City signs 5 cooperation deals with Macau

Shanghai and Macau signed five agreements on Friday to cooperate in areas including online economy, smart city, innovation services for small and medium-sized enterprises, culture and tourism, sports, exhibition and academic exchanges.

The agreements were signed at the first Shanghai-Macau Cooperation Conference in Shanghai, witnessed by Shanghai Mayor Gong Zheng and Ho Iat Seng, chief executive of the Macau Special Administrative Region.

"Macau is a special and charming city. It has kept on developing every day in the past 22 years after its return to the motherland, and is making new advances in implementing the 'one country, two systems' policy," Gong said. 

"The first conference today marked a milestone of cooperation between our two cities," he said. "I hope our cooperation will boost the domestic circulation in our country and serve the dual circulation, in which domestic and overseas markets reinforce each other. 

"I also hope we can further enhance our mutual cooperation, deepening the cooperation mechanism between the two governments, continuing to expand exchanges in modern finance, exhibition, cultural creativity, tourism, youth exchanges and other aspects, and jointly promoting the sustainable, stable and sound economic and social development in our two cities."

Ho said Shanghai had made great achievements in finance, commerce and trade, shipping, and science and technology, and Macau could learn from its practices in urban development and management.

"With active participation of people in the two cities, cooperation between Shanghai and Macau has been enriched and the areas of our exchanges have been expanded," he said. "I hope to further promote our cooperation in finance, scientific and technological innovation, smart city construction and traditional Chinese medicine. I also welcome friends from Shanghai to Macau for sightseeing and tourism, and take exchanges between our two cities to a new level."