Xia Baolong, who heads both the Hong Kong and Macao Work Office of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the State Council’s Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office (HKMAO), has met with Macau Secretary for Administration and Justice André Cheong Weng Chon, who is also the permanent deputy director of the management committee of the Guangdong-Macau In-depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin, in Beijing where he urged the local government to study and roll out new policies and measures to foster Hengqin’s development.
The zone’s management committee is its top decision-making body jointly administered by Guangdong Province and the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR).
A statement released by Cheong’s office through the Macau Government Information Office (GCS) on Friday night announced details of the meeting between Xia and Cheong held in Beijing earlier that day.
The statement said that entrusted by Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai, Cheong led a delegation to Beijing to seek support from the central authorities’ relevant ministries and commissions and listen to their guidance and opinions concerning Macau’s implementation of the spirit of President Xi Jinping’s important speeches during his visit to Macau and Hengqin last month, as well as the ongoing efforts to accelerate Hengqin’s development, apart from his meeting with Xia where he reported the MSAR government and civil society’s ongoing in-depth study and implementation of the spirit of Xi’s important speeches during his visit to Macau.
According to the statement, Cheong also briefed Xia on the MSAR government’s main directions for deepening public administration reform and legislative coordination and promoting Hengqin’s development in the next phase.
In the meeting, the statement said, Xia urged the new-term MSAR government, under Sam’s leadership, to be upright and innovative, work diligently, thoroughly understand the spirit of Xi’s important speeches and instructions, put them into practice, and create a new development situation for Macau.
Xia also urged the local government to actively study and roll out new policies and measures to foster Hengqin’s development, and closely cooperate with Guangdong to jointly advance the zone’s high-quality development, with the aim of living up to Xi and the central authorities’ ardent expectations for Macau.
During his one-day working visit in Beijing, according to the statement, Cheong and members of his delegation also met separately with top officials of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), the General Administration of Customs, and the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine (NATCM).
Cheong had in-depth exchanges of views with the officials of the four entities on various topics such as the possibility of the central authorities launching various new policies and measures to support the in-depth cooperation zone’s second-phase development, the promotion of the development of the zone’s traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) industry and sciences and technology sector, improvements in the zone’s current “tier-specific management” special customs arrangements, and the possible implementation of a special measure to allow Macau cars with a permit to travel in Hengqin to also travel elsewhere in Guangdong Province.
According to the statement, the officials of the four entities, in their respective meetings with Cheong, pledged to deeply study and earnestly implement the spirit of Xi’s important speeches, adding that they will actively plan and roll out new policies and measures to support the zone’s development in compliance with the new “Macau+Hengqin” development positioning and the zone’s second-phase development goals.
State Council’s Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office (HKMAO) Director Xia Baolong (right) talks with Secretary for Administration and Justice André Cheong Weng Chon in Beijing on Friday. – Photo: Secretariat for Administration and Justice
