Lawmakers Wong Kit Cheng and Ella Lei want the government to enact additional and more effective measures to promote the employment and reemployment of local workers affected by the Covid-19 crisis.
The two lawmakers want the authorities to find ways to employ many of those who lost their jobs in roles such as the citywide mass testing and other pandemic prevention and control occupations that seem to be ongoing.
“The launching of job posts for conducting nucleic acid tests would not only relieve the pressure on the frontline medical staff but also help to fill the local unemployment gap,” Wong was quoted saying to local Chinese language media.
On the same topic, and although agreeing with Wong that the Covid-19 prevention and control measures can open job posts that will help some workers in the short-term, Lei added that the government must find a long-term solution for this problem as, even after the outbreak is over, many of the local workers will no longer have a job to which to return.
“Authorities can introduce more significant, longer-term measures to support local employment in response to changes in the employment environment during the epidemic,” Lei said, adding that in the short-term and taking into account that the rounds of mass testing are not likely to end soon, local unemployed people can be hired to fill positions such as data entry personnel, security guards, sampling assistants and many others which do not require special qualifications or professional skills.
Lei also wants the government to pay attention and not forget that the currently unemployed group will soon be swelled by new graduates who will be trying to enter the job market for the first time.
For those Lei calls for more and better internship programs, so that these new graduates can start to establish a skill set that will gain them employment soon.
Leong Sun Iok unhappy with LRT costs
In a separate media report, the lawmaker Leong Sun Iok called on the government to stop what he calls “a waste of public money” in the operation of the Light Rapid Transit (LRT).
Leong says that considering the current crisis, such money “could have a better use in the support of residents and companies affected by the crisis caused by the pandemic.”
In a report in Chinese language newspaper Macao Daily, Leong noted that last year alone, the expenses related to the LRT reached as much as 836 million patacas, of which 720 million (86%) were related to service fees. The lawmaker also highlighted that in the same period, the LRT company revenues were only 2 million patacas.
Aiming at the concession contract that expires in 2024, Leong wants the government to adopt a different strategy so that the LRT ceases to be a massive burden on the public purse each year while providing very little utility for both residents and tourists.
