Annexes to JOIN(2024)19 -

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dossier JOIN(2024)19 - .
document JOIN(2024)19
date June 13, 2024
agreement with the mainland on judicial cooperation that would include the possibility of extraditing people accused of having committed a crime.


On 1 March, the new Guangdong-Macao Intensive Cooperation Zone regulations took effect. According to the Standing Committee of the Guangdong Provincial People’s Congress, the regulations cover eight chapters and focus on six aspects: administration; planning, construction and management; industrial development; helping Macao residents living and working in the zone; promoting the integration of Hengqin and Macao; and legal protection.


IV. Macao bilateral relations and cooperation in 2023


The 1992 Agreement for Trade and Cooperation between the European Economic Community and Macao aimed to further strengthen the relationship between the EU and Macao. The agreement covers trading, economic, scientific and technological cooperation.


The EU-Macao Joint Committee is a platform through which Macao and the EU discuss matters in a number of areas. The last Joint Committee meeting took place in 2019. However, visits to and from Macao did not resume until 2023.


In February, the Head of the EU Office visited Macao for the first time in 2 and a half years.


On 27 April, the Macao Chief Executive met the Deputy Secretary-General for Economic and Global Issues at the European External Action Service as part of his visit to Europe.


On 23 November, the EU Office, together with the Macau European Chamber of Commerce, organised the ‘Green Way Macao’, an event on trade and sustainability. Macao’s Secretary for the Economy and Finance delivered the keynote speech.


In 2023, the EU remained Macao’s largest trading partner in goods, ahead of mainland China and accounting for 29% of Macao’s total trade.


Based on Eurostat data, EU bilateral trade in goods with Macao in the first 11 months of 2023 amounted to EUR 1 036 million. EU exports to Macao consisted mostly of luxury goods, leather articles, clothing and apparel, and watches and jewellery.


The EU was Macao’s fourth largest source of foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2022 (excluding offshore centres), after Hong Kong, mainland China and the US. According to Macao’s official statistics, the EU accounted for 5.5% of its total FDI stock in 2022 (excluding offshore centres). According to Eurostat, EU FDI in Macao accounted for EUR 1.52 billion at the end of 20227, while FDI in the EU from Macao amounted to EUR 1.86 billion.

1 https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/4007077

2 https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CEDAW%2FC%2FCHN%2FCO%2F9&Lang=en

3 Source: Statistics and Census Service, Government of Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR).

https://www.dsec.gov.mo/en-US/Statistic?id=901

4 Exchange rate of December 2023

https://commission.europa.eu/funding-tenders/procedures-guidelines-tenders/information-contractors-and-beneficiaries/exchange-rate-inforeuro_en

5 World Economic Outlook by the International Monetary Fund:

https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WEO/Issues/2023/10/10/world-economic-outlook-october-2023

6 The Guangdong-Macao Intensive Cooperation Zone is on the southern edge of the mainland Chinese city of Zhuhai. Only a small strip of water separates the zone from Macao, and a bridge links the two.

7 Eurostat statistics

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/database

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