The Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Elsie Ao Ieong, has led a delegation from her secretariat to visit 12 civil society associations to hear their views on the policy address for the next year (LAG23), the office of the Secretary noted.
The tour included visits to the Macau Federation of Trade Unions, the Macau Neighborhood Federation, the Macau Women’s Federation, the Macau Chinese Chamber of Commerce, the Association of Returned Overseas Chinese of Macau, the Macau Institution of People’s Alliance, Macau Economic and Livelihood Alliance, Macao Chinese Education Association, Macao Catholic Schools Association, Macao New Chinese Youth Association, Macao Youth Federation, the General Association of Chinese Students of Macau, as well as the Committees representing the Cultural and Sporting sectors.
According to the release from Ao Ieong’s office, the associations have called on the government to keep its focus fixed on pandemic prevention measures. The associations also made suggestions about residents’ mental health, the planning of the Islands Medical Complex, the training of medical personnel, the promotion of youth development, the deepening of education on patriotism, as well as the promotion of “Love for Macau” and the national security law. The discussions also touched on topics such as the development of students and protection of teachers’ rights and interests, the promotion of science education, family-friendly policies, maternal and child services, aged care, support for the disadvantaged, heritage conservation, the development of cultural industries, the training of local athletes, the planning of facilities related to people’s livelihood and Chinese medicine and the development of the health industry as a whole.
The Secretary noted that next year, her team will continue to improve the pandemic prevention work following the strategy of “preventing import cases and preventing internal recurrence,” also adding that they will strictly follow the policy goals of the “Second Five-Year Plan.”
With regard to welfare services, Ao Ieong said that the government was continuing to optimize the medical and health system, ensuring investment in education and improvements to educational quality, as well as deepening the work on patriotic education and “Love for Macau.”
Care for the disadvantaged and the elderly is also on the Secretary’s agenda, as well as the reinforcement of industrial development, specifically the big health industry and cultural and sports-related industries.
Furthermore, Ao Ieong said that her team also collected a large number of written opinions and suggestions from different associations through the debates that took place at each meeting. These will be processed and taken into account in drafting the final guidelines for the 2023 policy for the social affairs and cultural sectors.
According to the release, none of the associations represented Macanese and Portuguese communities, nor were other non-Chinese communities, groups or associations in Macau consulted or visited by the Secretary in the lead up to the presentation of the LAG23.
