Macau Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM) President Vincent U U Sang appointed yesterday 24 professionals from Macau’s “1+4” key industries, namely integrated tourism and leisure, as well as big health, modern finance, high-tech and MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions), including culture and sports, as “Macau Convention Ambassadors”, and U said he believed that by leveraging the ambassadors’ professional power and social influence, they could help attract more high-quality conventions to be held in Macau.
The “Macau Convention Ambassador” Award Ceremony, the last event hosted by the government-run institute under the name of Macau Trade and Investment Promotion Institute, took place yesterday afternoon at the China-Portuguese-speaking Countries Commercial and Trade Service Platform Complex in Nam Van.
The Macau Trade and Investment Promotion Institute will be renamed Investment Promotion Bureau (招商投資促進局) next month, when it will be merged with the Support Office of the Permanent Secretariat of Forum Macao, and mainly be tasked with attracting investment, assisting enterprises in opening up markets, promoting the development of the convention and exhibition industry, promoting economic and trade exchanges and cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking countries, and supporting the work of Forum Macao – the short form of the Macau-based Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries (Macao).
Addressing yesterday’s ceremony, U pointed out three aspects concerning “professional individuals”, “professional expos” and “professionalism”: “The 24 appointed ‘Macau Convention Ambassadors’ are all leaders from different professional sectors. I believe that by giving full play to their professional power and social influence, they can help strive for more high-quality professional conventions to take place in Macau; through the ‘One-stop Service’ for MICE Bidding and Support in Macau, IPIM will join hands with local trade associations of the MICE sector and integrated leisure enterprises, with a view to combining the strengths of various parties and their network resources, and attracting more professional conventions and exhibitions representing different industries to be held in Macau, especially those related to the “1+4” industry, so as to achieve the simultaneous improvement in the “quantity” and “quality” of MICE; and the Macau MICE sector has put a lot of effort into training, in which four professional MICE training programmes provided by international organisations have been introduced this year, including those on venue management, project bidding strategies, and other areas that meet the needs of the local industry.”
Newly appointed “Macau Convention Ambassador” Ryan U Leong Hou, director of the Centre for Data Science and associate professor of the Department of Computer and Information Science at the University of Macau (UM), told reporters after the ceremony that Macau is rich in hardware venues and has tourism resources so he hopes that in the future Macau will be able to help in the development of academic conferences in terms of soft power, striving for large-scale international academic conferences to be held in the city.
Fellow “Macau Convention Ambassador” Simon Lee Ming Yuen, guest professor at The State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine and the Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences of the UM and chair professor at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, told reporters that Macau will welcome, for the first time, the Annual Meeting of The Good Practice in Traditional Chinese Medicine Research Association in August.
According to Lee, the Good Practice in Traditional Chinese Medicine Research Association (GP-TCM RA) is an international organisation comprising experts from all over the world, founded on April 16, 2012 in Leiden, the Netherlands, by Prof. Peter Hylands of King’s College London. Its annual meeting is co-hosted by a different country or region each year.
The two dozen “Macau Convention Ambassadors” include Macao University of Tourism Rector Fanny Vong Chuk Kwan, Macau Institute of Management President Samuel Tong Kai Chung, and BNU CEO and Portugal-China Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Macau Delegation) President Carlos Cid Álvares.
Macau Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM) President Vincent U U Sang (10th from left) and most of the 24 newly appointed “Macau Convention Ambassadors” pose with their certificates during yesterday’s award ceremony at the China-Portuguese-speaking Countries Commercial and Trade Service Platform Complex in Nam Van. – Photo: Yuki Lei
