Residents in favor of utilizing MJC land for recreational facilities, survey finds

The “People’s Alliance for the Construction of Macau” (Aliança de Povo de Instituição de Macau) has surveyed 587 locals on the future of the land plot belonging to the former Macau Jockey Club (MJC) that closed its doors earlier this year.

According to the survey results, the majority of those questioned (33%) favored using the land for “public leisure facilities,” the president of the association, Chan Peng Peng, said while unveiling the results.

“Cultural facilities” (18.5%) was the second most popular choice, and “Health facilities” came third with 13.9% of the responses.

The possibility of construction of a “community service center” garnered 11.7% of the responses, while repurposing the venue into “educational facilities” got 9.8% of the total.

There was less interest in the possibility of transforming the place into a “Commercial complex” (8.5%) and the least popular option with only 4.4% of votes was to use the plot for “housing projects”.

Reading the results, Chan noted that such a large share of people calling for the use of space as a leisure area “shows that the local population is very keen to increase public leisure areas in the city.”

The survey also called on the same respondents to express their degree of satisfaction with the current situation and use of the land plot, with a majority of 40.5% claiming to be either dissatisfied (23%) or very dissatisfied (17.5%).

On the other hand, 4.5% of respondents were “very satisfied” with the current situation.

In conclusion, Chan argued that the government should pay consideration to public opinion when making a final decision on the repurposing of this large area and respect the opinion aired by the majority.

The People’s Alliance for the Construction of Macau is an association linked to the Fujianese community in Macau which has significant representation at the Legislative Assembly, with three lawmakers currently. RM