Only when Macao reopens its door to foreign visitors, upon the imminent introduction of a COVID-19 vaccine, can the city reverse the downward pressure on the local economy and local employment; as every economy in the world, including Macao's, has been badly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Chief Executive, Mr Ho Iat Seng, made the above remarks during a plenary meeting at the Legislative Assembly this afternoon, as he answered legislators' questions regarding the Policy Address for the Fiscal Year 2021.
The Chief Executive said that in the long term, Macao had further to promote economic and industrial diversification.
According to Mr Ho, the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) Government, in a bid to kick-start recovery of Macao's tourism sector, has made various efforts in publicity work, in order to let more mainland Chinese residents know that no quarantine is required on arrival in Macao, and that the city has introduced a series of tourism incentive schemes.
He noted that if circumstances permitted, the Government would strive to host large-scale festive events to attract more visitors to Macao during the New Year holidays.
If Hong Kong reports no local cases of COVID-19 for 14 consecutive days, Hong Kong would be considered for a scheme whereby Hong Kong residents would be able to enter Macao without the need for medical quarantine, provided they had a negative COVID-19 test certificate, said Mr Ho.
The Chief Executive underlined the fact that the major focus of Macao's second five-year plan was industrial restructuring, for the further promoting of economic diversification.
He pointed out that as a small economy, Macao needed to develop industries such as traditional Chinese medicine, finance and technology that suited its growth needs, and met market needs.
He added that while developing new industries, Macao also needed to maintain healthy growth of its existing tourism and gaming industries.
Regarding the Chinese medicine industry, the Chief Executive believed that more and more mainland pharmaceutical firms would produce “Made in Macao” Chinese medicine products, after the bill on the registration system of over-the-counter Chinese medicine products was passed by the Legislative Assembly.
According to Mr Ho, the manufacturing of Chinese medicine products wouldbe beneficial to perfecting Macao's industrial structure, as this industry is highly automated and not labour intensive.
Regarding Macao's financial sector, the Chief Executive noted that although Macao already had a bond market, there was neither a secondary bond market nor a relevant trading system.
Therefore the Macao SAR Government would facilitate the development of the relevant broker and registration systems for bond trading, and expedite the related legislative work in a bid to spur the growth of the local bond market, noted Mr Ho.
The Chief Executive also told legislators that the Government hoped to assist local small and medium-sized enterprises to upgrade themselves in technology terms, by helping them develop online sales and marketing capabilities.
He added that the Macao SAR Government would improve the laws and regulations regarding talent importation, to ensure that imported talent could boost Macao's economic diversification.
The Chief Executive answered a total of 31 legislators' questions during this afternoon's meeting. Topics discussed included the tax system, Macao-Guangdong cooperation, public administration reform, public spending, smart-city development, higher education, and healthcare.
