Lionel Leong
The Fund for Development Cooperation between China and the Portuguese-speaking Countries – officially set up in 2013 with USD1 billion in funding – will move its headquarters from Beijing to Macau.
This change was highlighted by the Secretary for Economy and Finance, Lionel Leong, during yesterday’s press conference to evaluate the results of the Fifth Ministerial Conference of the Forum for the Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and the Portuguese-speaking Countries.
Although Leong did not disclose details such as a concrete date for the change of headquarters, he said the new building was “a gift that the central government gave to us.”
He added that with the relocation of the headquarters, the central government will expect Macau to provide improved services to facilitate trade between China and the Portuguese-speaking countries.
“We are still negotiating, but the talks have been underway for some time now,” added Leong, when questioned by the media on a possible timeline for relocation.
The secretary noted that the relocation means that Macau has been entrusted with a very important role in connecting entrepreneurs with the fund. This contact is currently dependent on a mediator provided by the Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM).
“I think this change carries a lot of advantages for Macau and can better reveal the role of Macau as a finance center,” said Leong, adding that “this can help us to process all the operations and procedures between China and the Portuguese-speaking countries, allowing us to provide better service to the entrepreneurs… [who can learn] about all the formalities and bureaucracies in order to get support from the fund.”
Since the establishment of the fund, it has supported only two projects, a situation that Leong thinks will change when the headquarters is brought into closer proximity with potential users.
The secretary also noted that the Macau platform will have a new role in the financial services sector. The platform will facilitate the conversion and clearance of RMB currency exchanges, and the transactions will be assigned to the Bank of China.
Leong foreshadowed that this might not be the only role in the territory related to the Chinese currency, and that it represented a new path leading to the addition of “other financial services and products in RMB.”
According to the MSAR’s head of Finance, Macau’s new role as a finance center will also open up the possibilities of economic diversification and local employment, promoting the emergence of other sectors.
“With the Finance Center, we can have new emerging sectors of activity like the accounting sector, and finance lease among others connected to the financial sector,” he said.
In response to questions about whether the territory could provide sufficiently qualified labor to face a possible increase in demand within the finance sector, Secretary Leong remarked that the transition would rely on the successful initiation of the next generation.
“We need to have qualified labor, and we must bet on the education and training of youngsters so they have enough knowledge to engage in a career in the finance sector. [This way], we have more qualified labor to work on this financial services platform. That’s the way we can reach the final goal and make this sector prosper.”
He also stated that training would be implemented in order to accelerate operational processes in the finance sector, which the MSAR government would promote through the Macau Productivity and Technology Transfer Centre (CPPTM).
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