Decision 45 COM 7B.154

Historic Centre of Macao (China) (C 1110)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC/23/45.COM/7B,
2. Recalling Decision 44 COM 7B.141 adopted at its extended 44th session (Fuzhou/online, 2021),
3. Welcomes the enactment of the Master Plan of the Macao Special Administrative Region (2020-2040) as an important milestone for the conservation and management of the property;
4. Takes note of progress made with the ‘Administrative Regulation for the Protection and Management Plan of Historic Centre of Macao’ and, keeping in mind that it will be revised in line with the technical advice of ICOMOS, requests the State Party to re-submit the amended Administrative Regulation to the World Heritage Centre for review by the Advisory Bodies prior to its adoption and implementation, and encourages the State Party to accelerate its efforts to bring this body of work to its final legal conclusion, through the promulgation of the revised Administrative Regulation in tandem with the final Management Plan for the property;
5. Welcomes the legislation requiring Heritage Impact Assessments (HIAs) and the integration of the process to assess the potential impacts of projects on the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of a property through HIAs to be undertaken in accordance with the Guidance and Toolkit for Impact Assessments in a World Heritage Context;
6. Welcomes the approach to deal with the unfinished buildings at 18-20 Calçada de Gaio, the suspension of new building projects on Avenida do Dr. Rodrigo Rodrigues, and the instigation of the new study ‘Heritage Impact Assessment and Urban Design of the area around Avenida do Dr. Rodrigo Rodrigues’, and requests that a draft of this study be submitted to the World Heritage Centre for review by the World Heritage Centre and the Advisory Bodies before it is finalised and implemented;
7. Requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre key management and planning documents for the New Urban Zones, along with documents pertaining to the monitoring of the property, for review by the World Heritage Centre and the Advisory Bodies, including:
   1. the planning study of the New Urban Zone Areas A and B,
   2. the proposed design of the Light Rail Transit East Line project connecting the New Urban Zone Areas A and E,
   3. up-to-date information about the ‘Plan for the Establishment of the Early Warning System for the Monitoring of the World Heritage of the Historic Centre of Macao’, and
   4. information about the ‘Macao World Heritage Monitoring Centre’;
8. Finally requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 December 2024, an updated report on the state of conservation of the property and the implementation of the above, for examination by the World Heritage Committee at its 47th session.