China
Wen tells Macao to fan out
By Guo Jiaxue (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-11-15 07:51
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MACAO - Premier Wen Jiabao on Sunday urged Macao to actively develop its tourism, exhibition, financial and cultural industries and properly regulate its gaming industry to build the special administrative region into a world tourism and leisure center.
While meeting representatives from all walks of life in Macao on Sunday, Wen put forward a number of suggestions for the future development of the city.
He said Macao should make full use of the availability of favorable policies from the central government and strengthen its cooperation with the mainland, especially neighboring Guangdong province.
Wen also said the regional government should attach more importance to improving residents' livelihoods, particularly at a time when high prices for property and consumer goods are making the lives of the underprivileged even harder than usual.
Macao's economy heavily relies on the gaming industry. Taxes on the industry have more than doubled in the past five years, according to the Statistics and Census Services of Macao.
Yet the rapid growth of the gaming industry has failed to benefit all Macao residents.
Wen asked the local government to allocate public spending for the construction of public housing and transportation. The government was also urged to help the vulnerable improve the quality of their lives to ensure social justice.
"The problem that most frequently occurs in a fast-developing community is the emergence of a gap between the rich and the poor," he said. "Social wealth should be shared by all Macao people together, especially the poor. What the poor care about most are consumer and property prices."
Calling for "an honest, efficient, service-oriented" regional government, Wen encouraged the administration to strengthen its management practices, while making government work more transparent and listening to the people.
The premier's official visit to Macao, the first since he took office in 2003, began on Saturday.
Along with attending the opening ceremony for the Ministerial Conference of the third Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries on Saturday, Wen's two-day visit was filled with a variety of activities.
He viewed the city's tourist attractions, including the Mountain Fortress and the Ruins of St. Paul's, spoke with young students and visited poor households.
On Sunday morning, he joined some local residents for a spot of fan dancing and received a fan as a gift from well-wishers.
"After I retire, you bring the music to me and I will use this fan to welcome you all at Zhongnanhai (the Beijing compound of the country's top leaders)," he told them.
China Daily