Jose de Sales Marques

Mr. José Luis de Sales Marques has been President of the Board of Directors of the Institute of European Studies of Macau (IEEM), a private association made up of the Government of the Macau SAR, the Monetary and Exchange Authority of Macau, the University of Macau, the Polytechnic Institute of Macau, the Institute for Promotion and Investment of Macau and the Macau Foundation since 1st January 2002.
He is also President of the Euro-Info Center, Macau (EIC) and the Center for Creative Industries (CCI).

Mr. Sales Marques is a Portuguese national, born and raised in Macau, and he holds a degree in Economics awarded by the University of Porto (Portugal), and a Master degree in European Studies.

Mr. Sales Marques has worked for the Macau government since early 1983, holding several positions with increased complexity and responsibility.

He started as a Senior Officer at the Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO) in charge of Research and Tourism Statistics. As an Assistant to a former Chief of Statistics of the World Tourism Organization, who was in a consultancy mission to Macau, he helped develop the Statistical System for the tourism and hotel sectors for the Macau Government, and afterwards, was promoted to be Head of Research and Statistics of the same government department. By 1984 he was already in charge of Marketing and Research, and in that capacity, participated in several international bodies, namely WTO (World Tourism Organization) and PATA (Pacific Asia Travel Association) where he served as a member of the PATA Research Authority. He was also an active member of the AACVB (Asian Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus) and helped settle headquarters of that organization in Macau. He was deeply involved in tourism promotion and marketing in a time when Macau’s hotel industry started to attract international attention.

By 1987 he became the department head of MGTO and was responsible for licensing and product development. In the meantime he was also head of the special projects at MGTO, in charged with the organization of events such as the International Music Festival.
Mr. Sales Marques became Deputy Director of MGTO in 1989, where his work was extended to also supervise the operations of the former Hotel School, the predecessor of the Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT).

In July 1993 he was called by the former Governor of Macau, Gen. Rocha Vieira to become the new President of Leal Senado, unquestionably the most historical institution in over 450 years of Macau History. He remained as the city administrator until the end of 2001, having served as such throughout the historical period of Macau’s handover to China and beyond.

As city Mayor he gave great priority to environmental issues. He promoted greater participation of civil society in the city’s management (the city of Macau is the most densely populated city in the world by number of inhabitants per sq. km). He also gave a great deal of attention to cultural issues. Overall, in his eight and a half years as Mayor of Macau, Mr. Sales Marques made significant contributions to his hometown during the challenging times of transition from Portuguese to Chinese administration.

Mr. Sales Marques is also an active promoter of Macau’s relations with the world. First, as a tourism official, then as Mayor and lately as President of IEEM; his actions to promote better understanding and friendship among people of different origins and to build bridges between diverse cultures have always been present and in a constant basis. In a way, Mr. Sales Marques is a citizen of the world.

Mr. Sales Marques served as a full elected member of the Advisory Council to the Governor of Macau, between 1993 and 1999.

He also served as Chairman of the Macau Environmental Council between 1998 and 2000.

On the occasion of the election of the first Chief Executive, Mr. Sales Marques was an elected member of the Selection Committee.

Besides his work on behalf of IEEM, he is also a committed researcher in international relations, particularly in the field of China-EU relations. His other areas of interest, where he has written about and made practical contributions to are the areas of urban planning and identity, culture and development and public policies.

He holds a Medal of Value of the Macau Government (under Portuguese Administration) and is “Grande Oficial” of the Order of Infante D. Henrique of the Portuguese Republic.
Mr. Sales Marques is married to Maria Lúcia, a photographer and video artist, cultural manager and the Project Coordinator of CCI.  They have Tania, 24, a graduate in Astronomy living in London, Luís, 21, a student also in London and Rafael, an undergraduate in Business in Leicester, U.K.