Kou Hoi In, a veteran National People’s Congress (NPC) deputy from Macau, has been elevated to the elite NPC Standing Committee in Beijing.
Kou is one of 159 deputies who were elected as members of the NPC Standing Committee, during the fourth plenary meeting of the first session of the 14th NPC on Saturday. The first session of the 14th NPC, which started on Sunday last week, ends today.
Saturday’s election of NPC Standing Committee members had 172 candidates, vying for the 159 NPC Standing Committee posts.
Kou, president of the Macau Legislative Assembly (AL), is the sole Macau member of the NPC’s standing Committee.
Including Kou, there are 12 deputies to the nation’s top legislature from Macau.
Before Kou was elevated to the NPC Standing Committee on Saturday, there had been no NPC Standing Committee member from Macau since late April 2019 when Ho Iat Seng resigned from the NPC, which cleared the way for his bid for the post of Macau Special Administrative Region’s (MSAR) chief executive. Ho, who was elected chief executive in August 2019, took office on December 20, 2019.
During Saturday’s election of the 159 NPC Standing Committee members, Kou garnered 2,842 votes in his favour, while 90 NPC members voted against him, and seven abstained.
Kou, a veteran businessman, has been an NPC deputy since 2003. Kou was elected again in December last year as an NPC deputy from Macau, i.e., he continues to be an NPC deputy for the ongoing 14th NPC, which starts this month and is scheduled to end in March 2028.
Kou, born in January 1953, has been a Macau lawmaker since 1991 when Macau was still under Portuguese administration. He is the longest-serving legislator among the current 33 members of the local legislature.
Kou was directly elected by popular vote in a by-election in 1991. He was re-elected as a directly-elected lawmaker in 1992 and 1996. He was also a member of the MSAR’s first-term Legislative Assembly, which ended in 2001. Since then, Kou has been elected as an indirectly-elected lawmaker representing the city’s business sector for every legislative term – namely the 2001-2005 term, 2005-2009 term, 2009-2013 term, 2013-2017 term, 2017-2021 term, and the current 2021-2025 term.
After Ho, then MSAR chief executive candidate, resigned from the Macau Legislative Assembly in early July 2019, Kou was elected by his peers later that month as the president of the local legislature. He was re-elected as the local legislature’s president in October 2021 following the legislative election the previous month.
Kou is currently a vice-chairman of the Macau Chamber of Commerce (ACM), which is widely seen as Macau’s most influential organisation.
During an online interview with Macau reporters on Saturday following his election as an NPC Standing Committee member, Kou said that he feels an immense sense of responsibility. He pledged that he will totally fulfil his duty as an NPC Standing Committee member with the aim of serving both the nation and the MSAR.
Kou also pledged that he will fully convey Macau residents’ opinions to the central authorities.
Edmund Ho re-elected as CPPCC National Committee vice-chairman
Meanwhile, Edmund Ho Hau Wah, the MSAR’s first chief executive, was re-elected on Friday as a vice-chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).
Ho was re-elected during the third plenary meeting of the first session of the 14th CPPCC National Committee in Beijing on Friday.
In addition, Friday’s meeting also elected 299 members of the Standing Committee of the 14th CPPCC National Committee, five of them from Macau.
The five from Macau are Lao Nga Wong, Ho Ion Sang, Zhang Zongzhen, Huang Liuquan, and Chui Sai Cheong.
There are 38 CPPCC National Committee members from Macau.
Kou Hoi In, a deputy to the National People’s Congress (NPC) from Macau, smiles in front of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing last week.
– Photo: MPDG
