A legislator from Macao said the special administrative region can serve as a bridge between the Chinese mainland and Portuguese-speaking countries, as China works to further open up under its latest five-year plan.

"Macao is a place where Chinese and Western cultures integrate, especially Portuguese-speaking countries. It will be crucial for Macao to grasp the opportunity. Its civil society can bring its advantages in language into full play and serve as a bridge between the mainland and the world, especially on trade," Ho Sut-heng, a Macao delegate of the National People's Congress, told the Global Times on the sidelines of the Monday meeting of the Macao NPC delegation.

According to the 13th Five-Year Plan reviewed at the annual parliamentary session this month, Hong Kong and Macao should use their unique advantages to promote their role in the nation's economic growth and opening-up.

Specifically, the central government will support Macao as a world tourism resort center and a platform for China and Portuguese-speaking countries to conduct business and commerce cooperation, according to the five-year plan, which also said that the exhibition industry will also be encouraged to help diversify the development of the local economy.

Another NPC delegate Lionel Leong Vai-tac, also Macao's secretary of economy and finance, told reporters that Macao has a comparative advantage in the exhibition industry, but that manpower training should be enhanced. He added that Macao can also work to develop the cultural and creative industries and that Macao should integrate into the nation's development strategies.

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