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Miss C McComb
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Dear Christina,
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AKKO 20 BRITISH EMBASSY
LISBON
3 January y
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Hen's brings us us to date or a
number of issues of itvest to th. Can you minite to the Clift (brough me) please, explain the backgrout what approprati
7/1
MAGAO
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The Governor of Macao, General Melo Egidio, gave a lengthy Interview last week to the Peking correspondent of the weekly newspaper "Expresso". The publication of the interview coincided with Egidio's arrival in Lisbon for talks on the future of Macao with the new Democratic Alliance Government. As statements of this kind on Macao are relatively rare I have reported below in some detail the main points to emerge from the interview.
In their manifesto the Democratic Alliance pledged the new Government to paying more attention to Macao than had been the case with recent governments. They have also promised to re-establish Macao as a separate parliamentary constituency with its own deputy (at the moment the region is included in the "Rest of the World" amigranta constituency). The latter proposal will be part of the Alliance's plan for a new Electoral Law and oves
enjoy wide support in the region than to any new commitment by the Alliance Government.
more to the fact that the Centre Democratic pPal Law and over
In his interview General Egidio said that the administration of Macao were putting the finishing touches to a Plan for the region which would for the first time outline short, medium and long term objectives for the development of the region. The main problem which faced the administration was housing demand for accommodation was such that rents had got out of hand. Tho administration were trying to encourage private investment in low cost housing.
Asked about Portuguese influence in Macao the Governor admitted that Portuguese was spoken by very few of Macao's inhabitants. His administration was working with the Ministry of Education in Lisbon to privde more Fortuguese teachers for Macao's schools. One of the most important reasons behind the decline was the end of the transfer of Portuguese troops between Macao and the mainland. The Portuguese commanders of the Macao security forces totalled only 18. He had asked the Ministry of Internal Administration to provide more men on secondment. denied, however, any suggestion that the security forces were having difficulties in dealing with a rising crime rate in Macao. One problem was the increase in crimes committed by criminals who came over from Hong Kong for the purpose. He put the
He
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