The government’s Commerce and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM) said yesterday that the Guangdong & Macao Branded Products Expo Centre, a newly opened shopping centre located on the sixth floor of the Macau-side building of the Qingmao joint border checkpoint in Ilha Verde, will remain open throughout the upcoming Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday period, during which different CNY celebratory events will be held there.
The Year of the Snake begins tomorrow.
During the CNY holiday, the statement said, IPIM’s mascot Pou Kong Ieng will be at the shopping centre, which is also officially known as YoBuy (名優匯).
Pou Kong Ieng, which in Cantonese means an owl speaking Portuguese, is IPIM’s mascot aiming to promote local specialties and products and those from Portuguese-speaking countries (PSCs).,
After a one-month trial operation, YoBuy opened on December 27 last year, with a total area of 5,000 square metres. The centre currently includes a supermarket, pharmacies, and souvenir shops, as well as outlets selling locally designed cultural and creative products and those from Guangdong.
Featuring a food court, the shopping centre also includes a display and exhibition area promoting local branded products as well as those from Guangdong and from Portuguese-speaking countries, aside from facilities for conducting e-commerce livestream promotions to endorse and sell products.
The Qingmao pedestrian checkpoint is a Macau-Zhuhai joint border checkpoint, which came into use in September 2021. The Macau-side building of the Qingmao checkpoint is a 20-storey multipurpose high-rise, with the first several floors used for checkpoint and immigration purposes as well as transport facilities. Except the newly opened Guangdong & Macao Branded Products Expo Centre on the sixth floor, other floors of the building are used as office spaces of various government entities.
The government initially earmarked three floors of the building, the sixth, seventh and eighth floors, for the Guangdong & Macao Branded Products Expo Centre, before finally deciding to use only one floor. The seventh and eighth floors are now used for government office spaces.
Initiated by IPIM, YoBuy is a commercial project developed and operated by state-owned Guangdong Nam Yue Group, where shops and outlets have been leased out to various businesses including local small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Yesterday’s IPIM statement said that with the aim of celebrating the first Chinese New Year following its official opening, the Guangdong & Macao Branded Products Expo Centre will remain open throughout the upcoming CNY holiday period.
The statement said that with the one-month anniversary of YoBuy’s official opening as well as the CNY holiday, IPIM will arrange for its mascot Pou Kong Ieng to “work as a promotion ambassador” for the centre where it will “interact” with shoppers and other visitors.
This undated handout photo released by the Commerce and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM) yesterday shows its mascot Pou Kong Ieng posing in the YoBuy shopping centre on the sixth floor of the Qingmao checkpoint’s Macau-side building.
