The Government Services Centre in Areia Preta district, which has been open also every Saturday and Sunday for eligible local residents to submit their applications to be granted exemptions from the 183-day minimum stay requirement to benefit from the government’s 2025 wealth-sharing programme, will no longer be open on Saturday and Sunday, effective from tomorrow, the Government Information Bureau (GCS) announced in a statement yesterday.
The application period for the exemptions, which began on June 18, is running until December 31, 2028.
Including the Government Services Centre in Areia Preta, five service centres have been receiving applications for the exemptions, with the other four comprising the Integrated Services Centre in the China Plaza office building in Nam Van district, the Central District Public Services Centre on Rotunda de Carlos da Maia (popularly known as “Three Lamps”), the Government Services Centre in Taipa, and the Islands District Public Services Centre in Coloane’s Seac Pai Van public housing neighbourhood.
Applications can be submitted via the Macao One Account e-government app, the wealth-sharing programme’s dedicated website, by post, or visiting one of the five service centres.
While the other four service centres have been open from Monday to Friday between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. since the application period’s commencement, the counters receiving applications for the exemptions at the Government Services Centre in Areia Preta have been open every day between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. The government implemented the weekend service at the Government Services Centre in Areia Preta with the aim of enabling those who wished to submit their applications by visiting a service centre but were unable to do so on weekdays due to work or other commitments to file their submissions in written application forms on a Saturday or Sunday.
The weekend service for the Government Services Centre in Areia Preta was implemented for three weekends, namely June 21 and 22, June 28 and 29, and July 5 and 6, before the upcoming termination of its implementation effective from tomorrow.
Yesterday’s GCS statement said that the government has decided to terminate the weekend service for the Government Services Centre in Areia Preta as the number of residents submitting their applications there on a Saturday or Sunday has gradually declined.
Consequently, the Government Services Centre in Areia Preta will now only be open from Monday to Friday between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. for receiving applications for the exemptions, the same as the other four service centres.
Yesterday’s statement also said that around 80 percent of the submitted applications for the exemptions have so far been made via the Macao One Account e-government app.
This file photo released by the Government Information Bureau (GCS) yesterday shows local residents submitting their applications for exemptions from the 183-day minimum stay requirement at the Government Services Centre in Areia Preta district.
