CE sets out GBA role at business conference

Chief Executive (CE) Sam Hou Fai said Macau will use Hengqin-Macau integration as its entry point to align with the national 15th Five-Year Plan and Macau’s Third Five-Year Plan, focusing on traditional Chinese medicine and health, distinctive finance, high technology, and exhibitions, trade, and cultural sports as it deepens its participation in the Greater Bay Area (GBA).

Speaking at yesterday’s 4th Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau GBA Development Business Conference, Sam said Macau’s Third Five-Year Plan sets out “more open and inclusive measures” to participate in Bay Area development, deepen rule alignment, mechanism connectivity, policy coordination, and resource sharing, and promote deeper coordination between Macau’s four key industries and the GBA to build a globally competitive system of technological and industrial innovation.

“In particular, we will use Hengqin-Macau integration to advance market integration in the Greater Bay Area, play a pioneering role, and create new institutional outcomes, so that ‘Macau plus Hengqin’ becomes a new demonstration of enriching the practice of ‘one country, two systems,’ a new highland for GBA development, and a new platform for the country’s high-level opening up,” he said.

Sam described the conference, themed “Connecting the Bay Area, Linking the World,” as closely matching the pace of Greater Bay Area economic development. He said it focused on strengthening GBA industrial chains and coordinating with global economic growth, promoting the region’s technology, finance, health, and cultural tourism sectors to expand overseas together and connect precisely with international markets. The conference also released the Greater Bay Area Supply Chain Promotion Report 2026 and arranged site visits to the Hengqin cooperation zone, capitalizing on policy benefits released for the zone’s fifth anniversary.

He stressed that, as one of the GBA’s four core cities and engines, Macau regards the Hengqin cooperation zone’s high-level development as key to advancing economic diversification and to participating in building the Greater Bay Area. He said “Macau plus Hengqin” must serve Macau’s economic diversification, the Greater Bay Area’s development, and the country’s overall development.

Sam added that Macau will leverage its status as a free port and separate customs territory under “one country, two systems,” as well as its role as a Portuguese-speaking platform, to attract investors and help them seize policy and market opportunities in Hengqin and the GBA.

The conference, held at the Cotai Expo and concluding today, drew more than 1,000 participants, including Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) Vice-Chairman Leung Chun-ying, Liaison Office Director Zheng Xincong, and China Council for the Promotion of International Trade President Ren Hongbin.

Leung said the GBA now accounts for one-ninth of China’s economic output despite occupying less than 0.6% of the country’s land area, and proposed strengthening cooperation in technological innovation, deepening connectivity, and advancing high-level opening up.

Ren announced that the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission will sign a cooperation agreement with the Macau World Trade Center Arbitration Center and that the China Expo Forum for International Cooperation will return to Macau from February 24 to 26 next year, after a decade.