President Xi Jinping has highlighted the key role played by the island of Hengqin, which lies between Guangdong province and Macao, as an important platform for promoting the diversification of Macao's economy.

It is necessary to make persistent efforts to implement plans for the appropriate economic diversification of the Macao Special Administration Region, he said, calling for breaking new ground through development of the Guangdong-Macao In-Depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin.

Xi, who has made several previous visits to Hengqin, which is located on the southern tip of the city of Zhuhai, Guangdong, made the remarks on Thursday morning while visiting the cooperation zone.

It is necessary to fully utilize the various supportive policies of the central government and strive to create a first-class business environment to drive the appropriate diversification of Macao's economy and the integration of the market into the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, he added.

At Hengqin's scenic Tianmu Qintai public facility, Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, toured an exhibition on the progress made in regional integration and in-depth cooperation.

Xi said that in the three years since the establishment of the zone, various tasks have made significant progress, the level of Hengqin-Macao integration has been gradually raised, and Hengqin's supportive role in the diversification of Macao's economy is increasingly evident.

As these facts have proved, the central government's decision to develop Hengqin and build the zone "is completely correct", he said.

After being briefed on the Guangdong-Macao joint construction of a high-end science and technology support platform for traditional Chinese medicine, Xi endorsed the efforts to integrate advanced technologies from multiple academic fields and to help bring traditional Chinese medicine to the world.