Ao Ieong: Gov’t to boost platforms to attract talents for industry diversification

The government aims to attract highly-skilled workers to Macau in a bid to fulfill its goal of diversifying the city’s industries, Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Elsie Ao Ieong, reaffirmed yesterday at the Legislative Assembly (AL).

Ao Ieong and officials from her branch attended yesterday’s parliamentary plenary to take questions on next year’s policy direction.

The Secretary announced that the government will create an assessment system that will define a “strict approval criteria,” along with launching programs to attract high-skilled workers in the areas of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Chinese-Portuguese translation.

Last week, it has been confirmed that the local government is trying to reduce casino activities to irrelevance or something merely residual through diversification of the economy with alternatives to the gaming sector.

Thus, Ao Ieong yesterday pledged that the government will launch platforms that will “promote the development of career and technical education and  platforms that will encourage collaborations between schools and companies.”

Meanwhile, with the government encouraging private efforts in building industries in Macau, lawmakers have requested public comment on several areas, such as building purpose-built skateboarder training grounds.

Businessman-lawmaker Wang Sai Man discussed occupational education in the city, noting that the private sector needs a strong workforce.

He expects blue collar workers to start at occupational education institutions before moving upwards to become engineers.

No standardized training to nurture athletes

Businesswoman-lawmaker Angela Leong also asked about training facilities for skateboarders. She said skateboarding has been listed as a competition at the Tokyo Olympics.

Probably seeing the possibility of the sport becoming a regular event worldwide, the lawmaker said the city had not started any standardized training to nurture athletes for the sport. She added that skateboarders can only train intermittently in potentially dangerous areas, such as on roadsides and in leisure areas “at late nocturnal hours.”

The lawmaker has enabled some activities that were previously unseen in Macau, such as the indoor sky-jumping and the zipline facilities at her Lisboeta property.

To all these questions, Ao Ieong replied that many local resorts and hotels are doing work in these areas. For instance, they have also organized many events to attract different people.

However, the senior official said if the government does everything, there will be no private industry. She said the private sector should start working together.

On public libraries

Despite local libraries having long had their opening hours extended, Neighborhood Association lawmaker Leong Hong Sai asked if the government had plans to extend borrowing periods, opening hours as well as expanding public libraries.

Leong started off by reiterating that the government had refused to expand the library planned for New Urban Zone A.

Earlier reports had revealed that the government had planned to establish a community library at Zone A, which may occupy floors of a public housing estate’s facility section. The library will be about 2,000 square meters in area.

Comments from the public, in particular from a librarian association, have called for a larger library. In the best-case scenario, it should be an independent building. However, the government has refused to change its plans.

Responding to Leong’s questions about library facilities, the president of the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC), Leong Wai Man, said the six public libraries are open until midnight every day, while the Almirante Lacerda library opens until 2am, considering the high demand for the facility in the district.

She said there are 16 community libraries across the city, with two in the Central District, two in the Southern District, three in the Western District, five in the Northern District and three in Taipa and Coloane. In addition, there is a specialized library located at the Municipal Affairs Bureau building.

The IC president emphasized that in recent years, the government had adopted the practice of establishing public libraries in existing structures or sharing spaces with other facilities. She said the Taipa Library in the Taipa Central Park is an example.

IC’s Leong has also revealed that national standards require a library of 800 to 2,000 square meter per 100,000 people, which would support the government’s decision for about 90,000 people to be residing in Zone A.

Islands Hospital to ease medical team tension

To Ao Ieong, civil servant association lawmaker Che Sai Wang presented a case from a petitioner who contacted him. The individual is the parent of a child who had a seizure at home in June this year. After seeing the doctor at the accident and emergency department at the public hospital, he was referred to the specialized out-patient department with suspected autism. However, Che revealed that the booking was made for March 2023, nine months after the seizure.

Che stressed that seizure is a dangerous condition and patients should be prioritized.

In response to his question, Ao Ieong mentioned the reliability of the future Islands Hospital Complex, which will be operated by the Peking Union Medical College Hospital. The government believes the new hospital will help ease the tension for the medical team from the capital city and will help train local specialist doctors.

The senior official said the shortage of specialist doctors varies in different departments. She promised the next phase of the work will focus on training doctors for departments with fewer hands.

She then referred to the new law governing specialist medical practitioners to emphasize that those practitioners serving at private hospitals, clinics or entities are now allowed to take courses at the Macao Academy of Medicine, the government managed and operated training entity for specialist medicine.

As such, she believes the new hospital will “effectively resolve the problem.”

On the demand for nurses and therapists, Ao Ieong said the two training facilities in Macau had expanded their intake of nursing students this year. She believed that after their education concludes, the situation should see improvements. However, it will take several years.

Che also asked about early intervention for students with special education needs (SEN students). On this, pulmonologist Alvis Lo, director of the Health Bureau (SSM), said that AI technology has been acquired by the government to cope with these needs. Tests have been done on 150 children. Lo expects to introduce the service to the market next year, anticipating higher capacity for the service.

The idea of medical tourism, which is branded by the government as Tourism+Medical care, was mentioned repeatedly at the session yesterday. In particular, lawmaker Zheng Anting described the direction of developing medical tourism as “having rich characteristics.”