The Chief Executive, Mr Chui Sai On, delivers the Policy Address for the Fiscal Year 2017 during a plenary session of the Legislative Assembly.
The Chief Executive, Mr Chui Sai On, today said the Government is to implement a series of livelihood-related policies and measures – including optimising Macao’s social security system and social welfare measures – in order to continue its efforts in advancing the quality of life for Macao people. Mr Chui disclosed the initiatives in the Policy Address for the Fiscal Year 2017– entitled “Development Plan in Progress for Building a Perfect Home”, delivered at the Legislative Assembly this afternoon. This year’s Policy Address covered four chapters: “Implementation of livelihood-related policies and measures”; “Consolidation of the foundation for economic development”; “Building a happy and perfect home”; and “Enhancement of public services’ efficiency”. Enhancing the respective livelihoods of Macao people is a top priority of the Government, said Mr Chui. The Government is to continue to push forward measures in the short-, medium-, and long-term that help consolidate the three-layer social security system, namely: for the social security fund; social assistance; and social welfare. In support of its policy aims, the Government is maintaining the values of public subsidies on a number of relief measures: the minimum subsistence index value would be kept at 4,050 patacas; the Government-disbursed pension for the elderly to 3,450 patacas per month; and the old age person’s allowance to 8,000 patacas per year. Relief measures such as the special living allowance; special subsidy to disadvantaged families; the short-term food assistance programme; the disability gratuity; and the health voucher programme, would be continued in the coming year. For eligible students, the Government would maintain allowances for meals and textbooks. The Continuing Education Programme, which offers study allowances for Macao residents enrolled in a tertiary education programme or training programme, will continue supporting the development of local talent. Tuition fee subsidies for Macao students receiving tuition in Guangdong Province would be continued, and would be expanded to cover two more prefectures: Shenzhen and Dongguan. The Government would continue to subsidise low-income full-time employees with up to 5,000 patacas per month, while providing assistance such as the Positive Life Programme and the Community Employment Assistance Scheme. For people with physical or mental challenges, the Government would provide a yearly subsidy of up to 8,000 patacas for people with ordinary conditions and up to 16,000 patacas for those suffering from certain special illnesses. To encourage further employment opportunities for people with life challenges, for every person with disabilities that is hired by an employer, the Government will offer tax relief to that employer amounting to up to 5,000 patacas on profit tax. The Government would continue the Wealth Partaking Scheme, which offers 9,000 patacas annually to each permanent resident and 5,400 patacas for each non-permanent resident. The Government would inject 10,000 patacas of seed capital into the Central Provident Fund savings account of every eligible resident. In 2017 the Government would inject an additional 7,000 patacas from the fiscal surplus into those eligible accounts, Mr Chui added. Relief measures would cost the Government 12.352 billion patacas, Mr Chui stated. For employed residents, the first 30 percent of annual income from employment will continue to be tax free, up to a ceiling of 144,000 patacas. There would be also a 60-percent rebate in the fiscal year 2017 on the personal income tax paid by each taxpaying Macao resident. That will be capped at 12,000 patacas, with the money returned in 2018, Mr Chui said. For residents that are first-time homebuyers, the Government would waive real estate stamp duty for the first 3 million patacas of a home’s value. For business owners, the Government would introduce a number of tax-waiver measures, in order to support growth of local small- and medium-sized enterprises. Looking to the year ahead, the Government would step up efforts to: build a comprehensive system for talent cultivation; introduce more family-friendly measures; and formulate measures with the aim of building a healthy society, said Mr Chui. The Government would provide more than 7,000 subsidised places for childcare services for two-year-olds; and would establish the first integrated elderly care facility in the Islands District. Regarding talent cultivation, the Government would develop a training programme for Portuguese-speaking professionals and commence research on the demand for talented professionals in the financial industry and the construction industry. The Chief Executive also gave details of his vision regarding six aspects of Government work in the coming year that relate to building Macao as a “happy and perfect home” for all residents. They are: 1) an urban development strategy, with the aim of working toward formulation of an overall urban development plan by 2019; 2) a secure housing supply, including optimisation of the procedures regarding application for, and allocation of, public housing; the construction of 12,600 public housing units as part of short- to medium-term planning; and continuation of the existing planning regarding a public housing project in Avenida Wai Long, in Taipa; 3) optimising the transportation system, including commencing operation of four public car parks providing more than 3,600 parking spaces; and gradually commencing the operation of one hundred special taxis; 4) constructing a smart city, including commencing a study of the development strategy and overall planning for making government data publicly accessible; and launching a visitor statistics databank; 5) urban management; completing construction of the new civil protection centre and commencing its 24-hours-per-day operation; and completing construction of the new wholesale market in Macao; and 6) conservation of the natural environment, including enforcing the new exhaust emission standard for vehicles currently on the road; and the commencement of efforts to draft laws and regulations related to waste reduction. The Full Policy Address for the Fiscal Year 2017 and pamphlets in Chinese and Portuguese summarising it will be available at the following locations: the Government Head Office Auxiliary Bureau; the Government Information Bureau; the Government Printing Bureau; the Public Information Centre; the headquarters of the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau; the Macao Central Library; and at the offices of Macao Post. The materials are also available for download on the respective websites of these public bodies.
Video:The Chief Executive, Mr Chui Sai On, delivers 2017 Policy Address at the Legislative Assembly