On 28 November,Sean Own, Chairman of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Electronics Chamber of Commerce, shared his thoughts on settling down in the Greater Bay Area at the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Cooperation and Development Forum of the Asia Youth Leaders Forum 2021.

The full speech is as below.

I was born in the year when the Reform and Opening up began.After I graduated from university at the age of 20, I came to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (the Greater Bay Area, GBA) from the San Francisco Bay Area. I've witnessed how Shenzhen, Dongguan, Macao, and Jiangmen developed from manufacturers to world factories, and even to the world's consumer markets now. I was quite impressed. I chose to settle down here at the GBA, because I am grateful, and because we've benefited a lot from national development.

During the past years in Macao, we've invested in some youth-related training programs. Meanwhile, I'm a representative of MacaoAssociation of Jiangmen Youths. Over a third of Macao youths whose ancestral home are Jiangmen City orGuangdong Province are living in Macao. We hopeto take this opportunity to bring these talents to the GBA, and provide them with a better environment for more exchanges.

Previously, there werenot many industries in Macao, but young people needed to diversify their employment choices. However, Macao has its own characteristics. In the Macau University of Science and Technology and the University of Macau, all talent-training programs are taught in foreign languages, and students there are quite excellent. However, due to the structural problems in Macao, we cannot retain all the talents, so we are looking forward to more diversified exchanges with people in Nansha District and Guangzhou.

I'm particularly grateful to the leadershipof Nansha District. With their introduction, I know that they have great achievements in the cooperation with Hong Kong through the Greater Bay Area Youth Employment Scheme. This scheme provides 2,000 jobs, a salary of no less than HKD 18,000, includinga government subsidy of HKD 9,000, and hasincubated many successful enterprises. We hope that Nansha District can also give us this opportunity in the future so that we can enable more and more young people to truly integrate into the Greater Bay Area. Besides, Jiangmen, Macao, Hong Kong, and Guangzhou are predominantly Cantonese-speaking places. I had been in Shenzhenfor eight years, and my accent has already changed. I believe those young people will get used to the life here soon.

There's another opportunity in Macao. Theopportunity is that we are the best model of“One Country, Two Systems”. Most media in Hong Kong are connected to the UK and the US, and perhaps we have more connection with Portuguese-speaking countries and European countries like Portugal. Bycomparison, we are relatively more global-minded and objective in our coverage, and we can really tellthe world more about these excellent Chinese enterprises and the stories of Chinese young peoplein an international, objective, and impartial way. 

Macao Youth Federationbecame the first organization in Macao that could apply for internship in the United Nations. One of the goals of the Electronics Chamber of Commerce is to "bring in" and "go global". In addition to taking part in the development of the Greater Bay Area, we hope that the GBA will use Macao as a platform to apply for 1,000 youth internships at the United Nations in the next ten years. Besides, the Electronics Chamber of Commerce is cooperating with the ministry supervising electronics. We were also one of the supporting entities of the China International Import Expo two years ago. Now we've got e-commerce and the market, and we are trying to bring in some people from the UN. Foreigners do want to do business with China. In the past, only big brands could enter the Chinese market. Nowadays, however, many small brands and brands from rural areas that are distinctive and full of stories can alsohave access to the consumer market.

We don't have to prefer only one kind of beer. We have many kinds of beer. Wehope that Macao can be a platform to bring in more talents and facilitateinteraction and cooperation.