Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng (left) and Secretary of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee Li Xi
The Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng has expressed his confidence in Macau’s economy picking up by the second half of the year.
On Friday in Guangzhou, Ho met with the Secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Li Xi, and the Governor of Guangdong Province, Wang Weizhong.
According to the CE, “Macau [is] maintaining its overall stability, and [has] considerable achievements regarding effective pandemic prevention and control.”
However, he admitted that Macau had faced economic pressure due to a significant drop in the number of visitors and tourists.
For the first four months of 2022, Macau received a total of 2.48 million tourist arrivals, with the majority still hailing from mainland China, which has had borders closed since March 2020.
A plunge in incoming tourists occurred in March 2022, the lowest month for tourism this year, with about 526,912 arrivals, owing to the resurgence of the pandemic in the neighbouring regions.
The total expenditure by visitors (excluding gaming expenses) rose by 6.7% year-on-year to MOP6.59 billion in the first quarter of 2022, despite the consecutive downturn in visitor arrivals from January to March.
According to the CE, as the pandemic was subsiding on the mainland, he was confident that Macau’s economy would gradually recover by the second half of this year, adding that the region is making “steady progress in terms of adequate economic diversification.”
According to a report issued by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Macau SAR’s economic recovery is expected to continue, but it will take time before the economy fully regains its losses from the pandemic,
The city’s recovery is forecast to continue this year, with IMF projecting a 15.5% GDP growth in 2022, driven by the gradual return of foreign tourists and the return in domestic demand.
Meanwhile, on Friday, the CE attended a panel meeting with Governor Wang, to exchange views on the next phase of cooperation, especially in terms of expediting the construction of the Cooperation Zone, and the measures regarding the movement of goods under either the “first-tier” of relaxed administration, or the “second-tier” of stricter customs control.
During the panel meeting, Ho stressed that Guangdong and Macau should maintain their significant levels of effectiveness in pandemic prevention and control, whilst facilitating movement by travellers and boosting economic activity.
Ho also admitted that the SAR government was “actively considering a reduction in the centralised medical observation period to “10+7” or even “7+7,” in order to promote economic recovery for the two places.
On Saturday, the local government announced that all foreign arrivals’ quarantine would be cut to 10 days from 14 days, with seven days of self-health monitoring from home.
