Chief Executive Fernando Chui Sai On has urged Macau’s youngsters to love their country and seize the opportunities provided by the nation’s development.
Chui made the appeal on Saturday during a session themed “I and my motherland” at Macau Forum in Zape. The session was attended by top local and central government officials, community leaders and representatives of the 500 local youngsters who in five 100-member teams made separate fact-finding trips to different provinces and cities on the mainland last month.
“With the Same Heart in the New Era” was the official motto of the trips.
The visits were organised by the local government in conjunction with the Central People’s Government Liaison Office in Macau with the aim of strengthening local youths’ sense of belonging to the nation. Each of the five teams was headed by a principal official of the local government. Chui headed one of the teams.
Chui pointed out that Macau will celebrate two key anniversaries this year, the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on October 1 and the 20th anniversary of the city’s return to the motherland on December 20.
Chui’s term will end on December 19. In all likelihood, former Legislative Assembly (AL) president Ho Iat Seng will be his successor.
Saturday’s session assessed the outcome of the five trips.
‘Honourable tradition’
The outgoing chief executive also said he was confident that Macau’s youths are committed to passing on the “honourable tradition” of loving their country and Macau.
Chui also said that the better the nation is, the better Macau will turn out to be.
“The nation is, and always will be, the strongest support for the development of Macau,” Chui said, noting that the central government’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area (GBA) will provide Macau with “unprecedented” development opportunities.
Chui also said that Macau would continue to stand “enthusiastically” firm in its support for the nation’s development through its role as world tourism and leisure centre and a business service platform for economic and trade relations between China and Portuguese-speaking countries.
According to the Macau Post Daily, Chui also told his young audience at Macau Forum that being young meant to be striving for something, reminding them that only by striving for something could one achieve happiness.
“The new generation is living better than the previous generations did,” Chui said, adding that “today’s youngsters have more opportunities than our generation had.”
Saturday afternoon’s session was attended by Chui’s predecessor Edmund Ho Hau Wah, Central People’s Government Liaison Office in Macau Director Fu Ziying, Foreign Ministry Commissioner Shen Beili and Legislative Assembly President Kou Hoi In. Edmund Ho is a vice-chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in Beijing.
