At a reception in Beijing for Macau’s Secretary for Economy and Finance on 6 February, the director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office, Xia Baolong, reiterated that Hengqin is “the main platform for Macau’s economic diversification,” stressing the need to “accelerate the development of strategic industries such as technology, modern finance and Traditional Chinese Medicine.”
Tai Kin Ip responded that the Macao SAR would “deepen investment and institutional cooperation in Hengqin,” creating “better conditions for Macau enterprises and residents” to develop what is intended to be a complementary engine of sustainable growth.
Also read:Xia Baolong received a delegation led by Tai Kin Ip in Beijing
Hengqin appears in official guidelines as a concrete opportunity for Macau’s economic diversification, supported by policy documents and statements from both Central Government and Macao SAR officials.
The Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area (2019), issued by the State Council and central departments, identifies the Greater Bay Area as a strategic zone of economic integration and innovation, explicitly referring to tripartite cooperation to ensure complementary capabilities and spatial coordination within the cooperation zone.
Within this framework, official provisions regarding the Guangdong–Macao Cooperation Zone in Hengqin (consolidated in the Guangdong–Macao Framework Cooperation Agreement and subsequent implementation documents) position Hengqin as a platform to host activities that, due to land scarcity and regulatory conditions, would be difficult to establish within the Macao SAR.
In successive policy speeches, the Chief Executive has highlighted regional integration as a pillar of economic diversification and as an instrument of external policy, in the sense that Macau should attract foreign investment to the Greater Bay Area.
Meanwhile, Guangdong and Hengqin authorities have introduced practical measures to strengthen the trilateral partnership: facilitating labour and business mobility for Macau residents and companies, simplified administrative regimes for projects involving Macau participation, and preferential access to land and infrastructure for activities identified in joint guidelines.
Official texts point to short- and medium-term advantages for Macau: land availability for larger hospitals and healthcare facilities, science parks and technology incubators, convention and exhibition centres, and service-oriented industrial parks—areas explicitly identified as priorities for functional integration between Macau and Hengqin.
Documents from the Macao SAR Government concerning the internationalisation of services, as well as State Council guidance on regional cooperation, underline Macau’s role as a platform for legal, financial and mediation services with Portuguese-speaking markets.
They recommend that Macau establish in Hengqin wealth management centres, compliance services, and legal and commercial support structures to expand service provision beyond its borders.
From the Central Government’s perspective, the Greater Bay Area is defined as an institutional experimentation zone, where policies promoting economic opening, investment and external know-how are tested.
Hengqin is described as a space to pilot regulatory models capable of reconciling Macau’s legal and financial systems with those of the mainland, facilitating cross-border operations and foreign investment.
Among the Macao SAR’s priorities is leveraging its linguistic and historical advantages to strengthen ties with Portuguese-speaking countries, with Hengqin envisaged as the operational base for turning that vocation into concrete projects: logistics and distribution hubs, representative offices, multilingual service centres, and arbitration and consultancy platforms facilitating trade and investment flows with Lusophone partners.
Also read:Government wants a Center for Portuguese and Spanish Speaking Countries in Hengqin
This approach appears in numerous official documents, statements and speeches by the Macao SAR Chief Executive, Chinese commerce authorities and President Xi Jinping.
Official trilateral cooperation plans also include measures for developing medical services and health tourism in Hengqin, including partnerships between Macau institutions and mainland hospitals or research centres, as well as event, cultural and educational clusters complementing Macau’s offerings.
Risks acknowledged in official documents require mitigation measures: administrative coordination between jurisdictions, intellectual property safeguards, workforce training, and public-private governance mechanisms ensuring capacity transfer and shared benefits—issues addressed in strategic reports issued jointly by the Macao SAR Government and Guangdong and Hengqin authorities.
In summary, the body of official plans, agreements and policy statements from local, provincial and central authorities portrays Hengqin as the physical, institutional and legal space where Macau can allocate larger-scale activities, test complementary regulatory models, expand financial and professional services, develop high-quality healthcare, and operationalise its role as a bridge between the Greater Bay Area and Portuguese-speaking countries—and, more recently, Spanish-speaking markets.
The convergence of plans, agreements and official messaging assigns Hengqin a central role in Macau’s economic diversification, turning declarations of intent into policy instruments backed by concrete measures in government documents.
