China’s No 3 leader urges Macau to boost governance at critical stage for casino city’s economy

Zhang Dejiang offers encouragement at start of three-day visit and calls on different sectors to unite to meet the challenges ahead

Reading Time:2 minutes

Zhang Dejiang heard a work report by the Macau government on Monday afternoon. Photo: GCS Macau

Published: 2:50pm, 8 May 2017Updated: 5:19pm, 9 May 2017

China’s No 3 official began a three-day visit to Macau by urging the casino city to boost its governance and efficiency at a critical stage of economic transformation.

Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the National People’s Congress and the top official in charge of Hong Kong and Macau affairs, said he was in the former Portuguese enclave to experience and inspect the city’s robust development and offer encouragement on behalf of Beijing.

“The overall situation of Macau is good but it still faces some problems and challenges. The economic and social development has imposed higher expectations on the administration’s governance,” Zhang told Macau Chief Executive Fernando Chui Sai-on and his cabinet on Monday.

“I hope the government will stay united, be willing to shoulder responsibility and boost its governance as well as efficiency to advance the successful implementation of ‘one country, two systems’ in Macau.”

Macau, like Hong Kong, is governed by the “one country, two systems” formula and its own mini-constitution, the Basic Law – both of which Zhang said were fully implemented in the international gambling hub, along with Beijing’s overall jurisdiction.

In contrast, during his visit to Hong Kong last May, Zhang criticised rising separatist sentiments in the city and admitted it was inevitable for problems to emerge in the implementation of the governing formula.