Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai has met with Communist Party of China (CPC) Shenzhen Municipal Committee Secretary Jin Lei, where Sam said he expects the strengthened cooperation between Macau and Shenzhen to help the Macao-Hengqin International Education (University) Town in Hengqin being converted into an integrated platform for industry-academia-research collaboration, according to a statement by the Macao Government Information Bureau (GCS) yesterday.
The meeting was held at Santa Sancha Mansion – the local government guesthouse – on Penha Hill on Friday.
Welcoming the visiting delegation led by Jin, Sam underlined the Macao Special Administrative Region (MSAR) Government’s commitment to putting into practice the spirit of President Xi Jinping’s important speeches and instructions concerning Macau’s development.
Sam stressed the local government’s ongoing efforts to closely align Macau’s development with the nation’s 15th Five-Year Plan, strengthen Macau’s roles as “One Centre, One Platform, One Base” plus an international talent hub, enhance the competitiveness of the “1+4” key industries, accelerate the integrated development of Macau and Hengqin, solidly advance Macau’s appropriate economic diversification, and better integrate Macau’s development into the nation’s overall development.
The Macau government’s “One Centre, One Platform, One Base” concept refers to Macau developing itself into a World Centre of Tourism and Leisure, a commercial and trade cooperation service platform between China and Portuguese-speaking countries, and an exchange and cooperation base with Chinese culture as its mainstream and the co-existence of different cultures.
The local government’s 1+4 model aims to consolidate and diversify the development of the city’s tourism and leisure industry, i.e., the “1” element, while putting special emphasis on promoting the development of four new key industries, i.e., the additional “4” elements, namely (+1) big health mainly driven by traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), (+2) modern finance, (+3) high-tech, and (+4) MICE and commerce as well as culture and sports.
According to the statement, Sam also noted during the meeting that the number of visitor arrivals to Macau reached 30 million on Friday morning, exceeding the 30-million benchmark 22 days earlier than last year.
Macau recorded 40.069 million visitor arrivals in 2025, the highest annual number on record.
Sam noted that as a global hub for innovation, Shenzhen possesses strong capabilities in linking industry, academia, and research, adding that he expects deeper Macau-Shenzhen cooperation to enable Macau to learn from Shenzhen’s experience and enhance its ability to transform sci-tech research achievements into applications, thereby helping the Macao-Hengqin International Education (University) Town in Hengqin develop itself into an integrated platform for industry-academia-research collaboration.
Sam said that Shenzhen’s issuance of offshore municipal government bonds in Macau for the second consecutive year has highlighted the successful results of enhanced financial cooperation between the two cities, underlining that Macau will continue to leverage its role as a “precise connector” to support Shenzhen enterprises in expanding into Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking markets.
During his meeting with Sam, Jin thanked the MSAR Government for its long-standing support for Shenzhen’s development. Jin highlighted that in recent years, under the “One Country, Two Systems” principle and within the development framework of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), bilateral cooperation between Shenzhen and Macau has continuously deepened, yielding fruitful results.
“Looking ahead,” Jin said, “Shenzhen will put into practice Xi’s various important instructions regarding Hong Kong, Macau, Guangdong, and Shenzhen, fully leveraging its role as one of the four core cities of the GBA.”
Jin underlined Shenzhen’s commitment to strengthening pragmatic cooperation with Macau across various fields – such as trade, finance, culture, tourism, sci-tech innovation, logistics, youth talent development, and entrepreneurship – to foster high-level, mutually beneficial development.
Jin, also a member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee, pledged that Shenzhen will fully support Macau’s better integration into the nation’s overall development, making greater contributions to creating a new landscape for the high-quality development of the “One Country, Two Systems” cause.
Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai (right) meets with Communist Party of China (CPC) Shenzhen Municipal Committee Secretary Jin Lei at Santa Sancha Mansion on Friday. – Photo: GCS
