2013 Macau-China trade increases fourfold since handover

The Chinese Ministry of Commerce has concluded a survey on Macau-China trade since the handover, claiming that the amount of trade between the two jumped nearly fourfold by 2013 compared to before the handover. The Ministry credited its role in establishing closer trade relationships between Macau and Mainland China.
According to Ministry spokesman Shen Danyan, who presented the trade figures of the regions yesterday in a regular press briefing by the Ministry, the total amount of Macau-China trade jumped from US$730 million before 1999 to US$3.57 billion in 2013. The actual capital employed from Macau also surged by some 48.4 per cent, reaching US$460 million in 2013, compared to the US$310 million before the handover 15 years ago.
In addition, the sales that Mainland contractors made on projects in Macau totalled US$420 million in 2013, up some 2.6 times over the US$118 million before the handover.
Apart from the conclusion, the Ministry released the latest data between the two parties in 2014. At the end of October of this year, the accumulative duty-free goods that the Mainland exported to Macau totalled some US$81 million, while preferential duties reached 44 billion yuan.
On the other hand, nearly 440 Macau enterprises had invested in Mainland China via the arrangements of the Ministry, while 1,018 individual commercial or industrial merchants from Macau had registered their businesses in China by the end of October 2014.
Meanwhile, the Ministry remarked that the function that Macau provides as a platform for trade between China and Portuguese-speaking countries is becoming more apparent following the Forum on Economic and Trade Co-operation between China and Portuguese-speaking countries first held in the Special Administrative Region in 2003.
Mr. Shen indicated that the trade between the parties via Macau had soared more than twelve-fold last year vis-a-vis 2003. In addition, China’s non-financial investment had also reached US$2.45 billion while investment in China by Portuguese-speaking countries totalled US$747 million in 2013.
K.L.