The Secretary for Economy and Finance, Mr Lei Wai Nong, said the local economy remained in line for a stable pace of recovery. He stressed that the city’s priority tasks for next year would be the continued expansion of sources of tourists, the stabilisation of the economy and the ensuring of employment.
The Secretary also mentioned statistics indicating good momentum for growth in the local economy, in comments to reporters on the sidelines of the Macao Special Administrative Region (MSAR) Government’s reception to celebrate the 22nd anniversary of the MSAR.
Across the first 11 months of 2021, gross gaming revenue had seen a 49.9 percent growth year-on-year; visitor arrivals had risen year-on-year by 31.8 percent; and local gross domestic product saw a 27.5 percent growth year-on-year in real terms.
Since the start of December, there had been a daily average of 30,000 visitor arrivals to Macao, with the average length of stay being 3.3 days. The longer the visitors stayed, the more they would spend in Macao, benefitting various sectors, Mr Lei said.
Under the COVID-19 pandemic alert, the degree of uncertainty to be faced by Macao was likely to be greater than the city had faced in the past, said Mr Lei. The MSAR Government would continue to step up investment in public spending in relation to infrastructure, and to maintain domestic demand. Macao would also work closely with neighbouring cities on epidemic-control and prevention work, Mr Lei added.
The Secretary also talked about development of the city’s licensed gaming promoters, also commonly known as VIP junkets. The latest consultation document regarding amendment to the Legal Framework for the Operations of Casino Games of Fortune had mentioned optimisation of supervisory regulations for gaming promoters.
The Government had progressively received notice from gaming concessionaires or sub-concessionaires regarding adjustment to their cooperation with gaming promoters. The city’s casino regulator, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, was following up on that. Commercial arrangements between gaming concessionaires or sub-concessionaires and gaming promoters had to be dealt with in a proper manner. The Government would tolerate neither responsibility-shifting that might risk creating a negative impact on the community, nor any acts that harmed the legitimate rights of employees, said Mr Lei.
Regarding one gaming promoter that had recently suspended operations, 461 people had respectively filed to the Labour Affairs Bureau a request for assistance, concerning either their wage, dismissal compensation, or paid leave issues, said Mr Lei.
The Labour Affairs Bureau held a prospective-employer, would-be employee matching session for workers from the gaming promoter that had suspended operations. The Bureau had been able to contact 200 of those workers affected. Of those, 106 said they would like to attend, and 96 actually did so. Approximately half of the attendees completed a first-round interview.