The Chief Executive Mr Chui Sai On met today with the visiting President of the European Commission, Mr José Manuel Durão Barroso, at the Santa Sancha where they reviewed the co-operation between Macao and the EU and exchanged views on increasing and expanding co-operation on air services, creative industries, education, and environmental protection industries.
Mr Chui welcomed Mr Durão Barroso and his delegation once again for having visited Macao, and expressed his gratitude's to the President for the EU support for Macao over the years. The EU and Macao have established a good and solid foundation for co-operation and he expected this to have more optimistic broad prospects for co-operation in the future, he said. Mr Durão Barroso agreed that co-operation between the EU and Macao has attained ideal results in the past 20 years. The aviation agreement signed today symbolised both sides would have better and more partnerships.
He said the EU and China were important partners, and because of Macao's uniqueness and the successful implementation of the "one country, two systems" principle, Macao plays an important role in the process of sustainable development of relations between the EU and China. The President showed interest in Macao's future strategies in economic and social development, and the challenges ahead. He said he was glad to see an encouraging growth in economic and tourism development in recent years. The EU would be willing to strengthen co-operation with Macao on legal, education, culture, environmental protection, personnel exchanges and other aspects, and that both sides would have mutual benefits, he said.
Mr Chui updated Mr Durão Barroso on the latest developments in Macao and said the Government had made good use of the supportive policies from the Central Government on accelerating regional co-operation with brotherhood provinces, co-operating with Guangdong on the opening up Hengqin and Nansha, promoting in many ways economic diversity, the growth of creative industries, exhibition industries and traditional Chinese medicine industries. On tourism development plans, the Government would actively inject non-gaming element into the policy. Meanwhile, the new campus of the University of Macao has been inaugurated recently, which would help cultivate more talents for the sustainable development of Macao, Mr Chui added.
Also present in the meeting were the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Macao, Mr Hu Zhengyue; the Head of Office of the European Union (EU) to Hong Kong and Macao, Mr Vincent Piket; the EU Ambassador to China, Mr Markus Ederer; member of the President's cabinet, the Secretary for Administration and Justice, Ms Florinda Chan; the Secretary for Economy and Finance, Mr Tam Pak Yuen; the Chief of the Office of the Chief Executive, Mr Tam Chon Weng; the Director of the Macao Economic and Trade Office to the World Trade Organization, Mr Raimundo Arrais do Rosário; and the Director of the Protocol, Public Relations and External Affairs Office, Mr Fung Sio Weng.
