Macau, China, 25 March – The Chinese municipality of Zhuhai is due Wednesday in Macu to open up a representative office to provide support to Macau businesspeople who plan to invest in the neighbouring region, the Macau Institute for Promotion of Trade and Investment (Ipim) said.

The launch of the Zhuhai office in Macau follows an agreement between the Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Bureau in Zhuhai and Ipim.

The Zhuhai office will be located in Ipim’s Macau Business Support Centre in Macau and will not only serve as a platform for cooperation with Macau but also for promotion and attracting investment.

In 2008 the municipality of Zhuhai approved a total of 152 investment projects from Macau.

Also in 2008, the city of Zhuhai was named, by the Chinese Trade Ministry as a “Model City in the Implementation of the Mainland and Macau Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA).”

In 2007, during the “Zhuhai-Macau Seminar on Investment Promotion and Commercial Exchange 2007” agreements were signed for 108 projects, which involved an overall investment of US$14.25 billion.

With an area of 1,653 square kilometres and a population of 1.5 million people, Zhuhai became a Special Economic Area in 1979, and since then has transformed itself into an important industrial centre, namely in the electronics, pharmaceutical, petrochemical and educational sectors.

In 2008 Zhuhai’s exports totaled US$21.3 billion, a rise of 14.4 percent on 2007. (macauhub)