Five years after Macao's return to the motherland, Macao's economy is on the track of fast growth, its people are living and working in peace, and its society is prosperous, Macao's chief executive said.

Edmund Ho Hau Wah, Chief Executive of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR), attributed the sound situation to the implementation of the policies of "one country, two systems", "Macao people governing Macao" and a high degree of autonomy after 1999 when Macao returned to China.

In an interview with correspondents of state press recently, the chief executive said Macao citizens, who have become masters of their own destiny, are enjoying better life and improved socialstability after the handover.

"Only by improving the living standard of the majority of Macaopeople and enabling them to believe that their coming generations will also have a promising future, can Macao residents whole-heartedly support the 'one country, two systems' policy," he said.

Statistics show that Macao's economy reported an annual growth rate of 4.6 percent in 2000, 2.1 percent in 2001, 9.5 percent in 2002, 15.6 percent in 2003 and 36.5 percent in the first half of this year.

Edmund Ho Hau Wah is grateful for the central government's leadership and support for Macao, and vows to "carefully advance the SAR step by step in the coming decades and strive to pave theway for young generations to better understand the 'one country, two systems' policy so as to guarantee the policy to be carried out in the long term."

"The implementation of the 'one country, two systems' can not go smoothly without a full social support," the chief executive said with feeling.

"The practice of 'one country, two systems' is not only the task for Hong Kong and Macao SARs, but also the task for the wholecountry," he added.

In view of Macao's small population and limited land resources,the SAR government has launched a policy of making close cooperation with neighboring Guangdong province while expanding trade contacts with the rest of the world.

Macao SAR has maintained sound economic and trade relations with more than 120 countries and regions with European Union (EU) and Portuguese-speaking countries in particular.

It enjoys the central government's preferential policy of engaging in trade and investment in the mainland market, which hashelped reinforce its role as a bridge promoting China's economic and trade cooperation with Portuguese-speaking countries, said Ho.

With a population of 460,000, Macao's market is too small and the city can only serve as a trade intermediate for others, Ho said.

"Only by involving in regional cooperation and global trade canMacao stimulate its market competitiveness," the chief executive said.

Ho predicted this year's economic growth rate between 18 percent and 20 percent.

"In my view, the growth speed is a little bit fast but the government can hardly intervene the economic growth since Macao isa free-market economy," he said adding that Macao's economy still has to depend on tourism and gaming business for quite a long period of time.

Macao is a low-taxed place, where the gap between the rich and the poor is big. The SAR government is making an in-depth investigation in mapping out policies and measures to make a rational distribution of resources gained from the economic growth,according to Ho.

To assist the urban poor, the SAR government has cut its administrative cost, and exempted and reduced taxation to boost anoverall development of the local economy, said Ho.

He stressed that the SAR government will work out measures to coordinate the social and economic development as a whole while taking consideration of environment protection, infrastructure development and educational reform.

Ho Hau Wah acknowledged that the projecting issue Macao is facing with at present is a lack of human resources. The SAR government is studying and finding ways to satisfy the thirst for human resources in the tertiary sector, he said.

The chief executive called on the SAR government to agglomerateall social forces in further boosting the local economy and upgrading people's living standard.