There are positive prospects for Macao’s economy, one factor being that the city has been welcoming increasing numbers of tourists, even amid the COVID-19 pandemic, said the Secretary for Economy and Finance, Mr Lei Wai Nong.
Risk of infection is under control locally, and Macao would be launching a COVID-19 vaccination programme and would make vaccine widely available, he added.
Secretary Lei today said the Government would bolster its effort to promote the fact Macao remained a safe and low-risk city in relation to COVID-19. Macao sought to attract more tourists, with the aim of revitalising the local economy, he added.
Mr Lei made the remarks at the reception hosted by the Government of the Macao Special Administrative Region to celebrate the 21st anniversary of the establishment of the Macao SAR, and which was held at the China-Portuguese-speaking Countries Commercial and Trade Service Platform Complex.
Saturday (19 December) had the highest daily number of visitor arrivals recently recorded. Since the resumption on 23 September across the mainland of the facilitated individual travel scheme to Macao, the city had seen an increase in the number of inbound travellers. The tally of all visitors in September was double that of August. October had a 30-percent increase from September; while visitor arrivals in November registered double-digit percentage growth month-on-month.
Secretary Lei went on to share his insights on Macao’s economic structure. The MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) industry had seen moderate growth since the establishment of the Macao SAR. A thriving MICE industry could benefit a number of upstream and downstream industries within the local economy, he noted.
In 2019, Macao held a total of 1,536 MICE events. Of the aggregate, 198 meetings and conferences involved more than 1,000 participants: some had involved more than 10,000. Judging from the increasing number of exhibition areas, and the number of people engaging in MICE business, Macao’s capability and efficacy in terms of organising MICE events had been improving significantly, Mr Lei noted.
Secretary Lei also talked about employment issues and the Government’s employment-matching service. The current unemployment rate among Macao ID holders stood at 4.1 percent. The Government had been monitoring changes in terms of employment opportunities that are available to Macao residents, he said.
From August until now, the aggregate number of job-seeker registrations filed with the authorities was circa 6,200.
Mr Lei said approximately 320 applications for unemployment subsidy had been received in the whole of August, compared to up to 800 per month during the period of March to June. He went on to say the Government’s employment-matching service had a nearly 40-percent success rate, judged by the minimum of three matching-service events held monthly since September by the Government.
The Government would continue its effort to match jobseekers with potential employers, Mr Lei added.
In comments relating to the law on non-resident workers, Mr Lei noted non-resident workers were imported in numbers sufficient to overcome any shortfalls in local human resources. The Government pledged to protect the rights of Macao ID holders, while balancing the need to maintain some positions necessary to help Macao to welcome tens of millions of visitors yearly. In 2019, Macao received approximately 40 million visitors.
