The Chief Executive, Mr Edmund Ho Hau Wah, reviewed the governance in the past decade when he delivered an address at the Legislative Assembly today.

In the past 10 years, Macao confronted challenges brought about by recession, pandemic such as SARS and Influenza A (H1N1), rapid social and economic transitions, and the global financial turmoil, Mr Ho said.

He said that the experience of the Government gained over the first decade of the Macao SAR was valuable for the future development of Macao.

In retrospect, Mr Ho said that the achievements of Macao in the past decade were important and significant, even there were rooms for further improvement.

With the support of the Central Government and the close collaboration of the residents, the Government fully conformed to the Basic Law of Macao and propelled the implementation of the principles of ‘One Country, Two Systems’, ‘Macao People Governing Macao’ and ‘a high degree of autonomy’.

The Government also fully co-operated with the Legislative Assembly, guaranteed the independence of the judiciary and safeguarded final adjudication.

Macao’s economy blossomed since the opening of the gaming market, bringing more opportunities to the residents and enhancing their quality-of-life.

In view of the new problems brought about by the expansion of the gaming industry, the Government also tightened the supervision of all gaming companies.

The Government was also very concerned about the polarisation of Macao’s industrial structure and pushed for a more diversified economic spectrum.

The ’15 years of free education’, reform of education system and Macao’s inclusion of World Heritage were among the glittering achievements of the Government in the past decade.

However, Mr Ho also said there were still rooms for improvements. Public services, efficiency of the public entities and the depth of legal reform still fell short of public expectation.

Despite all the efforts, the blossoming economy had not developed in a balanced manner. Moreover, there were rooms for improvement in regards of the policies of human resources, living environment, transport and small- and medium-sized enterprises, as well as the tackling of the problems brought about by the gaming industry.

The construction of public housing had been a focal point of public attention and it is expected that 19,000 public housing units would be completed by 2012. Mr Ho also emphasised the importance of building a corruption-free society.

Reviewing the works of the Government in the Fiscal Year 2009, Mr Ho said that the Government had introduced measures to cope with the impacts of the global financial turmoil and completed the legislation of the National Security Law and the elections of the Third-term Chief Executive and the Fourth Legislative Assembly.

Mr Ho said he believed that, with the support of the Central Government and under the leadership of Mr Chui, the next government would bring even more success to the implementation of the principle of ‘One Country, Two Systems’ and Macao.

On behalf of the Macao SAR Government, Mr Ho expressed his gratitude to the support of the Central Government, its agencies in Macao, the Legislative Assembly, civil servants and the general public.