The Chief Executive, Chui Sai On, said the Government was cautiously optimistic about Macao’s economic outlook and anticipated the economy would continue achieving positive growth next year.
When delivering the Policy Address for the Fiscal Year 2018 this afternoon, Mr Chui said the Government would strengthen effort to foster promoting stable economic development and deepening public administration reform.
Regarding the economy, the Policy Address focuses on five key areas:
(1) Consolidate mainstream industries to build a city with more favourable conditions for travel and entertainment – The Government will implement a development strategy that fosters integration of industries and the Internet, facilitates rejuvenation of traditional industries, and strengthens the vitality of nascent industries.
The Government will comprehensively review and perfect the laws and regulations governing the gaming industry, strengthen supervision and law enforcement utilising technology, encourage gaming operators to continue developing non-gaming businesses, and foster synergy between gaming enterprises and local small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), long-established local shops and cultural and creative industries.
Regarding tourism, the Policy Address proposes implementation of the MSAR’s Five-year Development Plan and the tourism development goals under the Macao Tourism Industry Development Master Plan; developing smart tourism to enrich tourists’ experiences; consolidating and expanding tourist sources and markets; developing more family tourism facilities; and fostering development of budget hotels, theme parks and integrated shopping centres. Leveraging the success of becoming a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy, the Government will continue promoting Macao’s unique gastronomic culture.
(2) Foster development of nascent industries to promote adequate economic diversification – The Government will continue supporting the development of the convention and exhibition industry, create and facilitate new formats of events, make more efforts to foster cultural and creative industries, enhance regional exchanges and cooperation, and deepen technical training in Chinese medicine to gradually realise industrialisation and internationalisation of Chinese medicine.
The Government will actively develop specialised financial businesses focusing on financial leasing and wealth management, to strengthen Macao’s financial infrastructure; seize the opportunity arising through the establishment of the headquarters of the China-Portuguese-speaking Countries Cooperation and DevelopmentFund in Macao to provide financial services for projects related to the “Belt and Road” initiative; expedite the preparations for establishing the Macao SAR Investment and Development Fund; enable traditional industries to adopt a high value-added business approach and perfect related laws and regulations, and strive to establish the logistics centre at the Macao border crossing area of Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge and boost improvement of the logistics industry.
(3) Optimise measures supporting development of SMEs – The Government emphasises that supporting development of SMEs is one of its major policies, and thus launched an action plan to support SMEs, along with continuing to optimise various financial and administrative supportive measures. The Government will focus on optimising the licensing system next year, to provide a favourable environment for residents and businesses.
On the other hand, the Government will encourage SMEs to adopt innovative business models, and enhance cooperation with e-commerce operators in mainland China to build a foundation for exploring e-commerce markets in Portuguese-speaking countries. The Government will also support re-branding of time-honoured shops, provide better training to young entrepreneurs, make good use of unique community resources, and foster collaboration between large-scale conventions, exhibitions and festivals and SMEs.
(4) Enhance local resident’s employment competitiveness, to build a work-friendly city – The Government will actively promote vocational training; enhance Macao people’s vocational skills, employment competitiveness and entrepreneurship; guarantee prioritised employment; and facilitate better career development for local residents.
Furthermore, the Government will follow up regarding the amendments to the Labour Relations Law. The regulations for part-time employment and minimum wage have already been included in the proposals on legislation for 2018 and 2019.
(5) Deepen regional cooperation for integration with national development – The Government will continue deepening its regional cooperation and platform-based economic strategies, implement alignment of Macao’s Five-year Development Plan with the national master plan, make efforts to realise integration of Macao’s “One Centre, One Platform” development positioning, the “Belt and Road” initiative, and the planning of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and continue facilitating the establishment of Macao as the “One Platform” under the coordination of the Committee for Development of the Commercial and Trade Cooperation Service Platform Between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries.
The Policy Address also states that Macao should fully leverage its advantages during the national strategic process of developing the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, so that Macao people can enjoy the benefits brought by this strategic development. It also proposes enhancing communications with the Central People’s Government, the Guangdong Province and Hong Kong, to coordinate and resolve major issues related to cooperation and development of the Greater Bay Area, deepen Guangdong-Macao cooperation, promote liberalisation of trade in services between Guangdong and Macao, and jointly create a competitive business environment.
Finally, in the section regarding deepen public administration reform, the Policy Address states the Government’s intention to reform the public administration system, improve service quality, and study the reform programme at the operational level of public administration system, to lay a solid foundation for effective governance and provision of quality and convenient public services.
According to the Chief Executive, the Government proposes upwardly adjusting each point on the civil service salary scale to 85 patacas in January 2018. The related bill will be submitted to the Legislative Assembly for deliberation. The consultation on the second stage of revision of the Civil Servant Ranking System and the preliminary plan for a rank-based salary adjustment system will commence next year. The Government will also improve the mechanism for evaluating public services quality, and optimise the promotion system for civil servants to provide more training and promotion opportunities.
Also, the Government will review the accountability system for government officials and perfect the related support systems, deepen performance assessments, refine the key elements and standard of assessments, and complete the third-party assessment. It will also promote national awareness and sense of responsibility of officials at all levels, to create a favourable administration culture of putting people first and ensuring parity of authority and responsibility.
Regarding the enhancement of system establishment and realising sound social governance, the Government will commence the legislative procedures for the establishment of a municipal organisation that is not an organ of political power, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Basic Law of Macao; improve the channels for public participation in social affairs; enhance rejuvenation and professionalism in consultation groups; enhance administrative transparency; and strengthen presentation of and ability to execute policy. Revision of the Judicial Organisation Framework Law, the Civil Procedural Code and the Penal Code, and formulation of laws and regulations related to Macao waters will commence next year.
The printed copies and booklet of the Policy Address for the Fiscal Year 2018, published in Chinese and Portuguese, are available for collection at the following seven locations: the Government Head Office Auxiliary Bureau, the Government Information Bureau, the Government Printing Bureau, the Public Information Centre, the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau, the Central Library and the Macao Post and Telecommunications Bureau.