FDCT sets ambitious goals for 2024: more projects, same budget

The Science and Technology Development Fund (FDCT) has set some ambitious goals for this year. Among them is the aim to increase project funding from companies by 40%, while keeping the same budget as last year, the president of the Administrative Committee, Che Weng Keong, said yesterday in a press conference organized by the fund to present the results of 2023 and provide insights into the forecast for 2024.

In his presentation, Che noted that one of the four main directions of the FDCT for 2024 is to reinforce support to technology companies, with the aim of achieving a 40% growth year-on-year.

In response to an inquiry from the Times, the president later clarified that the vast majority of projects funded by FDCT in 2023 were associated with institutions, such as tertiary education. According to Che, only 8.4% (MOP37.8 million) of the MOP450 million in funding last year was directed towards company projects. Therefore, achieving 40% growth year-on-year will  represent a modest increase in financing of slightly over MOP15 million, an amount considered relatively small and unlikely to significantly impact the overall annual budget of the fund.

Another of the 2024 FDCT policies aims to attract “exceptional graduates” to return to work in Macau.

While specific strategies to achieve this aim were not elaborated upon, Che mentioned that they intended to incentivize tech companies to hire locals. Additionally, they also seek to encourage local students to pursue technology studies in Macau universities rather than abroad.

Che noted that there are currently many majors and even post-graduate courses being offered in Macau by local institutions that are of equal quality as those of other institutions abroad. He believes that local students would “prefer to study in Macau than to move abroad.”

Another of the main directions for 2024 is to promote and develop research and development (R&D) projects centered in Hengqin.

The idea is that more local tech companies will establish themselves in Hengqin and be supported in their R&D efforts by local universities under a framework termed “Companies in Hengqin ask, Universities in Macau respond.”

The idea is to put local universities at the service of the companies in Hengqin to help them solve problems and develop new technologies that can then be transformed into products.

Such aims are also closely related to the development of the “1+4” strategy, particularly focusing on Big Health and High and New Technologies, building on the groundwork laid in 2023.

More support for State Key Laboratories

Another priority for FDCT in 2024 is to provide more financial support to the State Key Laboratories.

According to the FDCT plan, the idea is to support the reorganization of these laboratories “according to the development of national scientific investigation” as well as to increase financial support for midstream R&D. Specifically, there is a proposed 25% increase in initial support for results transformation in these labs.