Macao Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng met with Luxembourg’s Premier Xavier Bettel in the European grand duchy on Monday.
According to a statement by the Macao authorities, reported in Macau Post Daily, Ho and Bettel agreed to boost ties between the two jurisdictions in finance and other fields.
Ho Iat Seng is in Luxembourg to learn from its bond market – Europe’s largest – as Macao seeks to diversify its economy away from a heavy dependence on gaming. Prior to his departure for Europe, Ho told lawmakers that he would “proactively promote” the emergence of a local bond market.
The chief executive, who arrived in Luxembourg on Saturday after a four-day visit to Portugal, told Bettel about the investment opportunities in Macao and Hengqin available to Luxembourg companies.
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Macao’s finance and transport secretaries, Lei Wei Nong and Raimundo do Rosário, also took part in the meeting.
Luxembourg and Macao have much in common, from population size (680,000 and 670,000 respectively) to the existence of a large non-local workforce and a multilingual society.
Ho will next visit Brussels for talks with Belgian and EU officials before returning to Macau on Thursday.
