The Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM) has rejected all but one application for Macau residency in 2021 for various programs running under IPIM’s umbrella, as per statistics released by IPIM.
According to the statistics released, IPIM processed a total of 75 applications for temporary residency last year. Of these, 74 were for the management and technical personnel program and only one was for an application based on the major investment program.
Out of these, only one application for the management and technical personnel scheme, was approved and it involved an applicant in the education sector.
Among the applications handled in 2021, which included those received in previous years, IPIM said that there were no applications approved with exception of the abovementioned, which means that all 74 applications handled were rejected or cancelled.
Among those rejected, IPIM said there were 32 applications for the management and technical personnel program.
Citing internal statistics, IPIM had said last year that it had approved a total of 2,084 temporary residency applications for technicians with special qualifications over a period of 15 years between 2005 to 2019.
While carrying out a long-
term evaluation of the program, IPIM said that the education sector was the one that received the largest number of approvals, with 36.2% of all applications approved (754 people).
The second highest approvals were for the architecture-related sector, for which until 2019, 428 applicants received approvals, a figure that accounts for 20.5% of the total.
The aviation sector came in third with 10.3% (214 applicants).
IPIM also acknowledged having a backlog of some 211 temporary residency renewal applications by technicians with special qualifications. This involved a total of 403 people.
The delay in processing renewal applications and new residency applications by IPIM has been highlighted many times by several sectors of society as well as by different lawmakers at the Legislative Assembly.
To fix the problem, the government announced late last year a new regime known as the Attraction of Qualified Personnel will replace the two existing methods.
The new scheme will also be managed by IPIM.
It has been known for some time that the government has sought to overhaul the troubled existing system, especially since the revelation of the far-reaching fraud and corruption scandal involving IPIM and other senior government officials, resulting in the case going to the local courts.
With the new system, the government aims to solve two problems, and aims to create a new scheme to attract Chinese talent as well as finally putting an end to the infamous processes of IPIM, which in some cases saw applications being processed for several years without any final or conclusive decision.
Public consultation was held from November 10 to December 24 for the new regime. There have been no updates issued since then.
