Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai said yesterday that the local government is aiming to publish the final version of Macau’s 3rd Five-Year Plan in August and then start implementing it.
Sam said that he will draft his 2027 Policy Address, which he is scheduled to deliver in November, in close alignment with the policy initiatives to be listed by the 3rd Five-Year Plan, while the local government’s various public entities will plan their tasks for next year in compliance with those to be laid out by the 3rd Five-Year Plan.
Sam made the remarks during a Q&A session in the legislature’s hemicycle yesterday afternoon. During yesterday’s plenary session, which lasted four hours including a 30-minute break, Sam first reviewed the local government’s administration and governance over the past six months and presented his governance team’s key tasks and policy initiatives for the second half of this year, before answering questions from lawmakers.
Sam answered questions from 32 lawmakers in the 33-member Legislative Assembly (AL) chaired by André Cheong Weng Chon. As is customary, the speaker of the legislature refrains from actively taking part in his peers’ Q&A sessions, merely overseeing them.
The Macau Special Administrative Region’s (MSAR) 3rd Five-Year Plan, officially known as 3rd Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development, covers the period between 2026 and 2030. The Macau government has underlined its commitment to aligning Macau’s third five-year socioeconomic development plan with the nation’s 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030), the full version of which was published by the Central People’s Government in March this year.
The local government is running a public consultation on its drafting of Macau’s 3rd Five-Year Plan. The 40-day public consultation, which started on May 20, is slated to end on June 28.
After assessing the opinions and suggestions gathered during the ongoing public consultation, the local government will draw up and publish the final version of Macau’s 3rd Five-Year Plan. Afterwards, the government will start implementing the plan.
During yesterday’s plenary session, Sam also pledged that his government will ensure that the various policy initiatives and tasks to be laid out by the 3rd Five-Year Plan will be completed one after another on schedule.
Sam said that the opinions and suggestions gathered so far during the ongoing public consultation indicated that members of Macau’s civil society generally paid close attention to issues such as Macau’s appropriate economic diversification, the development of the Guangdong-Macao In-Depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin, and the integrated development of Macau’s education, sci-tech, and talent cultivation.
Sam underlined that the local government will attach great importance to the opinions and suggestions gathered during the public consultation and carefully study every one of them. Afterwards, reasonable opinions and suggestions that command broad public consensus will be incorporated into the final version of the 3rd Five-Year Plan, he said.
During yesterday’s plenary session, Sam also underlined the development achievements that Hengqin has made since early this year. Hengqin’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 5.5 percent year-on-year to 14.2 billion yuan in the first quarter of this year, Sam said.
Teaching in Dezhi Plaza set to start
Sam also noted that the first phase of the Macau government’s Macau-Hengqin International Education (University) Town, located in Dezhi Plaza (德智廣場) in Hengqin, will start operating in the upcoming new academic year 2026/27, when three Macau public universities, namely University of Macau (UM), Macao Polytechnic University (MPU), and the Macao University of Tourism (UTM), will start operating their teaching and research facilities there.
Sam said that the three universities will then run postgraduate teaching activities there, with the number of students expected to reach 1,350 in the first year.
Dezhi (“Virtue and Wisdom”) Plaza, a property development project consisting of about a dozen high-rise and low-rise buildings, was initially slated to operate as a “German City” commercial complex, but it is now being converted into the first phase of the Macau government’s Macau-Hengqin International Education (University) Town project.
Sam said that the use of 11 buildings in Dezhi Plaza will be transferred to the three universities at the end of next month.
Meanwhile, Sam also said that the Macau government is aiming to complete the setting-up of an economic and trade office in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, at the end of this month. He said that the office will be run by a public enterprise funded by the Macau government.
Macau Sci-Tech Park on the drawing board
Sam also underlined that the local government is designing the future Macau Science and Technology Research and Development Industrial Park.
According to previous government announcements, the government proposes to set up two industrial parks, located separately from each other, for its planned Macau Science and Technology Research and Development Industrial Park project, namely the plot at the bottom of Big Taipa Hill, near the airport, previously earmarked for a sandwich-class housing project, and a plot on the Zone E1 land reclamation area off Taipa’s Pac On district.
The government is setting up a Macau International Centre for Scientific and Technological Industry which will be operated during the interim period before the future Macau Science and Technology Research and Development Industrial Park starts operating.
Sam revealed yesterday that the Macau International Centre for Scientific and Technological Industry will be inaugurated on June 30.
According to previous government announcements, the centre aims to attract tech firms from outside Macau regarded by the local government as meeting the future industrial park’s development direction. The centre, covering 2,000 square metres, will be housed in an office space in a building in Nape, which was previously used for the Macao Young Entrepreneur Incubation Centre, which has been relocated to an office building in the city centre.
Meanwhile, Sam also pledged that the government will advance its work on drafting amendments to the Administrative Procedures Code and on drafting a new bill regulating the operations of the city’s community associations.
Sam also said that the local government is studying the drafting of a master plan for Macau’s national security education, covering the period between 2027 and 2032. The plan aims to ensure that the city’s national security education will cover all different groups of residents, he said.
Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai answers questions from lawmakers during yesterday’s Q&A session in the Legislative Assembly’s (AL) hemicycle. – Photo: GCS
