Zhu Xiaodan
The Guangdong Province governor, Zhu Xiaodan, revealed during yesterday’s annual Guangdong-Macau Cooperation Joint Conference that a “Macau area” measuring 10 square kilometers will be established on Hengqin Island. However, no details of cooperation were disclosed.
Mr Zhu suggested that the project would have to wait until the land is reclaimed before any concrete negotiations can begin.
“We first have to [secure] this ten square kilometer [area] through reclamation. After we have the land, we can talk about how to give the land [to Macau] and how to cooperate,” the governor explained.
Later, the director general of the Administrative Committee of the Hengqin New Area, Niu Jing, added that Hengqin is not, at present, in a position to rent such a sizable piece of land to Macau.
“From the development in [the last] four to five years, and following the establishment of projects such as the Guangdong-Macau Cooperation Industrial Park (which is currently in the planning process) and the Guangdong-Macau Cooperation Traditional Chinese Medicine Technology Industrial park, there is already a large percentage of land being occupied.
“In the current planning of Hengqin Island, there is not [available] area measuring ten square kilometers,” Niu Jing said.
He added that negotiations with the MSAR authorities will ensue in order to establish what kind of new model of cooperation might be found with the support of Beijing and the Guangdong province.
Zhu Xiaodan further explained that the ten-square-kilometer park will be one of the measures provided by the Guangdong government in order to support Macau enterprises’ investment in Guangdong. Other measures include lowering the threshold of investment, helping Macau enterprises to settle in the new regions in the province, and improving the business environment of Guangdong.
An agreement to establish a Guangdong-Macau Full-Scale Cooperation Demonstration Area in the Cuiheng region in Zhongshan, Guangdong was also signed at yesterday’s Joint Conference. It has been suggested that this cooperation will break away from the Industrial Park model, and will explore industries such as education and tourism.
The idea of renting more Hengqin land from Guangdong was first raised by Chief Executive Chui Sai On during an enquiry session that he attended in the Legislative Assembly in April this year. The current surface areas of Hengqin and Macau are 106.5 and 29.5 square kilometers respectively. If Macau can successfully rent ten square kilometers from Hengqin, the park would be roughly equivalent to one third of the MSAR’s surface area. JPL
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