Directly-elected lawmaker-cum-unionist Ella Lei Cheng I, who chairs the Legislative Assembly’s (AL) 1st Standing Committee, said yesterday that the government will not directly manage public enterprises’ subsidiaries, but focus on managing the “parent companys”, while the latter will the manage their “subsidiaries”.
Lei made the remarks during a press briefing after yesterday’s closed-door meeting by the committee that is reviewing a government-initiated bill regulating the operation and supervision of the city’s public enterprises, which aims to ensure that their decision-making process will always be supervised by the government – which holds some or all of their shares – and also to assure the “rational” use of the public coffers.
Sónia Chan Hoi Fan, who heads the Macau Special Administrative Region Public Assets Supervision and Planning Office (GPSAP), attended yesterday’s meeting.
The bill proposes that public enterprises will comprise three types, namely 1) those wholly owned by the government; 2) companies where the government holds over 50 percent but less than 100 percent of the shares; and 3) companies where the government holds less than 50 percent of the shares.
According to Lei, some committee members expressed concern about how the bill would apply to companies in which the government holds different percentages of shares. Lei quoted the government officials as saying that since all public enterprises involve the use of public funds, enterprises that the government holds shares in will be subject to different levels of regulation and the government will oversee their operations, even for companies with relatively small government holdings.
Lei pointed out that the Macau Productivity and Technology Transfer Centre (CPTTM), the Macau Laboratory of Civil Engineering (LECM), the Macau Institute for Development and Quality (IDQ) are the government’s administrative public entities that are not subject to the bill, and will continue to be governed by the law regulations associations.
Lei also pointed out that in the future public-funded Macau enterprises located outside the special administrative region (SAR) should, as a matter of priority, follow the laws in the respective counties or regions where they are based.
According to the GPSAP website, there are currently 23 publicly-funded companies in Macau. In 16 of the companies the government holds over 50 percent of the shares.
Lawmaker-cum-unionist Ella Lei Cheng I (left), who chairs the legislature’s 1st Standing Committee, talks to reporters after yesterday’s closed-door meeting reviewing the government’s public enterprises bill, as the committee’s secretary, Becky Song Pek Kei, looks on. – Photo: Ginnie Liang
