Li Keqiang | ‘I had meaningful conversations with many Macau residents’

Li pictured before departing to Beijing

The Premier of China has said that the central government is confident that the outlook for Macau will continue to be bright.
Before leaving Macau, Li Keqiang said yesterday that Macau would play an ever more important role in connecting China and the Portuguese-speaking countries. This would also assist with the diversification of the local economy, he added.
“I am full of hope towards Macau’s development and its situation.” Li Keqiang told the media before boarding his flight. During his three-day visit to Macau, he felt Macau residents’ love of the country and of the SAR itself. He stated that the central government will continue to support Macau in playing a special role in China’s reform and in opening up to the world, remarking that Macau has a wider development space.
“The central government will continue its full support of the Chief Executive and of the SAR government in performing official duties within the law, and in promoting the cooperation between mainland China and Macau. I believe that Macau’s future, placed in an open environment, will have a wider space. Macau’s future will be better.”
Li added that he had “visited an average Macau family, and visited Macau’s downtown and streets, and visited some enterprises, and the daily life of Macau residents.”
“I had meaningful conversations with many Macau residents, businessmen. I deeply felt Macau fellow citizen’s attachment to the motherland and to the mainland,” he said.
The Premier said that Macau, in the face of the world’s slow recovery from the economic crisis, and also from its own industrial structural challenges, still manages to keep fiscal surplus, high employment rates, better livelihood and a peaceful society. He then remarked on the fact that the “One Country, Two Systems” policy is being successfully implemented in the SAR.
In Li’s words, Macau’s diversified culture plays an important role as a pillar for the cooperation between China and the Portuguese-speaking countries.
He told the media he has been to Hong Kong twice and hopes to visit again, and that the “One Country, Two Systems” policy will continue to be promoted there.
Li arrived in Macau on Monday for “a three-day inspection tour.” While in Macau, the Premier attended the opening ceremony of the Fifth Ministerial Conference of the Forum for Economic and Trade Co-operation between China and Portuguese-speaking countries and delivered the keynote speech at the event. JZ

remarks on hong kong

In the last moments before boarding his flight to mainland China, Li Keqiang was asked whether he intended to visit Hong Kong, to which he responded, “I hope to visit Hong Kong again.” Li told the media he had visited Hong Kong twice previously, and said that “Hong Kong will continue to push forward the implementation of the ‘One Country, Two Systems’ policy.”

Li delivers a speech during a meeting with top officials and members of the Executive Council