Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai delivered a speech via video link for yesterday afternoon’s 2026 Global Investment Promotion Conference for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) in Guangzhou, pledging Macau’s commitment to cooperating with Guangdong and Hong Kong in building the GBA into a world-class bay area and a world-class city cluster, according to a statement by the Macao Government Information Bureau (GCS) yesterday evening.
Launched in 2022, the conference has been held in Guangzhou every year.
The 11-member GBA consists of nine cities in Guangdong Province and the nation’s two special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau.
In his speech via video link, according to the GCS statement, Sam underlined that Macau has remained focused on its positioning as one of the four core cities in the GBA and a core engine driving the GBA’s development. Macau stands as both a pioneer and a beneficiary of the GBA’s development in its process of 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 coexistence of different cultures, he said.
Sam underlined the Macao Special Administrative Region (MSAR) Government’s commitment to advancing Macau’s appropriate economic diversification in compliance with its “1+4” model: consolidating and diversifying 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.
Sam noted that in the high-quality development of the Guangdong-Macao In-Depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin and the high-level promotion of cooperation across all sectors within the GBA, policy support and resource allocation have been strengthened, while efforts to align rules and mechanisms have been sustained. This has created favourable conditions for supporting enterprises in the GBA to “go global” and “bringing in” more enterprises and investment projects, he said.
Sam pointed out that, under the “One Country, Two Systems” principle, Macau enjoys the distinct geographical advantages of being backed by the motherland and connected to the world. Macau enjoys the status of a free port and a separate customs territory with a simple, low-tax system, making it one of the regions with the lowest corporate tax rates globally, he noted.
Sam said that as the only region in the world where both Chinese and Portuguese are official languages, Macau is not only a “precise connector” for trade and economic cooperation between China and the nine Portuguese-speaking countries, but is also vigorously extending its role as a bridge to Spanish-speaking countries, while maintaining stable economic and trade relations with numerous other countries and regions around the world.
Moreover, Sam said, Hengqin’s innovation hubs and the GBA’s advantages of having comprehensive industrial and supply chains have laid a solid foundation for Macau to cultivate new quality productive forces, accelerate the gathering of talent, and promote appropriate economic diversification.
Sam noted that the GBA is one of the most open and economically dynamic regions in China, characterised by a well-developed manufacturing sector, a comprehensive industrial chain, a well-established supply chain, and a concentration of factors conducive to technological innovation.
Sam said that under the operational mechanism and framework of “One Country, Two Systems” and as three separate customs territories, the GBA’s total economic output exceeded 15 trillion yuan in 2025. Its business environment has continued to improve, with opportunities driven by innovation growing by the day. It is playing an increasingly important supporting and leading role in the nation’s economic development and high-level opening up.
Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai delivers a speech via video link for yesterday afternoon’s 2026 Global Investment Promotion Conference for the GBA in Guangzhou. – Photo: GCS
