The Social Affairs Bureau headquarters
A new study from the Macau Polytechnic Institute (IPM) claims that the government is making good progress towards meeting some of the goals of the MSAR’s first Five-Year Development Plan (2016-2020), inspired by central planning programs in mainland China.
Associate Professor Yin Yifen from the Social, Economic and Public Policy Research Centre at IPM, assessed that, “generally speaking, the majority of social welfare programs in Macau have been [making] good progress.”
Social welfare is one of the most important parts in Macau’s first five-year plan. Out of 21 major targets, there are 16 concerning social welfare, covering medical care, social security, education and environment protection.
According to Yin’s study, the government’s public expenditure on medical care, social security and education have increased in past years.
Chinese press agency Xinhua said that medical care expenditure in Macau accounted for 9.2 percent, 10.2 percent and 10.3 percent of the total budget in 2014, 2015 and 2016 respectively. Social security accounted for 25.1 percent, 24.3 percent and 25.2 percent respectively in 2014, 2015 and 2016, and the ratios for education were 14.9 percent, 14.7 percent and 14.9 percent respectively.
During these three years, the proportions of the budget spent on each area held more or less stable – except in medical care expenditure, which rose by more than 10 percent (1.1 percentage points) – but the absolute budget only increased marginally each year.
Yin said that some medical targets still need greater input from the government to be realistically achieved before the development plan’s expiration. For instance, the plan expects 4.4 patient beds for every 1,000 people by 2020, but the current figure only reaches 2.3.
The report separately noted a strong performance in the exhibition industry recently, and speculated that improvements to regional transportation brought by the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge and the expansion of connectivity at the Macau International Airport may aid its further development.
Macau unveiled its first Five-Year Development Plan in September 2016, incorporating its own development into the national strategy of Beijing.
Associate Professor Liu Chengkun at the Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST) told Xinhua that “the five-year plan [has] not only inspired the government and its residents as a whole, but also some business sectors.”
“Participating in the nation’s major strategies can bring Macao tangible results,” added Liu, “and can provide the impetus for Macau to keep going forward.” MDT/Xinhua
