Political group calls for probe over land reserve handling

Three members from the Macau Community Development Initiative (MCDI), which is supported by lawmakers Au Kam San and Ng Kuok Cheong, approached the Public Prosecutions Office and the Commission Against Corruption yesterday afternoon, appealing for an inquiry into the Land, Public Works and Transport Bureau over its handling of the land reserve around the Nam Van Lake.
In mid-September, the media outlet All About Macau alleged that the government had shelved four available parcels of land for no reason. The land reserve, together with the neighboring lots already granted to property developers, is still undeveloped despite the latter already passing the required time to do so.
“The land lots have been idle for over 20 years and they’re simply for growing grass and flowers,” said MCDI’s vice president Lei Man Chao. The group told media that the bureau should be blamed for its inaction, which could be punishable by law.
“As the government always claims they have no land, yet such land parcels have been there for a long time,” he said. “Why haven’t the authorities recovered them?”
Au Kam San, who established the group with other pro-democracy activists, also founders of the New Macau Association, estimates that aside from the four land lots in the government’s hands, there are 14 other parcels that should have been properly developed.
“The 14 parcels, although expired, are not on the government’s list of recovery seemingly,” the lawmaker argued. MCDI members are confident that there must be malpractice within the public department and petitioned for the law enforcers’ intervention.
The Secretary for Transport and Public Works Raimundo do Rosário responded to the allegations later in the day stating that the above four land lots are now going through relevant judicial procedures, which would determine if they belong to the government, according to a TDM report. AU

STATISTICS | Money supply circulation ‘rebounds’ in September

Macau has experienced a healthy “rebound” in money supply, according to data released recently by the Monetary Authority. The amount of currency in circulation grew by 2.1 percent month-on-month, while demand deposits were up by 1.2 percent.
The share of the money supply defined in MOP stood at 28.5 percent, up by 0.5 percentage points from a month ago. Meanwhile, the HKD was up by 0.1 percentage points month-on-month (49.2 percent), the RMB was down 0.8 percentage points (9.2 percent), and the USD rose by 0.2 percentage points (10.9 percent).
Deposits submitted by residents increased by 0.8 percent compared to the previous month, amounting to MOP470.6 billion, of which MOP, HKD, and RMB increased by the respective rates of 2.8 percent, 1 percent, and 7.6 percent. The USD increased at 3.1 percent.
Domestic loans to the private sector increased by 1.1 percent month-on-month to MOP390.3 billion. External loans dropped by 1.7 percent to MOP388.3 billion, of which HKD, RMB, and HKD accounted for 24.4 percent, 20.4 percent, and 48.2 percent, respectively.
As total deposits increased but total loans decreased, the overall loan-to-deposit ratio of the banking sector dropped from a month earlier.