Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Mr Tam Chon Weng, meets the press.
The Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Mr Tam Chon Weng, said the Government would step up enforcement action against unlicensed passenger transportation services that are accessed via a mobile application from digital services company Uber. Mr Tam made the remark at the sidelines of a public event on 7 November. He stressed Macao has its own legislation and its public transportation system. He urged travel agents not to take part in such unlicensed passenger transportation services requested via the private car hailing mobile application of Uber. The tourism sector backed the Government’s decision to tackle such unlicensed private car-hailing services, said the Secretary, noting the Government had kept in close contact with the sector over the issue relating to Uber. This issue was also discussed in last week’s meeting of the Tourism Development Committee. There Mr Tam reiterated to Committee members the Government’s stance – act according to the law in order to crack down on any suspected illegal case of such car-hailing services. The Secretary said the Government would dedicate further effort to developing Macao’s tourism sector. He said he believed the sector would not take part in providing such unlicensed transportation services to residents, noting that travel agencies were only allowed to provide pre-arranged transportation services for tourists. The authorities have so far detected three cases of unlicensed passenger transportation services requested via Uber, which allegedly involved a local travel agency. Charges will be filed against those suspected of illegally providing such services and any person found guilty of the offence could face a fine of 30,000 patacas.