MACAO, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- Nearly three decades after its return to China, Macao continues to explore new ways to sustain stability and prosperity under the "one country, two systems" policy, with successive five-year plans offering a long-term roadmap for its development.

Macao and its neighbor Hong Kong are China's two special administrative regions (SARs) governed under the "one country, two systems" policy. This arrangement, in place since China resumed the exercise of sovereignty over the two cities in the late 1990s, allows them to maintain their capitalist systems and ways of life within socialist China.

The third five-year plan of the Macao SAR, unveiled on Tuesday, sets out policy priorities for the next stage, focusing on economic diversification, social progress, and closer integration into national development, while ensuring security.

Since its return to China in 1999, Macao has evolved from a city once associated largely with casinos and gangster films into a vibrant international hub with a dynamic economy, a low crime rate and an increasingly comprehensive social welfare system. It now ranks among the world's wealthiest economies in terms of GDP per capita.

With the plan, the SAR government is proactively positioning Macao within the broader context of national development and actively implementing the relevant arrangements of the country's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030), said Macao SAR Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai.

ECONOMIC DIVERSIFICATION

Economic diversification has remained a central theme throughout Macao's three five-year plans, from the first plan unveiled in 2016 to the latest one.

Sam said economic diversification is essential to sustaining Macao's long-term prosperity and stability and is a task the SAR government must tackle, no matter how difficult it may be.

According to Sam, the Macao SAR government will advance economic diversification through major projects and a government guidance fund to build Macao into a world tourism and leisure center and develop its priority industries, namely, big health, modern finance, high technology, exhibition and convention, as well as culture and sports.

The plan sets the target of raising the share of value added from non-gaming industries to around 60 percent of Macao's GDP by 2030.

Cheong Chok Man, director of the Policy Research and Regional Development Bureau under the Macao SAR government, said that setting such a target means Macao will need to intensify its efforts to achieve greater economic diversification.

Major projects aimed at promoting economic diversification during the period are expected to involve around 130 billion patacas (about 16.1 billion U.S. dollars) in budgeted investment.

For a small economy like Macao with a GDP of roughly 50 billion U.S. dollars in 2025, the investment represents a significant commitment, said Lao Chi Ngai, president of the Macao Economic Association.

BROADER INTEGRATION

The plan is designed to advance the high-quality development of the Guangdong-Macao In-Depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin.

Located in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, Hengqin is separated from Macao by a narrow stretch of water. The cooperation zone was established in 2021 to create new space for Macao's development.

This year marks a crucial period for the zone's second phase of development. The latest five-year plan calls for addressing challenges through reform and advancing deeper integration between Macao and Hengqin, with science and technology and education serving as key drivers.

The plan sets quantitative targets in areas including industrial diversification, cross-border flows of production factors, and the integrated provision and sharing of public services.

Richard W. Hu, dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Macau, said the plan moves beyond integration in individual industries toward broader integration encompassing industries, people's livelihoods, talent and governance.

Hengqin is expected to develop into an integrated urban area that serves as an extension of Macao's industries and a vibrant cross-border community. In doing so, it could offer a landmark example of leveraging the institutional strengths of "one country, two systems" to foster closer regional synergy, Hu said.

SECURITY AS FOUNDATION

Alongside economic diversification and regional integration, the latest plan places security among its major priorities.

"Amid a complex and evolving international landscape, Macao faces potential challenges arising from a combination of traditional and non-traditional security risks," said Yin Yifen, director of the Social, Economic and Public Policy Research Center at Macao Polytechnic University.

He said the plan seeks to improve the legal framework and enforcement mechanisms for safeguarding national security, strengthen security governance in emerging areas such as cyberspace, data and artificial intelligence, and further develop smart policing.

It also places emphasis on national security education for young people.

"Making security an integral part of governance in the SAR will help lay a stronger foundation for economic diversification, improved livelihood and deeper integration between Macao and the mainland," Yin said.