The Chief Executive, Mr Ho Iat Seng, today said the Macao Special Administrative Region (MSAR) Government would continue to adhere to the guidelines from the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and align with the country’s high-quality development and modernisation process, in order to advance effectively the overall policy direction for 2024 and carry out various other tasks.
On the sidelines of the reception to celebrate the 24th anniversary of the MSAR, Mr Ho talked to the press about his recent visit to Beijing to make a report to state leaders about the work being done in Macao in 2023 and the city’s current situation. He thanked President Xi Jinping for affirmation of work done by the MSAR Government over the year.
The Chief Executive stated that the local economy had shown strong recovery and positive momentum. Via the collective effort made across the community, Macao’s economy had now reached approximately 70 percent of its 2019 level. The focus for the upcoming year would be on achieving the remaining 30 percent of recovery, with the aim of ensuring that everyone could benefit from the economic revival.
Regarding employment of local residents, the Chief Executive noted that the overall unemployment rate in Macao continued to decline. However, structural unemployment remained a challenging issue, and no place could easily eradicate it. The Government would spare no effort to improve the local employment situation, and would strictly control the number of non-resident workers so that it remained no higher than the 2019 level.
When asked about gaming revenue, Mr Ho said gross gaming revenue had reached over 160 billion patacas by November, surpassing the Government’s initial expectation of 130 billion patacas, It was anticipated that the full-year revenue would exceed 180 billion patacas.
The Chief Executive reiterated the Government’s fiscal budget for 2024 forecast gross gaming revenue would reach 216 billion patacas. In accordance with the law, only when the Government’s fiscal revenue and expenditure were balanced, could there be additional injection of 7,000 patacas into each eligible account set up under the non-mandatory central provident fund.
Regarding expanding the international visitor market, Mr Ho stated that the number of visitors from Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia had shown a satisfactory recovery. However, due to the ongoing impact of disrupted international air travel, European and American visitors account for fewer than 10 percent of the total visitors from overseas. This year so far, visitors from mainland China versus visitors from outside the mainland accounted for approximately 65 percent and 35 percent of Macao’s visitors respectively. The Government would continue to collaborate with the tourism industry to attract to Macao more visitors from other countries and regions.
Mr Ho also talked about the development of the Guangdong-Macao Intensive Cooperation Zone in Hengqin. He expressed confidence in meeting by 2024 the first-phase benchmarks specified in the Master Plan of the Development of the Guangdong-Macao Intensive Cooperation Zone in Hengqin.
The Chief Executive noted that no reports of purchaser cancellations or withdrawals regarding sales in the “Macao New Neighbourhood” housing project in Hengqin had been received to date. The banking industry had also confirmed that there had been no cases of unapproved mortgage applications in recent times, he noted.