Policy Address | CE warns residents to brace themselves for 2021

The current economic and social situation is not likely to show significant improvement in the next year, forecasted Chief Executive (CE) Ho Iat Seng during yesterday’s presentation of the government’s Policy Address for 2021 (LAG2021).
Without being extremely pessimistic, Ho warned the population not to expect a fast economic recovery, especially during 2021, and to take into account that the economic recession caused by the Covid-19 pandemic is expected to continue for a relatively long period and will likely result in additional hassles to the population.
“The time required for economic revitalization will be long, which will result in significant pressures on the employment and the lives of the population,” Ho said, adding, “As time progresses, job and life pressures on the population will gradually increase and profound problems and conflicts, previously covered by the accelerated economic growth, will arise, and the accumulated needs of the population will become more highlighted.”
These strong words by Ho aimed to act as a wake-up call regarding the fragilities of the local economy which, almost exclusively depending on just one sector, the gaming industry, is a serious risk.
For Ho, the days of solutions encountering a “vertical diversification” based on the tourism and gaming sectors are numbered, with it becoming necessary to “find and explore new directions to the achievement of economic diversification,” as “time does not wait.”
Also contributing to this not so optimistic scenario for the coming year is the government forecast that Macau’s gross domestic product (GDP) will fall by 60.9% this year, Ho said during the presentation of the LAG2021 report.
“It is expected [that there will be] a real contraction of the GDP by 60.9% for 2020,” Ho said, forecasting an even deeper drop than that forecasted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in mid-October this year. At the time, the IMF predicted the contraction of the local GDP by 52.3%.
To tackle the great difficulties and challenges that are also causing a significant drop in government revenues, Ho has called for collective resilience, noting that although many cuts are expected, the government’s top priorities will be the protection of the lives, health, and the jobs of the residents.
On this topic, Ho announced that in 2021, the government will continue to reinforce measures oriented toward the well-being of the population, ensuring that the cuts to public expenditure would not affect these areas.
“We will continue to implement measures oriented to the well-being of the population, such as the wealth partaking scheme [cash handouts], the refund of the professional tax, the exemption from the payment of property tax for the residential units of residents and the continuation of the subsidy for water and electricity bills,” Ho said, adding, “We will also continue with the health care benefits and the special support to the most vulnerable households.”
According to the LAG2021 report, all the subsidies and tax reductions will remain the same as in previous years. The only novelty is in regard to the cash handouts as the government has not yet decided on how the money will be distributed. This could be through common bank checks, banking transference into the residents’ accounts or making use of a different method.
Addressing the employment topic, Ho ensured that it is the intention of the government to continue to grant residents priority in access to work to keep the unemployment rate as low as possible.
“We will supervise the job market and offer employment services to provide residents with more job posts and career progression opportunities,” Ho said, adding that the government aims to further reduce the number of non-resident workers.
“We will optimize the management system of the non-resident workers, strictly implementing the mechanism of entry and exit to control their number according to the progress of the epidemic situation and the economic development.”

10 priorities
For the year 2021, the government has a list of 10 priorities that will be part of the government’s mission for the year. The government’s priority is to normalize the epidemic prevention and control, as well as to make a vaccine available to the population as soon as possible. Included in the same efforts, Ho announced that the government will also prepare a preliminary project for a field hospital to enter into operation to accommodate possible future needs.
The acceleration of the economic recovery comes second as the government announced developing works on infrastructure and economic diversification. The East line of the Light Rapid Transit (LRT), the extension of Taipa line to Hengqin, and the Forth link Macau-Taipa are part of this effort. Ho also promoted the Airport expansion and the transformation of part of the Taipa Maritime Terminal into the Airport’s Terminal 2, as well as the construction of the roads and other infrastructures on Zone A of the new landfills.
On the promotion of economic diversification, the government aims to step forth with the work on establishing a bond market as well as developing the conventions and exhibitions industry, cross-border e-commerce, and the industrialization of the cultural and sports sectors.
On the people’s well-being, the government proposes to finalize the work of separating public housing into classes and continue to work on housing projects for senior citizens at Lot P of Areia Preta and promote several works on social housing at Areia Preta, Tamagnini Barbosa, and Mong-Há areas.
On the reform of public administrations, the government aims to develop the digitalization of official services to enhance administrative effectiveness. At the same time, Ho said that it is necessary to develop the mobility mechanism of civil servants to efficiently manage the number of these professionals in each public service.
Ho also promises a closer look at the audit of public spending to ensure a “no waste policy.”
Importing talented people is also on the government’s plan.
Ho pledged to support youth entrepreneurship, as well as to enable young people to work and live in mainland China; and participate in the overall national development.
The government also said that it is aiming to promote culture and sports in Macau with the creation of new cultural and sports tourism programs.
Last but not least, the CE says that Macau needs to grab the opportunities arising from the 14th National Five Year Plan to boost cooperation with Hengqin as well as the regional cooperation and integration in the Greater Bay Area. In this chapter, Ho promised to better facilitate the access and cross-border procedures for people, vehicles, and goods between Hengqin and Macau.