A food supply chain project, how to drive deep collaboration between Nansha and Macau

Ask AI · How can the supply chain project promote innovative exploration of institutional integration between Nansha and Macau?

The special seminar on Macau legislation at the 15th Five-Year Plan for Nansha, Guangzhou, was held in Macau on March 31. At the meeting, a supply chain project that has already settled in Nansha became the focus of discussions between the two sides, reflecting a new stage in which cooperation between the two places moves from project landing to platform building and institutional integration.

Seminar venue for the special session of Macau legislation at the 15th Five-Year Plan for Nansha.

One project, two advantages

In December 2024, the Guangdong–Macau Portuguese-speaking Countries Quality Food Supply Chain Center was established in Nansha, Guangzhou. This professional park integrates international food trading, logistics supply chain services, and port-side light processing. Co-invested by entrepreneurs from Macau and Guangdong, it has already been incorporated into Guangzhou’s 15th Five-Year Plan.

Macau Legislative Assembly member and president of the Guangzhou Nansha Guangdong–Macau Development Promotion Association, He Jinglin, introduced that this project will extend the functions of Nansha port from mere dock loading and unloading to a comprehensive supply chain center integrating customs clearance, trading, processing, distribution, bonded storage, and transshipment.

He positioned it as “an important carrier jointly serving the dual circulation of domestic and international markets,” and explained the project’s unique value: “We hope Macau can leverage its advantages as a China–Portugal platform and an international liaison, while Nansha leverages its advantages in port space and industrial capacity, jointly channeling resources from Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking countries into the Bay Area, and connecting the Bay Area’s industrial chain with international markets.”

These remarks answer the question of “why a supply chain”—Macau has a free port system and the functions of a China–Portugal platform, but is constrained by land and industrial supporting facilities, resulting in insufficient capacity for carrying out physical operations in areas such as port logistics, warehousing and cold-chain logistics, and port-side processing; while Nansha precisely has these advantages. South China’s largest comprehensive hub port, 180 foreign trade routes, an annual throughput of 22 million TEUs, and more than 1 trillion in port clearance value—these figures provide the industrial backbone for Nansha.

Macau Legislative Assembly member and president of the Macau Youth Entrepreneurs Association, Li Juren, described the cooperation prospects more specifically: by taking the project as a key focus for the planning interface between the two places, and prioritizing the formation of demonstration effects in areas such as quality food trade, cold-chain logistics, bonded processing, and exhibition and trading. He even outlined a clear chain of division of labor—“Policy in Macau, services in Hengqin, delivery in Nansha, and markets in the Bay Area.”

Nansha comprehensive bonded zone.

From project to extension of the system

What a project brings is not only an increase in trade volume, but also pushes for deeper institutional exploration.

How can cross-border capital be unlocked? Macau Legislative Assembly member and chairman of the Macau Bankers Association, Ye Zhaojia, noted that the “Financial 30 Articles” in Nansha and the “Financial 30 Articles” in Hengqin each have their own emphasis and can fully create a synergy effect. He suggested that the two places jointly launch financial solutions for countries participating in the Belt and Road co-construction and for the integration of Hong Kong and Macau, using the convenience offered by their respective free trade zones’ foreign exchange management facilitation policies to build a demonstration area for cross-border capital flows.

How can data and technology service trade be expanded? Macau Legislative Assembly member and president of the Guangdong–Macau Chamber of Commerce, Shi Jialun, proposed that by relying on Macau’s platform advantages, Nansha’s digital trade, smart services, and technology solutions can be promoted to output to Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking markets, forming a cooperation model of “Nansha’s digital capability + Macau’s international channel.”

How can rules be aligned? Macau Legislative Assembly member and chairman of the Macau Lawyers Association, Qiu Tingbiao, offered suggestions from three dimensions: in terms of market access, promote the relaxation of market access pilot programs to facilitate Macau enterprises and professionals in practicing in Nansha; in terms of talent rules, promote mutual recognition of qualifications and academic credentials, and simplify cross-border employment, residence, and tax procedures; in terms of law, introduce the commercial arbitration and mediation systems of Hong Kong and Macau to provide efficient and low-cost ways to resolve cross-border trade disputes. He also specifically proposed that a regular, high-level joint meeting mechanism should be established.

The deepening of the supply chain project is resonating with Macau’s push to build the international air transport hub port on the west bank of the Pearl River. Macau Legislative Assembly member and director of the Macau Development Strategy Research Center, Gao Ansheng, suggested that by relying on the hub port under construction, the sea-air linkage between Nansha and Macau should be further deepened—so that goods imported through Macau Airport can be shipped to Nansha after being processed in Hengqin, enabling efficient connections between the airport and the seaport.

Liu Benli, president of the Macau Economic Society and vice president of the Macau Development Strategy Research Center, stated that the next step should focus on making the supply chain project more practical and stronger—turning it into a demonstration model for the two places’ cooperation in China–Portugal economic and trade, port logistics coordination, and industrial linkage—and combining it with the construction of the international air transport hub port on the west bank of the Pearl River.

Nandu Guangzhou News Department

Written and reported by: Nandu N Video reporter Mo Zhihua, correspondent: Office of Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan Affairs of the Development Zone

Photos: correspondent Shen Chongguang