Gov’t expects conclusion of Urban Master Plan regulation in 2021

Secretary for Transport and Public Works Raimundo Arrais do Rosário expects that the regulations relating to the Macau Urban Master Plan will be officially ready in 2021, as announced during Friday’s Legislative Assembly (AL).
Lawmaker Au Kam San has criticized the government for its slow preparation of the Macau Urban Master Plan. He hopes the government can reveal the detailed progress of the Master Plan.
Rosário agreed with Au and admitted that the Master Plan has taken “slightly too long”.
Rosário admitted that as the Urban Master Plan law took effect in 2014, it has indeed taken a long time to formulate the Master Plan. He added that Urban Master Plan is a new thing and it is normal for the process to be slow in terms of specific parts.
The Secretary also acknowledged that since the contract of the draft of the Master Plan was signed in the second half of 2018, the government has never stopped the relevant work.
In response to Au’s question, Rosário also stated that the Urban Master Plan proposed to divide Macau into 18 districts. Next week, the local government will introduce plans for the New Urban Zone A to the AL standing committees.
According to Rosário, the local government will also submit each project to the urban planning committee for a discussion before the government issues any approvals.
Lawmaker Ng Kuok Cheong asked government representatives about the plans to build several infrastructure projects, in particular, a logistics facility, a fuel storage, and a hazardous items storage.
Regarding the logistic center located at Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge’s (HKZMB) artificial island, Rosário revealed that the local government selected one piece of land plot on the island. However, according to the Secretary, the logistics center will be a good transshipment center.
The Secretary explained that a logistics center has two functions: transshipment and storage. A transshipment center will save Macau more space than a logistics center.
Ng remarked that the local government has not made final decisions on the locations of these projects and that the previous government only made a preliminary plan; detailed plans for these storages remain unavailable.
According to Rosário’s response, the fuel storage is currently planned to be located at HKZMB’s artificial island. This plan is included in the Urban Master Plan and will undergo a public consultation.
As to the hazardous items’ storage, the government has already abandoned its previous temporary and permanent sites, and has already found one place for permanent use. This potential land plot is currently involved in a lawsuit procedure and, as a result, the authority is not disclosing its location.
The Secretary believes that it will “not be too long” before the location is revealed to the public.
The current Coloane temporary hazardous items storage is expected to be a potential facility for the expansion of Coloane sewage treatment factory.
In regard with reclamation projects, the government currently does not have a new reclamation plan to construct buildings, but the authority may consider reclamation as a possibility in the future to help with the traffic problems.
Rosário reiterated that the MSAR government has applied to the central government for the replacement of land reclamation, to abandon the Zone D reclamation plan and to reclaim 41 hectares of waterways between Zone A and the Macau Peninsula.
Many lawmakers also followed the progress of legislation to regulate the use of sea areas. Rosário said that the government is drafting a plan to divide the sea for different functions and only after the plan is complete, the government can start drafting laws to use the water. As of now, there is no specific timetable for this process.