Macau’s first ever five-year plan under public consultation

Drafted as a guiding tool to define the strategies for the future of the region, the “five-year plan for the development of MSAR” has the ultimate goal of transforming Macau into a “World Centre for Tourism and Leisure” (WCTL). The public consultation phase of the plan kicked off yesterday.
Presented yesterday in a press conference held at the government headquarters, the first ever five-year plan is the first work done by the Committee for Development of the World Centre for Tourism and Leisure – the “task force” created by the Chief Executive (CE) to help advance this transformation.
The advisor to the Chief Executive’s office Lei Ngan Leng, said that the plan is only a “semi-completed version.”
During yesterday’s presentation, the Macau SAR Policy Research Office coordinator Lao Pun Lap said that the plan is divided into four major areas or topics, namely “Strategies, People’s Life, Development and Good Governance.”
Among them are the intentions to create a new image of a “cultural Macau,” to elevate the city’s competitiveness, to “implement the strategy of prosperity through education” and to build the platform between China and the Portuguese-speaking countries.
“People’s Life” is probably the topic that raises the most interest from society. In addressing this topic, the five-
year plan proposes to “speed-up the construction of a city with ideal living conditions” through developments in five main areas: land and urban planning; infrastructure construction; transportation and intelligent city; environmental protection and security.
Regarding land resources, the plan states that the government should “start the works of reforming the old neighborhoods and building new urban areas.”
This raised questions from journalists, who recalled that the “Urban Master Plan” is a long-awaited document whose completion date is seemingly never forthcoming.
“Although not clearly stated, that urban plan is considered in this document, so it should be completed by 2020,” explained the advisor to the CE Lei Ngan Leng.
Regarding infrastructure construction, the highlight is the Islands Hospital. According to the five-year plan, its completion will be delayed at least for another year. The plan states that by 2019 (the date previously indicated by the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Alexis Tam, for the conclusion of the project) only the Institute of Nursing and the residential building to host staff members will be completed.
The “Transportation and Intelligent City” chapter includes pledges to control the number of vehicles on the territory’s roads to settle at a growth rate of between 3.5 and 3.8 percent from now until 2020.
As for public transportation, the plan focuses on promoting “ecological” buses, adopting the use of more buses fueled by natural gas. The plan aims to raise the number of these vehicles within Macau to 120.
Environmental protection is another of the topics included in the plan. It lists measures such as the use of more electric vehicles and the creation of 200 charging stations between 2016 and 2019. The planning for these sorts of facilities is also included in the upcoming public housing developments.