Lawmaker Sulu Sou has called on the population to reexamine the need to diversify the economy, saying that Macau needs to nurture its own domestic economy and rely less on external markets.
Since Covid-19 first arrived in Macau in late January, measures have been taken and finely tuned by the government several times to contain the virus. Among them are entry and exit restrictions in Macau and the mainland, which have discouraged tourists from visiting the city.
Not only has the visitor count plummeted for several months in a row to almost zero, the revenue of industries relying heavily on tourists has been significantly impacted. Many workers in these industries were either laid off or forced to take unpaid leave.
Sou is calling for Macau to reconsider its extensive reliance on the external demand, especially from a single source market, mainland China.
His call comes amid many other voices lamenting the failure of Macau’s diversification efforts in recent years. Despite the government’s effort to build alternative sectors, casinos and gambling-related activities still directly account for more than half of the local economy and most of the patrons of this business come from outside Macau.
“We need to sit down and consider this: Is Macau only worthy of relying on imported things? Is this our destiny?” the lawmaker questioned. “Many people are still praying for lifting border restrictions. It’s a waste of the lessons from these six months.”
In Sou’s opinion, the Covid-19 pandemic is a valuable chance for the entire community to review the matter of diversification.
To support his perspective, the lawmaker cited the Secretary for Economy and Finance on the 3:7 ratio of the internal to the external economy. He sees great potential of further expanding internal consumption.
According to the lawmaker, some people believe that Macau can only rely on gambling and tourism. It cannot stand on its own feet and support itself. However, with the government’s e-voucher revival initiative, domestic consumption has revived to a certain extent.
“Some small and medium-sized enterprises realized that it takes more effort to earn money,” Sou said. “They have started to think about how to encourage local people to spend in the city.”
This tougher climate has made small enterprises realize that business “depends on whether the quality of service offered by these enterprises is good enough to attract more domestic consumption,” according to Sou.
Referring to the two-decade-long swift economic development that has placed the city near the top of the world in terms of per capita GDP, Sou says only that “nothing is eternal.”
Nevertheless, the lawmaker is quite pessimistic about Macau’s short- term recovery. An average monthly gambling income of over 20 billion patacas and an annual visitor count of 40 million may not return for many years, he said.
“I believe that returning the economy to that level is quite difficult in the foreseeable future,” said the lawmaker.
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