The Chief Executive, Mr Chui Sai On, stressed that at present not a piece of land in the new 350-hectare reclaimed area would be used for repay purpose.

Mr Chui said this when he attended the plenary session of the Legislative Assembly today to answer questions from 32 legislators.

Based on certain favorable policies and the public interest, such as the establishment for public housing and infrastructure, the Government had exchanged lands to satisfy the mentioned projects in the past and this had been published in the SAR Gazette which was a way to demonstrate legality, transparency and fairness, said the Chief Executive.

He said the Secretary for Transport and Public Works, Mr Raimundo Rosario, had transferred some cases regarding the lands to the Commission Against Corruption for further investigation which was a regular way to check if there was any unlawful condition during the exchange procedures.

The Chief Executive re-iterated that due to the lack of land resources in Macao, the Central Government had approved Macao to reclaim five plots of new lands in 2009 for improving the quality of Macao people’s livelihood, adding that the decision of using those lands for building more housing for Macao people was correct.

Mr Chui also said that the modification of the new urban Zone A, included building more housing units,was supported by the majority.

On the “Macao property for Macao residents” policy, he explained that the Government has invited academic units to study this topic and the conclusion report had been released. He pointed out that the study shown that this concept had advantages and as well as disadvantages, so far there was no significant consensus among the community.

Mr Chui said that to satisfy Macao people’s needs for housing, the Government adopted “public housing as the core supplemented by the Home Ownership Scheme” as its major housing policy.