Macau and Zhuhai have signed an additional four agreements to strengthen bilateral ties and boost the development of a city cluster in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area.
The four agreements, signed on Wednesday, aim to reinforce cooperation between Macau and Zhuhai on matters of tourism, sports, cultural exchanges and statistical services.
The document signing was witnessed by the Secretary for Economy and Finance, Lionel Leong, and the Mayor of Zhuhai, Li Zezhong, during the annual Zhuhai-Macau Cooperation Conference held on the Macau peninsula.
Speaking at Wednesday’s meeting, Leong said that under the “Framework Agreement on Deepening Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macau Cooperation in the Development of the Bay Area”, Macau and Zhuhai would consolidate the individual strengths of each region.
According to a statement issued by the Government Information Bureau, consolidation under the agreement would enhance infrastructural connectivity and assist with coordinating development plans to ease transportation for people and goods.
Regarding future cooperation, Leong pledged that the local government would continue to recommend projects from local firms for the Guangdong-Macau Co-operation Industrial Park at Hengqin island.
To promote the commercial activities of the Guangdong-Macau Traditional Chinese Medicine Technology Industrial Park in Hengqin (which is currently under-construction), it was also announced that Portugal and Mozambique would host pilot schemes for the international registration of traditional Chinese medicine products.
Macau and Zhuhai will together explore development opportunities in places covered by the Belt and Road initiative, while Macau would continue to assist Zhuhai to explore opportunities in Portuguese-speaking countries, said Lionel Leong.
Meanwhile, under policies outlined in the development plan for the Greater Bay Area, Li stated that Macau and Zhuhai would continue to advance work in several key fields in order to strengthen the development of a government-enterprises exchange mechanism, while also optimizing the communication mechanism between Zhuhai and Macau.
