The European Union will send people to the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) in January or February next year to talk about granting visa-free treatment to the holders of the Macao SAR passport, a local official said in Macao on December 6.

Florinda da Rosa Silva Chan, the Macao SAR's secretary for administration and justice, said at a press conference that the SAR government has recently been officially notified of the matter by Ting David, head of the Office of the European Commission in Hong kong.

Macao officials had been sent to Hong Kong discussing the visa problem with David at the beginning of this year, Chan said, noting that the SAR government has been making efforts to persuade more countries to grant visa-free treatment to Macao SAR passport holders.

In fact, the Macao SAR government had submitted written requests to the EU in March and June this year via the Macao (China) Economic and Trade Delegation in Portugal.

(People’s Daily 12/07/2000)