Executive Council spokesman Leong Heng Teng has announced that the Macau government will set up a bureau-level entity tasked with carrying out policy research and coordinating the various tasks by different official entities concerning Macau’s cooperation with the mainland.
The new bureau will be formed and be effective from next month in a merger between the existing Policy Research Office (GEP) and a working team under the Chief Executive Office (GCE) tasked with handling local matters related to the mainland.
Addressing a press conference at Government Headquarters on Friday, Leong said that the council, the government’s top advisory body, has completed its discussion of a draft by-law on the new bureau’s organisational structure and operation.
Government-drafted by-laws, officially known as administrative regulations, do not require the legislature’s approval.
Leong said that the setting-up of the new bureau will help Macau integrate its own development into the nation’s overall development.
In the public administration’s institutional hierarchy, a bureau is the top-ranked administrative unit under any of the government’s policy secretariats or directly under the chief executive.
Currently, the government has five policy secretaries.
The Policy Research Office was set up in 2011 as a “project team” for the government’s policy research.
During a plenary session of the legislature in May, Lao Pun Lap, the then director of the Policy Research Office, first told lawmakers that the government planned to upgrade the office to a bureau-level permanent entity, with the aim of strengthening policy research work, particularly for policies concerning mainland-related matters.
During Friday’s press conference, Leong said there was a need for the Policy Research Office and the working team for mainland-related matters under the Chief Executive Office to merge into a bureau-level permanent entity called the Policy Research and Regional Development Bureau (DSEPDR).
Leong said the aim was for the local government to be able to make good use of the opportunities created by the nation’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area (GBA), and also to push ahead with its aim to develop Macau into “one city and one platform” – a world tourism and leisure centre and a business-service platform between China and Portuguese-speaking countries (PSCs).
Other aims of the future bureau are, according to Leong, to help integrate the city’s own development into the overall national development, improve the study of public policies, coordinate the government’s various tasks related to regional development, and their implementation.
The new bureau, headed by a director, will have two deputy directors, Leong said.
According to Leong, the new bureau will have three departments – Policy Research Department, Regional Development Department, and General Support Department.
According to Leong, the first department will be tasked with formulating public policies based on the opinions collected from civil society, while the second one will be tasked with coordinating communication between different local government entities and their respective entities of the central government. The third department will be tasked with providing administrative support.
Leong said that the personnel of the new bureau will primarily come from the existing staff of the Policy Research Office and those of the working team for mainland-related matters under the Chief Executive Office.
