Singapore Foreign Minister Shunmugam Jayakumar will represent his country at the Macao handover ceremony, the Foreign Ministry (MFA) announced in a press statement on December 16.

MFA said that Jayakumar will make an official visit to Macao from December 17-21,1999, where he will meet Edmund Ho Hau Wah, chief executive-designate of the Macao Special Administrative Region of China.

The Singapore delegation will also include Singapore's counsel- general in Hong Kong, MFA added.

Macao, a peninsula very close to the financial hub Hong Kong, is to return to China on December 20 after being ruled by the Portuguese for more than 150 years.