Interview by Yuki Lei
Macau Health Bureau (SSM) Director Alvis Lo Iek Long said yesterday that “to contribute to the nation is never a one-way street but mutually beneficial”.
Lo, a physician by profession, made the remarks in an exclusive interview with The Macau Post Daily.
Dr Lo, 43, is a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee member, vice-chairman of the All-China Youth Federation (ACYF) and chairman of the Macao Youth Federation (MYF).
In the interview, Dr Lo talked about the Macao Youth Federation’s current plans and future goals in guiding young local people to participate in the nation’s development.
Dr Lo underlined: “Contributing to the nation is never a one-way street but mutually beneficial,” pointing out that his group’s work mainly helps young people create more conditions for both their personal and the nation’s development, including guiding students to choose their own career direction and helping working people to enhance their competitiveness.
He said that Macau’s development in the past was “relatively restricted”, and that quite a few young locals were “too satisfied” with their status quo, thinking that they could easily find a good job as long as they completed their university studies. However, Dr Lo was quick to add that with the increasing number of qualified human resources thanks to the development of Macau’s neighbouring areas, young local people should stop limiting themselves to their current development space and also think about how to enhance their competitiveness.
“For locals to develop their career in the mainland is not simply to contribute to the nation, but to seek more opportunities to broaden one’s development, said Dr Lo, who encouraged young locals to broaden their horizons: “Instead of thinking about how to benefit from Macau’s existing limited mechanism, its young people should grasp the greater opportunities that we can gain from the nation’s development.”
When asked about the challenges his group was dealing with in guiding young people to enter the process of the nation’s ongoing development, Dr Lo said: “The difficulty lies in changing young people’s consciousness and their awareness of the nation’s development,” adding that he has met with different young local people, with most of them being too satisfied with their status quo. Consequently, he pointed out, in the long run, everyone else was making great progress, but young local people would just stop moving forward.
On the other hand, according to Dr Lo, his group also aims to promote the nation’s development and Chinese culture via Macau’s status as an international city. He said: “In this context, Macau is acting as a spokesperson telling the nation’s stories to the outside world.”
Dr Lo had earlier led 31 young local people to participate in an exchange programme in Beijing, during which they met with Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, on Wednesday. According to a Xinhua news dispatch about the meeting, published by The Macau Post Daily yesterday, Ding “encouraged them [young people from Hong Kong and Macau] to actively integrate themselves into the country’s development and realise their dreams with solid efforts in the process”.
During the meeting with Ding, Dr Lo presented the process through which Macau encourages young local people to better integrate themselves into the overall situation of the nation’s development, based on three principal questions – “why”, “how to do” and “what to do”.
Health Bureau (SSM) Director Alvis Lo Iek Long, a Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee member, vice-chairman of the All-China Youth Federation (ACYF) and chairman of the Macao Youth Federation (MYF) poses during yesterday’s interview with The Macau Post Daily. – Photo: Yuki Lei
