Organized by the Macao Liaison Office, a delegation of Macau Portuguese and English press participated in the visit tour to Guangdong-Macao Intensive Cooperation Zone in Hengqin.
The latest move comes after the Chinese government unveiled a plan earlier in September, which aims to promote the zone as a new platform to boost Macau’s targeted economic diversification.
A seven minutes’ drive from Hengqin border, is the exhibition hall of Guangdong-Macao Intensive Cooperation Zone in Hengqin, which shows a complete process of Hengqin’s development since the kickoff blueprint initiated by President Xi Jinping.
The hall presents the history of Hengqin, its location, and transportation, achievements under the cooperation as well as the master plan of Hengqin. The hall is designed with a lot of technological elements, strengthening interaction with users.
The master plan, which was made public in September, prioritizes people’s livelihood with a set of concrete measures to build Hengqin into a new home for Macau residents to live and work in. Align with this measure, the exhibition hall also creates a specific area to demonstrate the “leisure lifestyle” in Hengqin- the Tianmu River Park, to be one of the iconic locations in the area.
The Tianmu River is recognized as the mother river of Hengqin, runs 7.3 kilometer-long. Part of its section opened in 2018, but the complete project is still underway.
Tianmu River Park has five functional zones: Ecological integration, Parkland Community, Grand Palace (Heart of Tianmu River), Artistic Zone, and “East Meets West” Zone.
Besides that, a set of concrete measures are launched to encourage Macau people to move in, according to the master plan. Such as exemption of income tax margins, lowering and gradually calling off charges for long-distance phone calls and cross-border internet connections between the two places, further facilitating Macau-registered vehicles into and out of Hengqin in a more convenient manner, and the joint building of regional medical centers by Guangdong and Macau.
The delegation today will visit more institutes and companies with a strong connection with Macau, namely Zhuhai UM Science and Technology Research Institute, ZLF Law Office, the Guangdong Macao medicine Park, etc.
Grace Yu, MDT, in Hengqin
