Under the principle of "one country, two systems", economy in Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions (SAR) and their adjacent mainland regions have all taken on a prosperous scene, said scholars in Macao on Tuesday.
Edmund Ho Hau Wah, chief executive of the Macao SAR, and scholars from the mainland, the Hong Kong and Macao SARs as well as Taiwan and Japan participated in the 2003 Forum on "One Country, Two Systems," which closed here Tuesday. They agreed that both the mainland and the SARs are beneficiaries of the policy.
The policy has contributed to the fast economic syncretism in the broad Pearl River Delta Region, which includes the Hong Kong and Macao and south China's Guangdong Province, said Zhao Lingbin, from Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank of China. He expects that the markets under different management systems and rules will see a fast convergence of the trade and legal systems in the region in the next 20 years.
Daniel C.W. Tse, president of the University of Macao, said that the policy of "one country, two systems" promised to be stable for 50 years by the Central Government has not only given guidelines to the sovereign return and social stability of Hong Kong and Macao in the last century, but also promised a continuous prosperity of the two SARs.
Scholars from China's special economic zones (SEZ) of Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Hainan also spoke on the cooperation between SEZs and SARs at the forum, which was a part of celebration activities for the 10th anniversary of the promulgation of the Macao Basic Law.
(Xinhua News Agency March 26, 2003)