EU-Macau report outlines key challenges ahead of 2020

The Macau European Chamber of Commerce and the Institute of European Studies of Macau have jointly released a report on the influence of the European Union (EU) in the development of Macau, detailing a number of challenges the territory is expected to face in the years leading up to 2020.

The report notes several “challenges” and “targets” for the region that are connected to the rapid growth of its gaming sector. It stresses that both innovation and “technical progress” will be required to overcome these economic challenges.

The authors of the report provide little in the way of solutions to these challenges, though they do acknowledge that progress can be made through the development of “smart city” systems and a more efficient use of existing resources.

The two organizations argue that the increased medical needs of the territory will be a sizeable challenge in the near future. Citing the large increase in Macau’s population in recent years, as well as an improvement in average life expectancy, a “substantial increase of medical assistance will be needed to solve the problem of [an] increasing and ageing population.”

According to the report, the average life expectancy in Macau has now risen to 82.9 years, while Macau’s population of 650,000 residents and non-residents is expected to rise to a total of 700,000 by 2020.

There are also concerns with the electricity consumption of the population in Macau, which is expected to reach a height by 2020, representing a 29 percent increase over the electricity consumption in 2010. This is due to both a tendency of the “lifestyles of Macau residents [which] are based on high consumption of energy and resources,” and the fact that local society lacks environmentally-friendly and sustainable consumption patterns.

This problem is exacerbated, according to the drafters of the report, by a very low recycle rate of 0.11 percent of waste production in Macau. This “brings [a] heavy burden to the waste landfills,” which is expected to get heavier as the volume of residential, commercial and industrial waste increases in the near future.

Another potential problem concerns congestion in the city. As of May 2016, the number of licensed automobiles stood at just under 120,000 with another 112,000 licensed motorcycles. Compared to a decade ago, the number of automobiles and motorcycles rose by around 60 percent and 40 percent respectively.

The report claims that increasing congestion in the city may constitute a hinderance to the city’s development, as well as contributing to other effects that reduce the quality of life in Macau, such as air and noise pollution and “societal disturbance”.

Other challenges for the next five years in Macau – and perhaps beyond – include the need for increased security at border control if the number of visitors to Macau continues to grow, and a heightened awareness of food safety and hygiene. This latter point, will be crucial for the reputation of the territory as it attempts to rebrand itself as a more mainstream leisure and hospitality destination.

The report, titled “Report on the role of the European Union in stimulating Macau’s development”, also outlines the scope of EU-Macau cooperation in trade and investment.

The European Union (EU) is one of Macau’s principal trading partners and, according to the report, the MSAR has provided a “sound trade and investment environment in various fields,” including public utilities, aviation and the financial sector, since a trade and cooperation agreement was brought into force in 1993.

According to the EU, total bilateral trade with Macau surged in 2015 by almost 40 percent, amounting to about 850 million euros. The EU was Macau’s second largest supplier after mainland China, accounting for 22 percent of its imports last year, with France, Germany and Italy comprising a major component.