Businesswoman asks for relaxation on labor imports

MUST senior vice-president Zhang Shu Guang presents a gift to Jenny Kong (right)

The president of the Macau Businesswomen Association (MBWA), Jenny M.F. Kong, has advised the local government to consider relaxing its ratio regulation for foreign labor imports in response to the strain on human resources facing the city’s small and medium-sized enterprises, but without threatening locals’ employment opportunities.
The head of MBWA was the sole speaker at a talk titled “Macau Economic Development to Local Medium and Small-sized Enterprises,” held at the Macau Science and Technology University (MUST). On the sidelines of the event, she told the Times that those small and medium-sized enterprises are expected to bear the brunt of fierce human resources competition by the time the resorts and casinos that are under construction at the Cotai Strip are complete, despite the ongoing adjustment period in the gaming sector.
To cope with the acute manpower scarcity, Jenny Kong advised that the government’s ratio policies regarding the importation of foreign labor for companies should be revised accordingly, or be scrapped in response to the changing situation. “Regarding the human resources application, the business industry hopes that the ratio could be relaxed, or even the policy repealed,” she said.
Ms Kuong, who owns two companies, assumed that the adjustment period, which many thought was worrying, would be “healthy” for the city’s economic development as long as “there was no massive job-cut from the gaming industry.” The adjustment period, according to the MBWA head, would exert no influence on the small and medium-scaled companies, as most of them are chiefly dependent on tourism, retail and commodities.
Meanwhile, the businesswoman also complained about the lengthy procedure of license applications for catering and Chinese medical industries, where it can take as long as nine months to obtain a license for business operation. “The administrative laws and regulations should be established in response to the city’s current business landscape. The related policies ought to be simplified in order to help the small and medium-sized enterprises to survive and develop,” she said. “It, if everything goes well, will at least take nine months for restaurants or Chinese medical centers to renew their licenses if they are to move into a new place.”
Ms Kong cited the case of a friend whose jewelry store, occupying a floor area of roughly 90 square meters, has been subject to a more-than-double the rent hike, from MOP36,000 to MOP80,000. She once again urged the government to allow businesses to operate upstairs in buildings for certain industries, including beauty care, hairdressing, medical and tuition.
Questioned as to whether that would place extra burden on the current housing rental market, Jenny M.F. Kong said: “Everything needs balance. It is necessary to take care of people’s livelihood on one hand, but it is also necessary to care about the ‘living space’ of Macau’s economic and trading development. Economic downturn is unhealthy to the city’s economy.”
The talk held yesterday aimed to provide university students with a glimpse into the territory’s small and medium-sized business operation. The MBWA president believes that those youths who are hoping to venture into the business world have to first be well organized, well planned and well equipped in school in order to seize the opportunities ahead.
Aside from that, persistence, she said, was crucial in developing a business. The businesswoman, who has been engaged in the clothing manufacturing industry for more than 30 years, stated: “Launching a business does not guarantee absolute success. For example, if you hurled pieces of mud onto the wall, not every piece would stay on there; but still a few would, and those are what success is about.” Staff reporter