Jorge Neto Valente Jr, recently announced candidate to the Legislative Assembly (AL) Elections of September 17, has aired his views on what he described as his most pressing concerns for the campaign.
In an interview with Radio Macau, Valente described several issues that he considers top priority. These include labor, ecology and housing, among others.
Valente, who occupies the third position on the “Alliance for Change” (Aliança para a Mudança) list led by Melinda Chan, said: “I want to do more for Macau people. I think I have a focus a bit different [from other candidates] and I can be an ‘added value’ to the political spectrum.”
Justifying his inclusion on Chan’s list, Valente said he believes they have many “points in common.” He said he had accepted his position and that his main role is to “support Melinda so she can be elected and fight for the ideals that [we have in] common.” The agreement, he added, had been addressed prior to his inclusion on the list.
On the list’s electoral program, Valente said his list represents “the change and the innovation”, which he described as the response to a certain existing “polarization” that he said “isn’t healthy.”
In this sense, the list targets “the ones that are in the middle,” professional classes that compose the Macau “middle class,” which Valente described as the bridge between corporations and blue-collar workers.
Education is another of Valente’s main concerns. “There is the need to teach both languages [Portuguese and Chinese] in all the schools of the region […] the government has the means to do that.”
Valente also cited support for small- and medium-sized enterprises as another concern, saying that it is time to seriously evaluate the results of existing programs implemented by the government.
“There is a need to ease the way the regulations for the hiring of non-residents are applied,” said Valente, noting that the law was drafted with the restaurant and construction sectors in mind, and “all of those that do not fit [into] those find trouble [hiring] workers.”
Valente also thinks that start- ups can lead Macau’s economic diversification.
“I think Macau can bet on the start-ups as a policy for economic diversification because [they] are giving the tools and creating the environment, especially for the youngsters, to grow and to be able to compete worldwide, and not just locally.”
Valente also addressed the need to change the public housing system, namely in terms of the construction and the attribution of units, “ in order to give opportunities “to the ones that really need it.”
A good result in the election, he said, “would be to get two seats. A very good [result] would be to have three.” RM
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