Approximately 10 billion patacas worth of land fund of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) was transferred to the Macao SAR government Monday morning.

Chinese Vice-Premier Qian Qichen handed the certificate of the land fund to Edmund Ho Hau Wah, the first Chief Executive of the Macao SAR.

According to the provisions of Annex II of the Sino-Portuguese Joint Declaration, signed in Beijing on April 13, 1987, all income obtained by the Portuguese Macao government from granting new leases and renewing leases shall, after deduction of the average cost of land production, be shared equally between the Portuguese Macao government and the future Macao Special Administrative Region government. This is how the land fund comes about.

The land fund is the money that belongs to the Macao SAR government, and had been kept and managed by the Chinese Delegation of the Sino-Portuguese Land Group before the establishment of the Macao SAR government.

At present, the total land fund of the Macao SAR includes two parts: the land income that belongs to the Macao SAR government and all the earnings from the deposits and investments by using the land income.

From the entry into force of the Joint Declaration on January 15, 1988 up to the end of November of 1999, the land fund, received from the Portuguese side, had amounted to more than 6.7 billion Macao pataca.

The Chinese Delegation of the land group was entrusted to manage the fund on behalf of the Macao SAR government. Over the past 12 years, the Chinese side has all along well managed the fund, seeking high profits and avoiding risks in a bid to bring about the greatest profits at a lower cost. As a result, the land fund enjoys an aggregate return rate of 40 percent.