Belt and Road initiative brings opportunities to Macau

Participants attend the International conference on Belt and Road and Macau’s development

On the second day of the International Conference on the Belt and Road and Macau’s Development, several participants voiced their opinions regarding the construction of the Belt and Road project in cooperation with the Portuguese-
speaking countries.

Proposed by China in 2013, the Belt and Road initiative refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, aiming at building a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient trade routes of the Silk Road.

Lai Xiaomin, Party Committee Secretary and Chairman of the China Huarong Asset Management, on Friday said, “Macau can expand the asset management cooperation […] and greatly develop the financial leasing business.” Lai noted that the latter grows the quickest among the world’s financial businesses.

Fu Jianguo, Managing Director of Nam Kwong Group, talked about how his company can contribute to the construction of the Belt and Road initiative with respect to the Portuguese-
speaking countries.

According to Fu, Nam Kwong has a long history of communicating and working with the Portuguese-speaking countries, culturally and economically. Furthermore, he said that as a leading Chinese company in Macau, the Nam Kwong Group has also conducted a great number of interactions with Portuguese governmental departments.

Fu believes that Macau needs to find the right door through which to build itself as a communication platform serving the countries involved in the Belt and Road project.

Lei Heong Iok, president of the Macau Polytechnic Institute, pointed out that the relations between China and eight Portuguese-speaking countries have become closer following the trend of globalization.

Lei remarked that the Portuguese-speaking countries are mainly developing countries, and like the merging market, they all hope to have a good cooperative relationship with China.

In the professor’s view, the key area in which Macau should play a strategic role is in creating the necessary conditions and services for the economy and trade development between China and the Portuguese-speaking countries to prosper.

Lei suggested that the region should “coordinate well Macau’s higher education institutions, […] developing a respectable Portuguese teaching.”

According to Zhang Shuguang, Rector of the City University of Macau, the city can also act as a “think tank” encouraging all Portuguese-speaking countries and regions to participate in Belt and Road cooperation.

Mok Chi Wai, the president of the Macao Youth Federation, noted that Macau has a big development space in terms of cultural exchange, especially in regard to human resource communication between the youth and youth associations.

Sitou Tek lam, founder of the Belt and Road Scholarship Fund of Indonesia, explained what Macau can do to contribute to the Belt and Road strategy in terms of education.

“Macau has many universities and high level education institutions. They can recruit more Asian students to study in Macau and provide job opportunities for the students when they graduate from these Macau institutions,” said Sitou, adding that “Macau can settle job displacement institutes to help Asian graduate students find jobs in Macau.”

Mainland, Macau to upgrade CEPA

The Chinese mainland and Macau are negotiating on comprehensively upgrading the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangements (CEPA), which are expected to be completed at the end of this year, a senior official confirmed during the Conference on the Belt and Road and Macau’s Development. A meeting was held between representatives from China’s Ministry of Commerce and the local government’s Economy and Finance officials to negotiate on the terms and content of CEPA, especially those concerning guaranteeing investment, and deepening economic and technical cooperation, according to a press release on Friday. The mainland and Macau signed CEPA in 2003 in order to forge closer ties. In both 2014 and 2015, new agreements were signed under the framework of CEPA between them with the aim of further liberalizing trade in services. 

Helping the MSAR to ‘go global’

The Belt and Road initiative will promote Macau’s industrial diversification and help it go global,” Hao Yufan, dean of Faculty of Social Sciences of University of Macau, told Xinhua.

Hao said Macau was an important stop along the ancient Maritime Silk Road and it will continue to play an important role in the development of Belt and Road: the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road in particular.

Macau has unique geographical and language advantages, and it can take advantage of the “one country, two systems” principle in the development of the Belt and Road initiative he added.

The region should assume the role as the communication center as it is a place where eastern and western cultures meet, Hao suggested.