Macao can play a bigger role in cooperation zone

Ho Iat-seng, chief executive of the Macao Special Administrative Region, recently delivered the policy address for the fiscal year 2023 in Macao's Legislative Assembly at a plenary meeting themed "Making Progress Jointly While Ensuring Stability". The address suggests the SAR government will focus on speeding up economic recovery and diversifying the economy, while enhancing infrastructure construction, and improving people's well-being and livelihoods.

According to the policy address, the Guangdong-Macao Intensive Cooperation Zone will be developed on the Hengqin Island, which is part of Zhuhai, a special economic zone that is close to Macao. And there is reason to believe Macao will play a key role in the development of the intensive cooperation zone.

Thanks to the Chinese mainland's high-level opening-up and the rapid development of international cities such as Shenzhen and Shanghai, the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions are facing tough competition. So, in order to sharpen their competitive edge, the two SARs need to consolidate the inherent advantages of opening-up to the outside world, promote innovation in technology, and integrate their development with that of the country.

Hengqin has seen remarkable development since it was positioned as a demonstration area for the new model of cooperation between Guangdong province, Hong Kong and Macao. By the end of 2021, a total of 4,578 Macao-based enterprises had been registered in Hengqin and 314 Macao companies had opened cross-border offices there.

While the Guangdong-Macao Cooperation Industrial Park has provided land for 25 projects, with an agreed investment of 79.3 billion yuan ($11.38 billion), the Guangdong-Macao Cooperation Traditional Chinese Medicine Science and Technology Industrial Park has been cultivating about 50 Macao-funded pharmaceutical projects. And four key Macao-based laboratories have established branch departments in Hengqin, incubating 613 entrepreneurial and innovation projects.

Macao has a rich historical and cultural heritage, and one of its objectives is to build an "area with Chinese culture as the mainstream and multicultural communication" in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Since Hengqin has relatively poor historical and cultural resources, the Guangdong-Macao Intensive Cooperation Zone will help extend Macao's cultural facilities and activities to Hengqin. That will not only solve the problem of insufficient space in Macao, but also enrich the cultural content of the cooperation zone in Hengqin and improve its cultural environment.

The Guangdong-Macao Intensive Cooperation Zone is expected to play a unique role in building a "humanistic bay area", and assimilate important cultural resources from the Chinese mainland and Macao in Hengqin, and promote Chinese culture abroad.

The Macao SAR government will jointly build, manage and share the intensive cooperation zone, as well as set up customs supervision areas there. As a result, Hengqin and Macao can boast a joint customs area, which will extend the advantages of Macao's free trade port to Hengqin. In the process, Macao will help Hengqin build a truly international business environment, adopt a more competitive tax system, and attract more global consumers and talents.

It is also important for Macao and Zhuhai to promote innovation in the field of science and technology, facilitate the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and work together to develop new technologies and new industries. By doing so, they will help the Greater Bay Area become a global technology innovation hub, enrich the practice of "one country, two systems", and chart a realistic path for their long-term prosperity.

The year 2023 will be a crucial year for expediting the development of the Guangdong-Macao Intensive Cooperation Zone in Hengqin, and achieving the goals of the first phase. The Macao SAR government will work closely with the Guangdong provincial government to accelerate legislative work for the intensive cooperation zone, build a global internet data management system, and formulate a plan for attracting investors to the zone.

The cooperation between Macao and Hengqin will not only give rise to a new industrial development model — of achieving common Macao-Hengqin development goals by using domestic and international resources — but also lead to the development of a hub for global enterprises, enabling mainland enterprises to "go global" and more international enterprises to benefit from the Chinese market.

The author is an assistant professor at the School of Liberal Arts, Macau University of Science and Technology. The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.