Policy Address | Social Affairs and Culture: Tam lists more proposals than concrete measures

Alexis Tam

Although Social Affairs and Culture is one of the broader secretariats in the government, as it oversees sectors such as education, health and tourism, the first day of the debate over the Policy Address for 2018 was devoid of any major novelties.

Secretary Alexis Tam and his team of directors were at the Legislative Assembly (AL) yesterday to present the prime features of the developments under his secretariat. Although there was a high number of registration from lawmakers (30) which is normally a sign of a heated debate, it was the opposite yesterday, with the summary of the activities of the secretariat taking most of the time and there being little discussion over the important topics in what is expected to be a difficult year for Tam.

One of the most highlighted topics was, in fact, the new Non-Mandatory Central Provident Fund System coming into force on January 1, with several lawmakers interested in the current status of government negotiations with several industries and organizations, namely about the interest of the gaming concessionaires to join the scheme.

Lawmaker Ng Kuok Cheong addressed the matter, asking if “the government has already consulted the gaming concessionaires and other ‘large’ companies to join [the scheme]?” Ng urged the Secretary to present the current status.
Not being able to give a concrete answer on the topic, Tam reviewed the measures implemented by the government regarding the support provided to the citizens, especially regarding retirement.

Tam said, “we give a lot of importance to this. The elderly [have] contributed a lot to society. We want them to feel included and useful,” adding that, “in other places, working people need to pay a lot of taxes to support these people [retired]. This doesn’t happen in Macau as the government is assuming this role and not charging taxes to residents that are active in order to support the welfare fund.”
According to Tam, “scholars say we have already passed the risk level, that is of MOP4,500. What we give [in subsidies] is above this. We hope they [the elderly] can have a dignifying life.”

Au Kam San (left) and Ng Kuok Cheong

Tam said that the goal for the government is to ensure that senior citizens can be taken care of by their families and stay in their homes, and mentioned that the Social Welfare Bureau (IAS) is planning a new subsidy soon in order to help families to do so.

Also in discussion were the issues related to health and questioning on the Islands District Medical Complex (Islands Hospital).

Ho Ion Sang, Zhang Anting and Au Kam San were some of the lawmakers that questioned the government on the topic, asking for clarification on the project and concrete scheduling for it.

On the topic, Tam simply commented “as for the Islands hospital, we are users only, the construction is not in our hands, we don’t have a calendar, but we hope we can have at least part of it [built] by the end of this mandate of the government,” he said, downgrading the importance of the topic. Tam also mentioned that, “even if we don’t have the [islands] hospital yet, we are improving and extending on other services, especially on Health Care Centers.”

On this, Ho replied by disagreeing with the extension of the working hours of some Health Care Centers, while Tam claimed, “I don’t think creating overtime is not a good measure. It just causes added work pressure to physicians and nursing staff.”

While Au hinted that it was necessary to “increase quality” of the medical services provided, Tam disagreed, citing figures to say that the Macau Health System is considered as one of the top five countries and regions by the World Health Organization and that Macau, in terms of life expectancy, is ranked better than Singapore, the USA and Canada.

Despite being satisfied with the results, Tam has mentioned that they “continue to work to improve and to hire specialists to work in our medical units, especially from Portugal,” adding that such professionals would also serve as “trainers to other medical staff.”

Adding to that, the Health Bureau director Lei Chin Ion said regarding the construction of the Islands Hospital that the government is counting on the help of several international organizations, from medical and design and architecture fields, in order to create the best possible building. He said that this help would be particular important especially to the “oncology services and surgery block.”

Taking the same opportunity, Lei also clarified the idea of a “Smart Medicine” approach, as noted in the Policy Address.
“We are working on information technology systems to help people to regulate health issues such as blood pressure and glucose levels,” he said, adding, “people can do this through a mega data processing app and we can know [also through that system] about some aspects related to particular people or diseases outbreak, for instance, in a certain area of the city or when a group of people are affected by food poisoning. We can easily and speedily identify the causes.”

Blue Sky Project to conclude earlier than expected

Initially presented by the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture ahead of the policy address for 2016, Alexis Tam said yesterday that the “Blue Sky Project” could be completed 10 years sooner than originally thought.

The project aims to remove schools from residential buildings, improve their environment and ensure that each school has a playground and outdoor space area.

Yesterday, on the first day dedicated to questions and answers regarding the policy address for 2018 for the Secretariat of Social Affairs and Culture, Tam acknowledged that the project could be concluded “faster than expected.” He said that instead of the projected 15 to 20 years, the project could take “probably less than 10 years.”

According to Tam, the basis of the change is the recent development regarding the reclamation of land plots by the government; namely the site where the Macau (Yat Yuen) Canidrome currently operates.

“At that time we didn’t know about Canidrome and other land plots that could be used to build school parks [such as Zone A of new landfills],” Tam said, adding, “we were quite conservative in our forecast.”
The Secretary also noted on the matter of the Canidrome land plot that, through the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau, “We have already presented to the Land, Public Works and Transport Bureau a project to build four schools, one of them to be dedicated to special education. These schools will serve the population of the northern zone of the city.”

“We also have a project [planned] for Zone A [of the new landfills]. We want to have some temporary buildings for schools that need to do construction works to rebuild or change location [of their current school facilities].”

Health bureau opens recruitment for 21 Portuguese Physicians

THE HEALTH Bureau opened this week a recruitment process aiming to recruit a total of 21 physicians from Portugal, the SSM informed. According to the statement, the recruitment is being conducted in cooperation with the Portuguese Medical Association and aims to recruit specialists in the fields of gastroenterology, imaging, neurology, nephrology, pediatrics, pneumology, geriatrics, psychiatry, pathological anatomy as well as general, thoracic, vascular and metabolic surgery. The SSM justified the recruitment drive by noting that such professionals are needed to cope with the growth and development of medicine locally.