Lawmakers’ agenda

Birthrate increase: Wong Kit Cheng wants the government to consider policies which promote an increase in the local birth rate. In a spoken inquiry, the lawmaker noted the recent policy from the central government regarding the promotion of a higher birth rate in the mainland, and called on the local government to establish a long-term demographic and population plan. “The government must define a short-, medium- and long-term demographic development and population plan, which corresponds to the needs of the development of society, so that the concept of incentive to procreation is [addressed by] future policies of government as well as in the work of the public service,” she said.

Hengqin ‘gift’: Leong Sun Iok and Chan Hong want the government to prepare for new opportunities that will come from the “deepening of cooperation between Guangdong and Macau for the development of Hengqin.”
Chan noted recent statements from the Chief Executive that a new step will be taken on this front and that will soon be officially announced by the central government. She called on the local government to prepare “to adjust and optimize Macau’s general development planning and distribution in due time, to introduce a new thinking and a new vitality in its economic development, [which] everyone is eagerly awaiting.”
Leong also called on the government to take this new step as an opportunity to “optimize the employment space,” offering new job opportunities for residents.

Vaccination paid leave: Agnes Lam called on the government to offer paid leave to all civil servants for vaccination against Covid-19. The lawmaker said that “absence from work due to vaccination should be seen as a guarantee of the employee’s health, rather than an incentive,” adding that the government should provide such measures for its 38,000 civil servants as well as promoting the idea among other public service providers. Bus companies were one example Lam noted of those that should offer paid leave days to their workers after vaccination, so they can take enough rest and have time to recover fully from any side effects of the inoculation. This would be for their own protection and for public safety in general.