Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday congratulated Ho Iat Seng, the newly sworn in chief executive of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR), during their meeting, and urged principal officials of the fifth-term government of the Macao SAR to demonstrate a sense of mission in implementing the "One Country, Two Systems".

"Macao should combine its own situation with our national strategies (and) seize the opportunities of the Belt and Road Initiative, as well as the Greater Bay Area construction, so that it can give full play to its strengths and become more competitive," Xi said.

He also met with leading officials representing the public administration, the legislature and the judiciary of the Macao SAR government.

"Now is a critical period for Macao to build on its past successes and further advance its development," Xi said.

Xi called on enhancing their sense of nation and conscientiously safeguarding national sovereignty, security and development interests.

The SAR government officials were urged to observe the fundamental purpose of wholeheartedly serving the people and take a down-to-earth approach to improve people's wellbeing.

Xi hopes the officials to face challenges and push ahead with solving deep-seated problems that arise in the course of Macao's economic and social development, while calling for steady growth of officials' ability to handle complex situations and promote integrity.

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Xi Jinping hails patriotism in Macao, calls for improving people's wellbeing

For his part, Ho Iat Seng echoed much of what President Xi said.

He thanked the central government for its support and expressed his confidence in the new Macao SAR government's ability to firmly implement the "One Country, Two Systems" principle and to integrate Macao's development with that of the Chinese mainland.

"We are all very proud of the marvelous historic achievements of our motherland. And we are all confident in our country's glorious future," he said.

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Ho Iat Seng says Macao is shining demonstration of 'One Country, Two Systems'