The Policy Address for the Fiscal Year 2019 incorporated five approaches aimed to deepen Macao’s urban development, announced today the Chief Executive, Mr Chui Sai On.
They are: 1. enhance emergency handling ability and safe city establishments; 2. promote technological innovation and smart city construction; 3. coordinate traffic and transportation planning and management for travel convenience; 4. promote harmony between mankind and nature to realise an ecologically civilised city; and 5. converge the essence of Chinese and western cultures for building a multi-cultural city.
The Government would step up efforts to ensure safety of people’s lives and properties, stressed Mr Chui as he mapping out major policies for the next year.
After formulation of a long-term disaster prevention and mitigation mechanism, the Government has begun implementing 18 short-term and 12 medium- and long-term measures, which were proven effective to withstand the impact of super typhoon Mangkhut.
He said the legislation of Civil Protection Framework Law would be proceeded to perfect the contingency planning system. The Government would announce and implement the “Medium-to-long-term Plan for Disaster Prevention and Mitigation in Macao” (2019-2028) in 2019, proceed with the development of a major disaster insurance system, perfect disaster prevention and mitigation software and hardware facilities, enhance professional training, continue optimising information dissemination networks, and strengthen major incident monitoring and anticipation capability.
The Chief Executive said the Government was dedicated to secure safe electricity and water supplies in Macao. The third Guangdong-Macao electric power transmission channel would be completed in 2019 for upgrading Macao’s power generation capacity and power supply for low-laying areas. The fourth pipeline for supplying water to Macao would also be completed next year, while the Government would accelerate the construction of Seac Pai Van Water Treatment Plant and the expansion project of Ka Ho Reservoir.
By means of construction and clearance work, the Government would tackle flooding problems, enhance flood prevention ability, construct tidal sluices at the Inner Harbour, expedite construction of flood barriers in low-lying coastal areas and rainwater intercepting drains and stormwater pumping stations, and implement planning for flood prevention and drainage on the west side of Coloane. The construction of part of the rainwater overflow drainage system in northern areas would be completed prior to the rainy season next year.
The Policy Address also suggested to continue raising people’s awareness of disaster prevention and mitigation, strengthening their self-rescue and mutual rescue capability, develop a systemic urban evacuation plan and disaster relief supplies reserves, formulate and improve the plan for deploying, organising and training community volunteers, optimise popular science education on public safety, and develop an education programme on contingency planning.
The Government would also strengthen its comprehensive capability in tackling major public health issues, attach importance to ensuring food safety and regulatory work, enhance publicity and implementation of proper procedures for food handling and refuse disposal after the disasters.
The Chief Executive added that the Government would consolidate a multi-level and multi-functional system to ensure safety of Macao, enhance regional safety collaboration and interactions on prevention of major incidents in the Greater Bay Area, and strengthen information sharing and analysis on cross-boundary crimes.
In regard of technological innovation and smart city building, Mr Chui said that a Sub-committee on Technology, Innovation and Smart City would be formed under the Working Committee for the Development of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
The Government would also establish the “Tax Concession Incentive Scheme for Scientific Research and Innovation”, and commence studies on scientific research and innovation development strategies.
Meanwhile, the Government would increase subsidy for the existing state key laboratories, provide financial support to young scientific researchers in Macao and participants of scientific research, conduct studies on the mechanism and formats for subsidising scientific research and innovation, enhance the mechanism for attracting talented people engaging in major research areas and the corresponding supervision mechanism.
Mr Chui said Macao would strengthen regional collaboration on science and technology, integrate into the science and technology development of the Greater Bay Area, actively participate in the establishment and application of major regional science and technology infrastructure, join forces to establish the regional platform for collaborative innovation, and optimise supportive policies to encourage innovation.
He said the Government would deepen smart city development, implement big data governance for applications on urban infrastructure, economic development, and social well-being and livelihoods.
The Government’s cloud computing centre would complete renovation and commence operation next year, Mr Chui said.
To promote smart governance, the number of e-public service items would be increased from 70 to 90 by next year. The Government would also promote and expand the application of electronic payment services, facilitate launch of more electronic licensing and administrative services, complete construction of the emergency command application platform to facilitate smart policing, implement smart transport, and make use of big data analysis to provide more scientific data support for formulation of healthcare and tourism policies.
The Government would initiate preparatory work for rolling out a 5G network, proceed with the legislation of Convergence of Telecom Networks and Services, to realise integration of the three telecom networks for better mobile network services.
Mr Chui said the Government highly concerns about the public demand for better transportation services, and would implement multi-level and multi-channel transport governance, including implementation of the “Public Transport First” policy, continue optimising the bus network, reopen the Border Gate underground bus terminal at the end of this year, commence operations of 100 new ordinary taxis and 200 new special taxis, and initiate an open tender for additional 150 ordinary taxis, to increase the total number of taxis in service up to 2,050.
Moreover, the Government would continue promoting green commuting, improve walking routes, and expedite construction of elevated pedestrian corridors, to orderly upgrade older pedestrian overpasses with accessible facilities for the convenience of the public.
The construction and commissioning test of the Macao Light Rail Transit (LRT) was in progress, an LRT corporation would be established for operating the mass transit system, and the bill of LRT Transportation System Law has already been submitted to the Legislative Assembly for deliberation.
The Government would also commence construction of the fourth Macao-Taipa cross-harbour bridge, conduct specific research and preliminary design for the fifth cross-harbour channel, conduct studies on waters for developing new maritime routes, follow up with the adequate opening of the base airline market, implement the Macau International Airport expansion project, and leverage the functions of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, to broaden the room for development of the local logistics industry and perfect supportive transportation facilities.
As for the building of an ecologically civilised city, the Policy Address emphasised enhancement of ecological education, promote use of green energy, and raise public awareness of environmental protection.
The Government would establish a mechanism for comprehensive control of mobile pollution sources, introduce plastic bottle recycle machines, strive to complete legislation for Restrictions of Use of Plastic Bags, implement the Macao Sewage Treatment Facilities Master Plan, commence optimising the Macao Peninsula Sewage Treatment Plant and the related maintenance work, complete the design for upgrading the Coloane Sewage Treatment Plant by next year, continue promoting the use of electric vehicles, and achieve the target of installing 200 electric vehicle charging spaces throughout Macao.
Moreover, the Government would allocate an area of 15,000 square metres from the construction waste landfill for a facility to pre-process paper, plastic and metal wastes before they are exported, allocate an area of 30,000 square metres for constructing a centralised food waste processing facility, introduce the Food Waste Recycling Pilot Programme, and implement the Cooperation Agreement on Regional Air Pollution Control and Prevention among Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao. The pilot operation for transferring scrapped vehicles to Guangdong for processing has begun, and would orderly expand the scale of operation next year.
On developing Macao as a world renowned multi-cultural city, Mr Chui said the Government would continue promoting cultural succession education, commence research and publicity on culture and history, popularise cultural and arts education, and complete construction of the Xian Xing Hai Memorial Centre and the Seac Pai Van Library next year, to enrich Macao’s cultural facilities and people’s cultural life.
In addition, Macao would be developed as a base for cultural exchanges and cooperation, for promoting cultural exchanges between China and Portuguese-speaking countries, enhancing regional cultural cooperation, and broaden international cultural interactions.
The Government would also perfect the mechanism for relics identification and monitoring, and accelerate the formulation of the Plan for Protection and Management of the Historic Centre of Macao.
Mr Chui also stressed that the Government would fully respect and protect the unique culture, traditions and customs and legal rights of the Macanese and Portuguese residents in Macao, and support them to join forces with all citizens for building a better Macao.