As part of the activities to introduce the coming panda pair to the public, the government of Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) Wednesday announced that it has preliminarily selected five pairs of names for the pandas from the proposed names collected in the local Giant Panda Naming Contest.

The contest was launched between June 8 and July 5, during which the SAR government received a total of 3,914 legitimate naming proposals from the local public, according to the SAR government.

People in Macao actively participate in the contest, which heightened the city's passion for welcoming the arrival of the panda pair, said Florinda da Rosa Silva Chan, the SAR's secretary for administration and justice, at a press conference.

The Judging Committee of Giant Panda Naming Contest of Macao has selected five names in the first phase of the Contest, including: Kai Kai, Xin Xin; Hao Hao, Lian Lian; Yang Guang, Man Man; Ao Xiang, Ao Miao; A Hao, Lian Mei.

The Committee selected the five pairs of names based on the criteria of meaning, creativity and pronunciation, Chan also said.

The central government has chosen two pandas, a male code-named 717 and a female code-named 710, from the Chengdu Research Base of Panda Breeding, as a gift to the SAR.

The SAR government previously announced that it would spend 80 million patacas (10 million U.S. dollars) on the construction of a facility that would be used to house the panda pair, and the project was expected to be completed in September this year.

The Contest will enter its second phase between August 2 and 23, during which local people can vote for their favorite names for the pandas among the five pairs of selected names.