Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai yesterday ruled out the possibility of launching a new round of consumption smartcards, asking rhetorically whether government-issued consumption subsidies could still be effective in boosting local consumption and businesses in the current economic landscape where local residents travel to Zhuhai more often to dine out and shop.
The chief executive urged Macau’s civil society to ponder on effective ways to encourage more local residents to stay in Macau to eat out and go shopping, instead of merely expecting another round of government-issued consumption smartcards, which, he said, would, in effect, become another form of cash handouts, which would be ineffective in stimulating local businesses due to local residents’ changes in their consumption habits and patterns.
Sam made the remarks during a Q&A session in the legislature’s hemicycle yesterday afternoon. The chief executive attended the 4.5-hour session, which was held a day after he delivered his 1.5-hour 2026 Policy Address on Tuesday. Yesterday, he answered questions from 32 lawmakers in the 33-member Legislative Assembly (AL) chaired by André Cheong Weng Chon. As is customary, the speaker of the legislature refrains from actively taking part in his peers’ Q&A sessions, merely overseeing them.
Differences b/w pandemic and now
Sam pointed out that during the three-year COVID-19 pandemic from 2020 through 2022, the consumption smartcards issued by the government safeguarded Macau’s community economy and kept the operations of the city’s civil society stable. At that time, he noted, residents had to stay in Macau to dine out and shop due to the strict travel restrictions implemented by the local authorities, because of which, he said, local government-issued consumption subsidies were very effective in boosting local businesses at that time, when Macau’s gaming and tourism industries were hit hard by COVID-19 travel curbs.
However, Sam said, with the resumption of travel between Macau and the Chinese mainland after the COVID-19 pandemic was over, there has been a growing preference among local residents to travel to Zhuhai and other places in the mainland more often to eat out and shop. He said that in the current landscape, he believed that local residents would continue to frequent restaurants and hit the shops in the mainland rather often, irrespective of whether the local government issues another round of consumption smartcards.
Sam said that the issuing of consumption subsidies would be useless in generating extra consumer spending at local businesses. He mentioned the scenario where the beneficiary of a 5,000-pataca consumption card would possibly only use the 5,000-pataca consumption subsidy, without spending any extra money on dining out and shopping in Macau.
Pledge of alignment with nation’s 15th Five Year Plan
Meanwhile, Sam also said during yesterday’s Q&A session that his government is planning to establish an economic, trade and tourism office in Malaysia and one in Indonesia next year. In addition, Sam said, next year his government would also consider the possibility of setting up such offices in Japan and South Korea.
Meanwhile, Sam pledged to fully align Macau’s development with the nation’s 15th Five Year Plan (2026-30).
Sam underlined that the local government is intensively reviewing the implementation of its second five-year socioeconomic development plan (2021-25), based on which, he said, the local government was preparing the draft of its third five-year socioeconomic development plan (2026-30).
Sam noted that Macau’s third five-year socioeconomic development plan will be drawn up in alignment with the nation’s 15th Five Year Plan.
Pledge to safeguard locals’ jobs
Meanwhile, Sam also pledged his government’s commitment to ensuring the full protection of local residents’ employment, including efforts to create various favourable conditions aiming to help young local people find and secure a job.
Sam underlined that the local government has rolled out various measures to help young local people join the job market, such as the organisation of occupational training programmes and a subsidy encouraging them to work in mainland cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA).
Meanwhile, Sam also underlined that the local government will push ahead with its plan, laid out in Macau’s urban master plan (2020-40), to revitalise the Inner Harbour waterfront in alignment with the development of the waterfront in Zhuhai’s Wanzai, with the aim of creating a waterfront tourism cooperation zone between the two cities.
Sam underlined that the plan will be carried out in alignment with the Macau government’s ongoing plan to improve flood-prevention facilities for Inner Harbour district.
Meanwhile, Sam also pledged that the local government aims to complete its various plans to restructure or merge public entities before 2029, required by a new administrative regulation governing the setting-up and organisational structures of public entities, which took effect last month.
Sam described the government’s ongoing drive to restructure and streamline its organisational structure as a “complicated and difficult” task.
Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai answers questions from lawmakers during yesterday’s Q&A session about his 2026 Policy Address in the Legislative Assembly’s (AL) hemicycle. – Photo: GCS
