Macao, a part of Chinese territory since ancient times, fell into the hands of Portuguese colonialists in the late 19th century. It smoothly returned to the embrace of the motherland on December 20, 1999.

10th anniversary of Macao Basic Law

March 31, 2003 marked the 10th anniversary of the Basic Law of the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. At a celebration, Macao SAR Chief Executive Edmund Ho Hau Wah said that over the 10 years since the enactment of the Basic Law, Macao has experienced unprecedented changes. Macao returned to the motherland and the Macao SAR was established. The Basic Law, as the fundamental law of the Macao SAR, not only gives the region executive, legislative and independent judicial power, including that of final adjudication, but also defines the rights and obligations of Macao residents. It serves as a solid foundation for organizing the SAR government and implementing the principles of "one country, two systems" and Macao governed by the Macao people with a high degree of autonomy.

Accelerating economic recovery

Ho noted in his government report for the fiscal year 2003 to the Macao SAR Legislative Council that Macao's economic recovery was speeding up and investment becoming active. He said that over the past year, despite unfavorable external economic environment and perplexities resulted from uncertainties, Macao's GDP grew steadily. Leading and relevant industries developed smoothly, while other industries began to revitalize and foreign investment saw a notable increase.

Considering the actual needs at present and in future, the Macao SAR Government began large-scale construction in the past year, launching a number of large infrastructure construction projects. The infrastructure construction programs of the SAR government helped determine the overall development strategy, upgrade the city image and living quality, propel internal demand and promote local employment. The projects will also provide effective support to Macao's hosting of the 2005 East Asian Games.

Tourism

According to data released by the Statistics and Census Service of the Macao SAR, a record number of 11.53 million visitors entered Macao in 2002, up 12 percent over 2001. Of this total, 2.1 million visited Macao with tourist groups, up 31 percent. Tourists staying in hotels and similar places totaled 3.15 million, up 14 percent.

In the year 2002, the per-capita non-shopping consumption (excluding lottery consumption) of tourists was 829 Yuan, an increase of 2 percent over 2001. Of the total, the consumption of food and lodging ranked at the top at 40 percent and 36 percent respectively.

A new high of tax revenue from gaming industry

The year 2002 marked the first year Macao opened its "gambling rights." A manager of the Macao Gaming Holding Co. disclosed that Macao's gross revenue from the gaming industry reached MOP21.5 billion, producing record tax revenue of around MOP7.5 billion, an increase of over 20 percent over 2001.

The Macao Tourism and Entertainment Co. Ltd. ended its monopoly of the gambling business on March 31, 2002. Its subsidiary Macao Gaming Holding Co. obtained the license for gambling operations from the Macao SAR Government in 2002 and formally started business on April 1 the same year. Currently, it has 11 casinos.

Statistics show that around 80,000 people go to casinos in Macao on a daily basis.

Bidding for the 2005 World Chinese Entrepreneurs Conference

With the backing of the Macao SAR Government, the Macao Chamber of Commerce decided in 2002 to apply to the Secretariat of the World Chinese Entrepreneurs Conference to host the Eighth World Chinese Entrepreneurs Conference scheduled in 2005. Reportedly, quite a number of countries and regions are bidding for the right, including Britain, Japan and the Republic of Korea.