China’s 13th Five-Year Plan – covering the period from 2016 to 2020 – has reiterated the Central Government’s commitment to Macao being a platform for commerce and services between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries reported state-run news agency Xinhua on Tuesday.

According to China’s latest national economic blueprint, Beijing also restated its support for Macao as a “world centre of tourism and leisure” and to “facilitate appropriate economic diversification and sustainable development” in the territory.

China first formalised Macao’s role as a service platform between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries and as a global tourism centre in the 12th Five-Year Plan covering 2011 to 2015.

According to Xinhua, China’s President, Xi Jinping, also emphasised on Tuesday that the gross domestic product and per capita income of, respectively, urban and rural residents in China should be doubled by 2020 compared to 2010. The GDP growth target for the 2016-2020 period should be at least 6.5 percent per year, he added.

China’s economy expanded at 6.9 percent in the third quarter of this year. It was the first time since the second quarter of 2009 the Chinese economy dipped below a 7-percent year-on-year expansion.