Industries

Looking to the future, Macao will have unprecedented opportunities for development along with the fast growth of the mainland economy and the flourishing of neighbouring Hong Kong. The growth of Macao's modern economy has been driven by export processing, a combined result of the opportunities available in this particular historic period and Macao's peculiar advantages. This kind of labour- intensive export-oriented processing had experienced rapid growth before, in the 1970s and 80s. Entering the 1990s, however, the manufacturing industry was largely in a state of decline, and little was done to upgrade and transform the industry. As a result, Macao's industrial structure and its whole economy has since entered a prolonged period of adjustment. A striking contrast with this is the significant growth achieved in Macao's service sector since the 1980s, the structure of which has diversified. Tourism, real estate, trade, telecommunications, finance and consulting have enjoyed an increasing trend of development and, at present, the percentage of tertiary industry in the GDP is well over 80 per cent, and it has become the most significant element in the local economy.

Tourism

Casinos and tourism will play an important part in Macao's economic development. The model of casino- driven tourism development has been a product of Macao's history and is also one of the important features of Macao's tourism industry. In the future, the development of tourism will continue to rely on casino-related tourism, and the future direction of it will involve the development of casinos towards mass recreation, reforms of the present system regarding the management and operation of casinos and an effort to innovate new casino technologies and improve the quality of services. In addition, Macao will expand its modern tourism and casino industries by fully utilizing its unique and rich historical and cultural heritage and facilitating the development of large-scale tourism attractions, in order to target more diverse sources of customers. To pursue a model of comprehensive tourism development, priority will be given to the development of a diversified range of tourism products related to interests such as sightseeing, conference, business, culture, sports, religion and holidaying, all of which will enhance the Macao's attractiveness as a tourism destination. As a joint effort to develop a greater 'triangle' tourism area consisting of Hong Kong, Macao and Guangdong, Macao will also reinforce its cooperation in tourism with these adjacent regions .

Finance

Sectors such as trade, finance, real estate, shipping and information will become Macao's cornerstone industries. The future of Macao's financial sector will focus on developing offshore financial services while strengthening and developing its local business of savings and loans. Macao will fully utilize its advantages of being a free port, such as free inflow and outflow of capital, no restrictions on foreign exchange, convertibility of Macao currency and its direct ties with other international financial centres , to develop its offshore financial businesses. By providing financing services to and deepening financial cooperation with the Pearl River Delta areas, Macao will gradually become an offshore financial centre servicing the neighbouring areas. It is foreseeable that with the prosperity of the economies in its neighbourhood, large-scale infrastructure constructions within the city combined with the economic recovery will give impetus to further development of Macao's financial sector.