During an official reception hosted by the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) government in Madrid on Wednesday, Macao SAR Chief Executive Sam Hou-fai announced that deepening and expanding partnerships with Spanish-speaking economies has been elevated to a strategic priority for the region. As part of this new strategic push, Sam outlined plans to extend the scope of Macao’s well-established platform bridging China and Portuguese-speaking countries to include Spanish-speaking nations, unlocking new cross-regional collaborative potential.
Sam emphasized that Macao has nurtured long-standing, robust ties with Spain and other European nations. Moving forward, the SAR will prioritize deepening mutually beneficial cooperation across key sectors including bilateral trade, cultural exchange, tourism, and the conventions and exhibitions industry, while stepping up people-to-people connections that underpin long-term partnership.
Against the backdrop of China’s upcoming 15th Five-Year Plan, which will map out the nation’s development blueprint for the next five years, Sam noted the framework opens up extensive new opportunities for China-Spain cooperation. Macao is actively aligning its own development priorities with the national plan and is currently drafting its third five-year development plan, which focuses on refining external cooperation mechanisms and building an inclusive platform that allows all stakeholders to share new development opportunities.
Concha Andreu, Second Vice-President of the Spanish Senate, welcomed the initiative, noting that both Spain and China share a clear commitment to strengthening bilateral cooperation, and overall bilateral relations are currently on a steady positive growth trajectory.
Andreu pointed out that China has delivered remarkable progress in technological innovation and other key fields in recent years, while Macao’s economy continues to demonstrate strong resilience and untapped growth potential. She added that as two leading global tourist destinations, Spain and Macao hold particularly promising cooperative prospects in culture, tourism, and the conventions and exhibitions sector.
The Madrid reception drew more than 300 representatives from Macao’s government and business communities, alongside leaders and stakeholders from Spain’s economic and commercial sectors, marking a broad show of support for the new cooperative initiative.