Arnaldo Santos
Arnaldo Santos took office yesterday as the new president of the Housing Bureau (IH), replacing the former president Iong Kam Wa.
The Secretary for Transport and Public Works Raimundo do Rosário presided over the ceremony at the IH headquarters and highlighted the responsibility and importance of the position. He added that he believes the new president “will be able to stimulate a new dynamic within the Bureau.”
The new president of the IH said that the nomination for the position is “a great honor and a great responsibility.” He expressed his awareness that the problems regarding housing “have become of a great concern to society” and said he will have “challenging work ahead of him.”
Arnaldo Santos described his purpose as to achieve the political goal of “Housing for all, wellbeing for all” that has been established by the government. He intends to achieve it by “increasing the efficiency of the [bureau] works.”
There are many topics that the new IH president aims to address in his mandate, namely the works concerned with the “revision and amendment of the legal regime,” as well as the “evaluation and definition of a new public housing scheme.”
This scheme follows the abandoned “Macau property for Macau residents (MPMR)” policy. It was first announced during the Policy Address presentation, when Chui Sai On recognized that many people are unable to buy residential properties in Macau and cannot apply for affordable housing (given that they have incomes above the cap to apply), and said that a new housing scheme may be established for them. Under that scheme, they would be able to rent flats at affordable prices and later buy them if they so wished.
Arnaldo Santos said that a study on the new scheme has been concluded and will be analysed before being announced to the public.
Another of the issues to be tackled by the IH is the “concession of licensing for real estate mediation” and “real estate agency activities inspection.”
Questioned about what his priorities will be, Santos highlighted affordable housing policies.
In response to questions regarding the fact that the previous president Iong Kam Wa has been replaced after only one year in the job, the Secretary Rosário clarified, “the department heads are appointed and these appointments have a short duration (one or two years maximum) and since the tenure of the previous president ended, he was replaced in his functions by another person – it is a normal procedure.” Rosário also added that the current nomination of Mr Santos is also for a period of one year, and concluded by saying, “If I was not satisfied with the work of Mr Iong, he would not have been appointed now to the vice presidency.”
Asked why he did choose Arnaldo Santos to be the new IH president, the Secretary pragmatically answered that it was “a personal decision.” Rosário added that he hopes that Santos can bring “a new dynamic and ‘refresh’ the leadership” of the bureau.
rosário says building management is ‘a private matter’
Questioned on the sidelines of the new Housing Bureau president’s inauguration ceremony, the Secretary for Transport and Public Works, Raimundo do Rosário, classified the problems regarding the building management companies as a “private matter for each building.” He said that “each building has its own general assembly that decides on which company they will hire to manage the building.”
The Secretary concluded by saying: “The government will only act if there are serious disagreements between the management companies and the owners that, for example, lead to the interruption of water supply or other essentials.”
The Secretary reaffirmed that “the management of the buildings is not the responsibility of the government but of each building’s general assembly.”
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