential opportunities for cooperation and development in the future, the organisers hosted “The 1st Macau-Qingdao Week” Exchange Session for Qingdao-Macau and Portuguese-speaking Countries (PSCs) before yesterday’s kick-off ceremony.
The director-general of the Office of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau Affairs of the CPC Qingdao Committee, Xiao Yanheng, said in his speech that the local event bring Qingdao and Macau enterprises together, with the aim of expanding the PSC markets and raising economic and trade ties between the two cities to an entirely new level.
Macau Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM) Acting President Vincent U U Sang said in a speech that as an international port city, Qingdao plays a “unique” role as an international transit hub in the Bohai Economic Rim (BER), while Macau is a key city in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area (GBA), adding that both Macau and Qingdao have maintained close economic and trade ties for a long time. Taking the opportunity of the exchange session, he said, IPIM is encouraging Qingdao enterprises to establish a presence in Macau and use Macau as a platform to expand the markets of PSC.
In the future, according to U, IPIM will continue to partner with economic and trade organisations and enterprises in Qingdao to assist in “attracting investments” from PSCs for investments and developments in Qingdao.
During the exchange session, seven signing ceremonies were held.
This undated handout photo provided by Wynn Resorts (Macau) S.A. yesterday shows the light installations at “The 2nd Macau-Qingdao Beer & Cultural Festival and the 1st Macau-Qingdao Week” that is taking place at Wynn Palace South Entrance in Cotai until the end of this month.
