Ng Kuok Cheong urges gov’t to postpone gaming licenses tender for another two years

Ng Kuok Cheong

Lawmaker Ng Kuok Cheong has urged the government to postpone the public tender for new gaming licenses for a period of two years in a statement delivered at the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday.
Speaking before the agenda, Ng said, “there is less than one year for the six licenses to expire. The government should extend them for another two years so there is enough time to collect and evaluate public opinion and study the optimization of the juridical regime and open the new public tender post-pandemic when the economic environment already stabilized.”
During the transition period, Ng proposed that the government reinforce the supervision of the gaming concessionaires, “to ensure they are fulfilling their social responsibilities and guarantee that they raise the proportion of resident workers over 85% and over 90% for the intermediate and upper levels.”
Ng also wants the executive to carefully evaluate the allocation of non-resident worker quotas to companies subcontracted by concessionaires for services such as cleaning, security and catering.
The lawmaker also urged the government to consider transferring a larger proportion of the gambling taxes to the Social Security and Central Provident Funds during the framing of the new regulatory regime for the gaming industry. He hopes this reapportionment during the extension period will be done carefully and with attention, since, he noted, “this will influence the development of this important industry for the next 10 to 20 years.”