Greater Bay could boost Macau’s role as ‘knowledge centre’

Macau has an important role to play as a ‘knowledge centre’ in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area project, according to Sino-Lusophone researchers present at a recent seminar in Macau.

The fact that Macau is one of the four major cities of the Greater Bay Area – along with Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hong Kong – was the focal point of the guest experts’ speeches at a recent session organized by the International Institute of Macau (IIM) to launch the book “The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area: The Challenge of the Century for Macau.”

Francisco Leandro of the City of Macau University told Macauhub that “the potential of the greater bay will be revealed by its networks – infrastructure, laboratory, academic, economic, institutional, industrial, technological, investment, consumer and production – and the associated market needs.”

“These needs are precisely the basis of cooperation between China, Macau and Portuguese-speaking countries,” he said.

In this context, according to Leandro, Macau should be a multicultural, multisectoral trading platform with five main areas – Chinese dominant cultural platform, financial and legal services platform, economic and commercial platform, education and knowledge platform and a platform for international external relations.

“Macau has to be excellent – beyond gambling – in culture, economics, finance, law and education. Macau has to be what it always has been, but this time with the ability to understand the opportunity to contribute to making China’s dreams a reality,” he said.

Luís Sales Marques, president of the Institute of European Studies of Macau (IEEM), said that Macau, “has immense responsibilities in carrying out the initiative and will have to work hard and without hesitation to fulfill its intended functions.”

“In order for the MSAR to be able to fulfill its functions, it must focus more on its openness abroad, namely by becoming a reference point in China, for cultural and academic relations not only with Portuguese-speaking countries, but also with Spanish-speaking countries, given the ease of connecting from Portugal and Brazil with the Iberian world,” Sales Marques said.

According to the head of IEEM, Macau companies and professionals, “will be able to benefit from the Greater Bay market and relations,” but this will require “opening up the [Macau] labor market and promoting the establishment of professionals from the region and abroad with skills to assist with development and economic diversification.”

The same need to attract highly qualified staff, namely by removing existing obstacles, was stressed at the event by IIM President Jorge Rangel.

Researcher Fernanda Ilhéu, from the Higher Institute of Economics and Management (Portugal) and the Association of Friends of the New Silk Road, noted that the Belt and Road initiative “aims to reduce barriers and get countries to work together, taking advantage of the complementarity of competitive advantages with a new spirit based on knowledge, relationship, trust and cooperation.”

“Macau in the Greater Bay Area will play an important role in the Belt and Road initiative if it becomes an excellent center for China’s knowledge, relationship and cooperation with Portuguese-speaking countries and South East Asian countries,” she told Macauhub.

The book “The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area: The Challenge of the Century for Macau,” coordinated by Gonçalo César de Sá, is authored by José Luís Sales Marques, Paulo Figueiredo, Louise do Rosario and Mark O’Neill. MDT/Macauhub