The Macau government is waiting for approval from the central government in Beijing to begin works on the reclamation land projects which are expected to total an area of around five square kilometers.

The secretary for transport and public works, Lau Si Io, said the project plan is based on that of 2006, which the local government handed to the central government for appraisal and approval, which has now entered the final stage.

These land reclamation projects proposed by the local government will ease the pressure of land shortage in the SAR and enhance living condition. The Macau SAR government had recently submitted five land reclamation projects to the central government, the total area of which amounted to five square kilometres.

Due to previous reclamation along the coastline, Macau’s total land area has grown from 11.6 square kilometres in 1912, when measurements were first taken, to 28.6 square kilometres, while its population has risen to 530,000, according to the latest official statistics.

He also pointed out that the government needs to work out a more detailed law of land approving, enhancing the transparency of the procedure, so that more people can benefit from the future land development.

Meanwhile, Chan Chak Seng, vice president of the Cultural Institute, said that the reclamation projects will help protect Macau’s World Heritage sites, many of which locate in the densely populated old city district.

With the construction of more residential buildings on the newly reclaimed areas, the population density of the old city district can be lowered, which will help create a better environment for the protection of those cultural heritage sites, Chan said.

Ever since 2002, when the central government issued new regulations on the nation’s seas, only one reclamation project submitted by the SAR government, the Zhuhai-Macau cross border industrial area, has been approved by the central government.

The neighbouring Guangdong province has also planned to reclaimed 146 square kilometres of land from the sea, according to a newly released provincial government document.

Under the United Nations maritime treaty, China governs about three million square kilometres of sea area.

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