A new school in Hengqin that is affiliated with Macao’s Hou Kong Middle School is set to enrol its first students in September, China Daily reports. It will be the first school on the mainland catering to kindergarten and primary-aged pupils from the SAR.
The school will also accept Hong Kong and Taiwanese pupils, as well as the children of foreign nationals with Chinese residency permits, according to the local Livelihood Affairs Bureau.
The bureau’s deputy director Xu Fengmei said the school was part of a broader initiative to “welcome young talent from around the world” and attract people to live and work in Hengqin.
[See more: More than 11,000 people from Macao live and work in the Hengqin area now]
The bureau added that it was also working to establish schooling for older children, such as high schoolers, in Hengqin. Meanwhile, the University of Macau announced plans to build a second campus in Hengqin earlier this month.
The central government expects that around 120,000 people from Macao – about a quarter of the SAR’s current population – will be living in Hengqin by 2035, and that 80,000 will be working there.
By the end of this year, it projects that Hengqin will be home to about 20,000 people from Macao.
