By Frederico Ma Chi Ngai
President of the Board of Directors, Macao Chinese Chamber of Commerce
The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was successfully held in Beijing last month. The session reviewed and adopted the Proposal of the CPC Central Committee on Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development (hereinafter referred to as the “Proposal”). The State Council will formulate a draft plan based on the Proposal and submit it to the National People’s Congress for deliberation and approval in March next year.
As the Proposal clearly states, the 15th Five-Year Plan period is a critical stage for basically realizing socialist modernization. China faces profound and complex changes in its development environment: major-country relations shape the international landscape, which in turn exerts a profound impact on domestic development. This period is characterized by coexisting strategic opportunities and risks, with increasing uncertainties. As a golden business card of international metropolis and a hub connecting China’s “dual circulation” development pattern, Macao closely monitors international developments. It is therefore crucial for Macao to deeply grasp the essence of the Proposal, align its own 3rd Five-Year-Plan with the national 15th Five-Year Plan, and seize opportunities to integrate into and serve the national development strategy, as well as the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
The Proposal outlines seven key development goals, including: achieving remarkable progress in high-quality development; substantially elevating self-reliance and self-improvement in science and technology; making new breakthroughs in comprehensively deepening reform; significantly enhancing social civility; continuously improving people’s quality of life; advancing the Beautiful China initiative with major new progress; and consolidating the national security barrier. Among these, “self-reliance and self-improvement in science and technology” stands out as a core keyword, requiring substantial upgrades to lead the development of new quality productive forces.
To achieve this, China will improve the new nationwide system for key scientific and technological innovation, adopt extraordinary measures, and promote full-chain breakthroughs in core and critical technologies. Efforts will be made to advance from “following” to “keeping pace” and ultimately to “leading” in key fields such as integrated circuits, industrial mother machines, high-end instruments, basic software, advanced materials, and biotechnology. The new nationwide system emphasizes not only “concentrating resources to accomplish major tasks” but also integrating the roles of an effective government and a dynamic market. It will increase government investment through extraordinary measures, uniting the efforts of governments, universities, research institutions, and enterprises to deploy a full-chain layout from basic research and applied research to industrialization.
Currently, the Macao Special Administrative Region Government is actively promoting the construction of the Macao Science and Technology R&D Park, covering an area of approximately 240,000 square meters. This key project aims to optimize and advance appropriate economic diversification and establish a full-chain-driven development model. Plans are underway to announce arrangements for government industrial funds and technology achievement guidance funds by the end of the year, realizing the extraordinary allocation of intensive resources in four dimensions: land, capital, technology, and talent. Macao will contribute to the national drive for core technological breakthroughs in critical areas such as integrated circuits and biotechnology, proactively aligning with the goals and tasks outlined in the Proposal.
The Proposal also highlights the need to leverage Hong Kong’s and Macao’s unique advantages of being backed by the motherland and connected to the world, continuously enhancing Macao’s role as “one center, one platform, one base” and building a highland for gathering international high-end talents. As noted in the Proposal, changes in the international situation profoundly affect domestic development. Macao’s unique strength lies in its role as a bridge between China and Portuguese-speaking countries and a key node in the Belt and Road Initiative, making it instrumental in China’s high-level opening-up. Earlier this month, the Macao Chinese Chamber of Commerce successfully hosted the 18th World Chinese Entrepreneurs Convention (WCEC), attracting over 4,000 participants—including Chinese entrepreneurs, experts, scholars, and representatives from government and business sectors—from more than 50 countries and regions to explore cooperation opportunities. With the theme “Jointly Building a Community with a Shared Future for Global Chinese Entrepreneurs,” the convention symbolizes the interconnected, shared destiny of the influential global Chinese business network, with Macao serving as a key service provider for this network.
In his congratulatory letter to the convention, Wang Huning, Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), urged global Chinese entrepreneurs to leverage their advantages, seize opportunities, play a unique role in promoting China’s economic and trade cooperation, technological exchanges, and cultural mutual learning with foreign countries, and make new contributions to realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. This provides profound inspiration for Macao to fulfill its role as a hub for “dual circulation,” enabling it to better serve investors—including global Chinese entrepreneurs—as a two-way platform for “bringing in” and “going out” during the 15th Five-Year Plan period.
Undated file photo of Frederico Ma Chi Ngai – Photo courtesy of CCTV News
