AL closes the year with approval of lifts bill

The Legislative Assembly (AL) closed this legislative session on Monday evening with the final approval of the Elevator and Escalator Safety Legal System bill.

The bill was passed on its final reading and will enter into force from April 1, 2024.

From that date on, entities responsible for lifting equipment including lifts, escalators, and other similar equipment that carry people and cargo will be required to undertake a complete inspection and proceed with the needed repairs or improvements, namely safety features, of this equipment, within a period of three years.

After this period, the equipment must undergo a regular yearly inspection by a certified entity. Those that fail to comply with the stipulated period of three years to modify or improve the equipment will be subjected to a special inspection every eight months.

In the debate preceding the approval of the law, several lawmakers questioned the responsibility for the maintenance and inspection of such equipment, namely those located in private venues.

In response, the Secretary for Transport and Public Works, Raimundo do Rosário, explained that the law will apply to those lifts in use in public use spaces as well as residential and commercial buildings, noting that, at the moment, the large majority of these already have a maintenance contract between the building management company and a lift maintenance company, noting that these will be, in light of the law, the entities responsible for the equipment.

For the buildings that do not have condominium management attributed to a management company, the responsibilities will fall to the building owner management committee, he explained, noting however that such cases are very rare in Macau as most of the buildings that do not have condominium management are low-rise buildings, which also do not have lifts.

According to Rosário, there are currently around 10,000 lifting pieces of equipment to which this new law will apply in Macau.

Also responding to inquiries over the lack of personnel for the maintenance and inspection, he said that there are 730 registered electrical and mechanical engineers in Macau, as well as over 300 lift technicians registered with the government, noting that finding a company for the maintenance and inspection (which must be a different entity) should not be a problem.

He also reaffirmed that the idea of having a third party carrying out the annual inspection comes in a bid to enforce added safety to the users of the equipment, as the inspection entity will work as a “supervisor” of the maintenance body, to ensure that such a job is being undertaken properly and not being neglected.

Kou Ho In evaluates the year on a positive note

At the end of the plenary session, which was the last of this legislative year, the president of the AL, Kou Ho In, evaluated the work done over the past year, noting his pleasure at the work developed over the legislative session.

According to the summary, Kou said that 19 of the 29 bills submitted by the government had been concluded.

He also noted the four bills in which the government adopted the urgency process and the remaining 10 that are being addressed and will move to the next legislative session, to start in October this year.

Still under analysis are the bills related to the regulations for the study centers, the bill of occupational safety in the civil construction and the legal regime of publicly owned companies (First Standing Committee) as well as the fiduciary law, the legal regime for urban renewal and the law for the operation of the casinos (junkets law), all under the purview the Second Standing Committee.

Still under review by the Third Standing Committee are the new tax Code law, the law on veterinary clinical care and pet shops commercial activity, the archives law, and the legal regime for the attraction of qualified staff (Talents law).

No bills have been received that have not yet been approved on the first reading.