Before yesterday’s plenary session of the Legislative Assembly, several lawmakers addressed concerns over the integration of local residents in Hengqin.
One of the most active in expressing concerns was lawmaker Leong Hong Sai who noted several issues in the integration of residents in the new area.
“For Macau residents [considering] whether [or not to live] in Hengqin, set up their own business or look for a job, the most important factor is that the Cooperation Zone is a region in mainland China, and most Macau residents are not used to living in Hengqin under the laws of the mainland. Therefore, I propose that priority should be given to the implementation of policies related to the life of the population defined in the “Norms”, such as health, education, and capacity to make electronic payments, among other things, to allow residents to feel that, after the implementation of the policies, the “Macau elements” are on their side, attracting residents to live with their families in Hengqin and participate in the construction of the Cooperation Zone,” Leong said, adding that there are many aspects that need to be taken care of by the government to attract local residents to move to or work in the Cooperation Zone.
Among those are concerns about general health care particularly for the elderly and people taking medication long-term.
Education and cross-border electronic payments are other two concerns expressed by the same lawmaker.
On the same topic, Ho Ion Sang and Wong Kit Cheng also offered their views, namely on the differences in juridical systems, circulation of people and goods, as well as information.
Lawmaker Ho also had concerns about the level of training and recruitment of qualified labor saying that “Macau and Hengqin should improve efforts to attract investment and attract large-scale high technology companies to the Cooperation Zone, creating a virtuous circle for increased employment, demographic concentration, and industrial development,” adding that, for this purpose, “it is necessary to jointly define the strategy and planning of human resources for the Cooperation Zone, continuously review the needs of human resources for the development of the four industries and import an adequate number of qualified staff from abroad, so that, through actions training, [we can] help workers to raise their technical level, to overcome the difficulties of the lack of human resources.”
The three spoken inquiries came on the same day that the Chief Executive, Ho Iat Seng, published a list of 29 government officials and other civil servants who will take up positions from April 1, 2023 for a period of two years in the Executive Committee of the Cooperation Zone.
