The Government will spend 10 billion patacas to help the needy tackle inflation and to enhance social welfare, the Chief Executive, Mr Chui Sai On, announced today at the plenary session of the Legislative Assembly. Mr Chui said the Government would closely monitor inflation in the latter half of this year and evaluate its negative impact on the needy. He said the Government would allocate about 10 billion patacas to improve social welfare and to launch relief initiatives for low income earners. Aside from these measures and if inflation continued to rise, the Government would directly help some 5,300 needy families by enhancing the food bank network. On public housing, the Chief Executive said 19,000 public housing units would be completed at the end of next year as he had promised in the policy address. He then revealed that on top of this the Government is planning to build some 6,000 more units. Three thousand of them are already in the design stage while land has been reserved for some 2,000 units. He emphasised that the Government would allocate the units under the principle of being open, fair and just. On the effects of the recent international financial turmoil on Macao's economy, Mr Chui said that though the economic growth of the whole year remained optimistic, the Government would closely monitor and evaluate impacts of the situation. This is the second time that Mr Chui attended the plenary session of the Legislative Assembly this year, where he also answered the questions from legislators on the issues of social welfare, livelihood, regional co-operation, cultural heritage protection, human resource, public administrative reform, environmental protection, and education and youth affairs.
