Nearly all SMEs were affected by storm
Stanley Au
Several small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Macau are said to have been affected by Typhoon Hato, according to the president of the Macau Small and Medium Enterprises Association of Macau, Stanley Au Chong Kit, at a roundtable forum organized by the association yesterday.
“Almost every single SME is still recovering from the destruction caused by the typhoon, with various degrees of impact,” said Au, although no exact numbers regarding SMEs’ damages have been disclosed.
“I believe that everybody in Macau felt the impact of the typhoon, but I also believe that the ones who encountered the biggest impact are the shops located at low levels. […] All of Macau registered losses, even casinos, some of which saw slight floods [in their premises] because of the typhoon,” Au remarked.
The association president also pointed out that Hato made the Macau public realize that there are many things in the territory that need to be improved.
According to Au, the association has announced it will help all businesses to apply for the government’s financial support.
Furthering his comments on the typhoon disaster, Au believes that there should be methods to allow the city to solve the problems caused by typhoons more substantially.
“The government reacted really fast in terms of offering compensation, but I think the current problem is not a matter of financial support, but of a permanent cure to ensure that [such disasters] will not repeat in the future, and to ensure that when [typhoons] occur, we know how to face them,” Au stated.
Yesterday’s forum featured the future of Macau, especially the future of SMEs.
Concerning the current situation of Macau’s SMEs’, Au noted that these enterprises are facing many difficulties, including the shortage of talented human resources professionals and increasing operational costs, adding that “the government is using many locals as civil servants, the casinos are using many locals as dealers, and Macau’s unemployment rate is only 1.8 percent. […] The SMEs cannot hire people. […] Many SMEs say that there is work to be done but nobody can do it.”
When addressing the roundtable forum, Au said that the forum was organized while the Legislative Assembly (AL) election campaign is ongoing to remind the Macau public to think about Macau’s future and to think about what kind of AL Macau needs, so that people vote for good lawmakers.
Domestic appliances imports to increase
The Macau Importers and Exporters Association is expecting the importation of domestic electronic devices to increase during the rest of the year, according to a report by TDM.
The increase is due to the damages caused by Typhoon Hato, according to the president of the association, Sio Chi Wai.
These devices include air conditioners, fridges and cars. As many of the city’s shops and households recorded different levels of damage on their domestic equipment, change for new equipment are largely expected.
In addition, Sio believes that some developing countries may implement trade protectionism soon, which will bring about unstable factors for Macau’s trade.
