Chui Sai On was sworn in on Saturday as the fourth-term chief executive of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR).

Born in Macao in 1957, Chui comes from a well-off and politically well-connected local clan. He completed his secondary education at the Ling Nam School in Macao, and continued his studies in the United States.

Chui graduated from the California State University of Sacramento with a bachelor degree in community health with honor. He then obtained his master degree and doctor degree of public health at the University of Oklahoma.

Before the establishment of the SAR, he had served as a directly-elected lawmaker on the Fifth Legislative Assembly from 1992 to 1996.

He also played an active role in various local community organizations, such as Executive Director of the Macao Kiang Wu Hospital Charitable Association, Honorary President of the Macao Nursing Association and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Macao Association for the Mentally Handicapped, before 1999.

Chui won a sole-contender reelection on Aug. 31, and was later appointed by China's central government as the fourth-term chief executive of the Macao SAR.

At a press conference after the vote, Chui said that winning the re-election is the start to embrace new challenges for Macao as well as to implement his election program.

He pledged to fully devote himself to implementing the principle of "one country, two systems," while improving Macao people's livelihood.

Macao's gross domestic product (GDP) reached 413.47 billion patacas (51.76 billion U.S. dollars) in 2013, which could be translated into 87,000 U.S. dollars of GDP per capita, the second highest in Asia and the fourth in the world.

Chui served as the SAR government's secretary for social affairs and culture ever since the establishment of the Macao SAR in 1999.

He succeeded Ho Hau Wah as the SAR's third-term chief executive for a five-year tenure after winning an election in 2009.

Over the past five years, Chui has been trying to diversify Macao's economy by lessening the SAR's heavy dependence on the casino gaming and developing other industries of cultural creativity, convention and exhibition, as well as tourism featuring hotels, food and restaurants, retailing and cultural heritage.

Following the swear-in ceremony on Saturday, Chui said the SAR government will continue to give priority to stable economic development and orderly adjustment of the economic structure.

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