Administrative reform is priority for Ho Iat Seng’s incoming government

Macau’s administrative reform is the top-most priority for the incoming government, said the sole Chief Executive candidate, Ho Iat Seng, on Saturday in an interview with Macau’s non-Chinese language media. This is one of his major campaign initiatives ahead of the Chief Executive election on August 25.

In his reply to the Times on how he had prioritized the measures drafted in his political program, Ho said, “from my political program, the number one priority is administrative reform […] which will work like the construction of a building in which administrative reform becomes the foundation [of the building].”

Ho explained that through administrative reform, the government could improve administrative efficiency, resulting in an improvement to economic development.

For the upcoming Chief Executive, administrative reform would have a snowball effect, where progress in economic development will consequently “improve the livelihood of the population.”

But this snowball effect, Ho explained, will not end with just quality of life improvement. It also affects another initiative promised by the candidate – the “attraction of talent.”

Ultimately, after this sequence of interlinked events, Ho says the final goal, which is the development of culture and economic diversification, will be attained.

“With all these areas improved, then we can think about the development of culture and [economic] diversification,” Ho concluded, establishing an order of the issues he proposed addressing when he forms the next government.

‘Gaming sector is irreplaceable’

Questioned on the challenges posed in the attainment of economic diversification, Ho said, “the gaming sector represents a percentage of Macau’s economy that is irreplaceable,” adding, “I don’t think that any [other] sector in Macau can replace it. This is a fact, this is the reality.”

Ho noted that the gaming industry has another important and relevant aspect, due to the fact that the industry is also the main contributor of tax revenue for the government. He noted that the government’s high expenditure in infrastructure and other areas is only possible due to the taxes that come from the casinos.

Concurrently, he also noted that the gaming industry has attempted to help reduce the existing gap between the rich and the poor through a “redistribution [from the government] of the revenues granted, especially to the families of lower social classes.”

On this note, Ho remarked that the achievements of so-called “economic diversification” do not promote any drastic changes in economic terms, but instead, continue to assist other sectors that represent smaller percentages of the Macau’s gross domestic product. Some examples include real estate, finance, and insurance and retail, which are cumulatively accountable for around 24% of the GDP. This is in addition to the industrial sector, which accounts for another 1.5%, and the Meetings, Incentives, Conferencing, and Exhibitions (MICE) which he noted had a low percentage contribution.

Questioned by the Times on if work on the renewal of gaming licenses poses any particular challenges or difficulties to the upcoming government, as they may be the first major decisions to make, Ho said, “the work on the renewal of gaming licenses already started about two years ago. At the time, the issues encountered were mostly related to the review of the laws on this matter.”

“As Chief Executive, my competence is to act according to the existing laws, so there is no such thing as a difficult or easy task. It’s just a process that will evolve within the laws [that rule it],” he concluded, noting, “no problems are expected on the matter.”

Tech and science are safe bets

Questioned on which sectors the government would put extra effort in to in order to stimulate alternative development, Ho said, “we want to accelerate the development of the technological and scientific sectors through the introduction of talent in these two fields.”

“We hope to attract talent, as well as professionals and investors in the areas of manufacturing and production [of technology and science] from the Greater Bay Area to establish themselves in Macau.”

Other areas in which the Chief Executive candidate said he wants to work include development of Chinese traditional and Western medicine production. He gave the example of a Portuguese company in the pharmaceutical sector that has been in Macau for many years, and hopes that others of the same kind, “could join and also invest in Macau, and through Macau enter the market in mainland China.”

Policies on non-residents to hold stable

Responding to several topics involving non-resident workers (TNR) and the policies to be expected from the upcoming government on this topic, Ho defended that little will change in the upcoming times.

“At the moment, we have a [healthy] ratio between TNR and local residents in terms of the working population. I think this is a very reasonable ratio,” he said, adding that the issue at the moment is not on creating restrictions, or opening up to receive more foreign manpower, but instead, “on how we can better apply the policies that we have regarding these workers. Maybe in some sectors, there is no need for the existence of such a high number of these [TNR] workers [while in others they might be needed].”

Nevertheless, the Chief Executive candidate left a clear message that he is not thinking of facilitating more access to foreign manpower, but instead, better managing the resources that Macau already has.

Macau need not follow Hong Kong

The economic impact of the events occurring in the neighboring region of Hong Kong was brought up during the interview with Ho, who refused to comment specifically on the Hong Kong government’s attempt to solve the problem.

Commenting only on the HKD20 billion financial package the Hong Kong government recently launched, Ho said, “I think that [… the stimulus] package is something that has already been a reality in Macau for some time. We launched that a few years ago. Now Hong Kong has done the same, as they suffered pressure to enforce similar policies.”

According to Ho, the measures mostly aim to “protect against an international economic situation that is not so good. This financial package comes as an economic preventive measure.”

“On our side, I can say that we do not need to follow Hong Kong’s policies. Neither do I think that such policies can produce any impact in Macau,” said Ho.

“What we need to do is our work and, in the future, if something happens [that justifies it], we can for sure balance the economic development of Macau.”