President Fanny Vong,

Distinguished guests, students, ladies and gentlemen,

We attend today the Graduation Ceremony 2016 of the Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT). On behalf of the Macao SAR Government, I would like to extend my warmest congratulations to the graduating students and express my heartfelt gratitude to all IFT staff for their services.

The SAR Government attaches great importance to promoting a diversified development of the tourism industry and to cultivating talented professionals for this sector, for transforming Macao into a World Centre for Tourism and Leisure. Last year, the Central Government set Macao’s new boundaries and demarcated an area of maritime waters to be administered by Macao. We gained the right to use and manage those waters, and can now study and develop new projects related to coastal tourism and leisure, generating new opportunities for Macao’s tourism industry. Meanwhile, the SAR Government has been active in launching several innovative tourism events and projects, further enriching the local tourism panorama and improving Macao’s overall competitiveness.

To advance tourism education, the SAR Government granted part of the old campus of the University of Macau, in Taipa, to IFT: these facilities became IFT’s new Taipa Campus. We have also revised the “General Rules on IFT Academic Staff and Hotel Professional Staff”, creating better conditions for IFT’s future development. The SAR Government hopes IFT can make the most of its new campus, in an effective way, optimising faculty resources, thus fostering the nurturing of creative and talented professionals – in line with the SAR Government’s tourism development policies – and improving the overall quality of tourism education in Macao.

The Macao SAR Government fully recognises IFT’s effort in extending to neighbouring cities including Zhuhai, Nansha and Guangzhou, its “Macao Occupational Skills Recognition System”, a training and certification system for the tourism industry. It has helped to strengthen cooperation and exchanges between Guangdong Province and Macao, training up more than 1,000 participants and earning a positive reputation in the cities taking part. In order to improve Macao’s competitiveness as a tourism destination and raise the quality of human resources in the region, IFT will further strengthen cooperation with international organisations, with the goal also of pushing forward the role of Macao as a commercial and trade cooperation service platform between China and Portuguese-speaking countries. Apart from developing local talents for Macao, IFT has organised tourism-related training courses for representatives from Member States of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and from Portuguese-speaking countries.

These projects all require the active participation and contribution of our young people. Dear graduates, you are now ready to take your place in society. I wish each of you a prosperous career ahead. I hope that you are committed to lifelong learning and will soon become part of the Macao tourism industry elite, contributing to the sector’s sustainable development.

Finally, let me once again wish you all a bright future!

Thank you.