Macao SAR releases second five-year plan

MACAO, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- China's Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) on Thursday released its second five-year plan, setting economic and social development goals for the next stage.

According to the plan, by 2025, Macao will have enriched its position as a global tourism and recreational center, expanded its function as a service platform for business and trade cooperation between the Chinese mainland and Portuguese-speaking countries, steadily advanced the construction of an exchange and cooperation base with Chinese culture as the mainstream and the co-existence of multiple cultures.

The SAR also aims to make substantial progress in appropriate economic diversification, continuous improvement of people's livelihood, higher cultural prosperity, better governance, further improvement of the legal system and enforcement mechanism on safeguarding national security, and better integration into the country's overall development.

The plan noted that by 2025 the SAR will have realized the short-term goals of building the Guangdong-Macao in-depth cooperation zone in Hengqin, Zhuhai city, which is just across Macao in the Chinese mainland, initially establishing the integrated development pattern of Macao and Hengqin.

The SAR government publicly solicited opinions on the plan from mid-September to November, collecting over 3,000 pieces of opinions and taking in those with wide public support.