Chief executive highlights bridging role of Portuguese, English media in Macao

MACAO, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- News outlets reporting in Portuguese and English could maintain their bridging role and play up to their communication strengths in terms of language and culture, said Ho Iat Seng, chief executive of China's Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) on Tuesday.

Ho made the remarks at a lunch reception hosted for Portuguese and English language news organizations in Macao.

He said the organizations reported extensively on Macao's new trends and developments, and that work has not only given the outside world a better understanding and more confidence in Macao's development but also raised its profile.

The chief executive noted that over the past year, representatives of the news outlets had visited cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, as well as Xizang. Their reports had presented to their readers firsthand accounts of the high-quality development going on in China, as well as long-standing Chinese cultural and social traditions, he added.

Ho said he looked forward to the Portuguese and English language media reporting widely on celebratory events held in the new year. It was hoped that they could offer greater assistance in expanding overseas tourist markets, identifying business opportunities for key industries, and promoting the prospects of the cooperation zone in Hengqin and the Greater Bay Area.

The SAR government would work together with the press to give a better understanding of the successful practice of the "one country, two systems" principle in Macao and the critical role that Macao plays as a platform connecting the motherland with Portuguese-speaking countries, while demonstrating Macao's characteristics of co-existence and mutual integration of diverse cultures, he said.