Secretary for Economy of Finance Lionel Leong Vai Tac said on Thursday he hoped that through today’s meeting with Guangdong officials the two sides could reach an agreement on the framework for the local government’s plan to invest part of its huge reserves via the Guangdong government.
Leong is accompanying Chief Executive Fernando Chui Sai On to the 2015 Macau-Guangdong Joint Co-operation Conference in Jiangmen city today.
According to a statement from the government, the main objectives of the one-day conference are to push for the liberalisation of trade in services with Guangdong and to promote Hengqin, Nansha and other Guangdong areas as platforms for the diversification of Macau’s economy, as well as to speed up the construction of the new Macau-Guangdong border checkpoint near the Canal dos Patos (Duck Channel).
Speaking on the sidelines of a public function at the Portuguese consul-general’s residence on Penha Hill on Wednesday, Leong insisted that the government would always take the safest and most effective option when investing its reserves, adding that the plan to invest in public projects in Guangdong was still in its infancy.
Leong said the government planned to invest about 10 billion to 20 billion patacas of Macau’s financial reserve. He said the government was looking to invest in projects related to infrastructure or undertakings that will improve Macau people’s living conditions as that would be more acceptable to the local population.
According to a TDM report last week, the government’s financial reserves stood at about 350 billion patacas at the end of May.
Leong said he hoped the two governments could reach a framework agreement over the investment plan. He pledged that the government will look for safe investments.
(macaunews/macaupost)
