Local residents in the central district were asked by The Macau Post Daily yesterday evening about Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng’s 2023 Policy Address, which he delivered yesterday afternoon at the Legislative Assembly (AL).
Here are some of their opinions regarding the government’s 10,000-pataca cash handout and local employment issues.
‘Better than no financial support plans’
A female civil servant aged 35, surnamed Lei, said that she was glad that the government will continue to give the 10,000-pataca wealth-sharing handout, which she would spend on buying daily necessities, adding that although the money may not be enough to support everyone’s daily life, “it’s better than no financial support plan at all.”
When asked about her thoughts on the decrease in the number of non-resident workers (NRWs) in Macau, Lei said she hoped that the government could increase the number of NRWs working as domestic helpers, adding that with the reduced availability of domestic helpers in Macau, people’s expenditure on paying domestic helpers’ salaries “has sharply increased,” causing a “big burden” to locals.
Regarding the government’s announcement of insisting on continuing its “normalized” COVID-19 pandemic and control measures, she said that residents “are already feeling tired” of the government’s anti-COVID-19 measures as the pandemic has affected them for over two years, adding that, if possible, she hoped the government could cancel all pandemic-related travel restrictions within two years.
More subsidies for the elderly
A local male newspaper stall vendor in his 60s, surnamed Pun, said he understood the government’s budget deficit in recent years and accepted the fact that the government’s 10,000 pataca cash handout next year would remain the same as this year, despite people’s livelihoods having been greatly affected by the pandemic.
Pun said business at his stall was “not good” and he acknowledged that the 10,000 patacas would help him with his living expenses.
However, Pun said he wanted the government to increase the subsidy for senior citizens and the old-age pension, describing the life of many elderly people in Macau as “very difficult” now.
According to Ho’s 2023 Policy Address, seniors will get a 9,000-pataca one-off allowance, as well as a 3,740-pataca monthly old-age pension disbursed 13 times a year.
Pun said he expected the government to resume paying again the 7,000-patacas into residents’ Non-Mandatory Central Provident Fund.
Owing to the adverse impact of the pandemic on Macau’s economy and finances, the government has not been paying its special annual allocation of 7,000 patacas into residents’ Non-Mandatory Central Provident Fund accounts for two years and won’t pay it next year as well.
‘Reasonable mechanism’ for NRWs to quit the market
Cheong, a male student, told The Macau Post Daily that many of Macau’s NRWs have taken residents’ jobs, such as clerks.
Cheong added that the government should set up a “reasonable” mechanism for 100,000 NRWs to withdraw from the local market so as to provide more job opportunities for locals.
According to Ho’s policy address, local residents’ current unemployment rate stands at 5.2 percent. He also said that the jobs of 40,000 NRWs had meanwhile been “adjusted.”
Regarding the government’s plan to continue providing tax incentives next year, such as that employees will continue to enjoy a 30 percent reduction in personal income tax, Cheong pointed out that the measure doesn’t benefit low-income families whose salaries do not meet the tax threshold, adding that neither would the “sandwich class” benefit much from the tax reduction.
Training local specialists in long term
Chu, a male civil servant aged 39, said he considered the recent withdrawal of 40,000 NRWs from the local labour market to be “a big number”, but said that the amount was by no means the point, but rather that the Macau labour market lacks specialists and professionals to work in a range of industries, and that NRWs could fill the gap, as perhaps Macau people lack experience or training.
Chu said he thought the employment issue was caused by the local small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) which prefer to hire NRWs as they are “much cheaper than local staff”, while some NRWs can do the job that locals are “not qualified or not willing to do.”
“Simply reducing the number of NRWs cannot solve the root of Macau’s employment problem,” Chu concluded.
Chu pointed out that in the long run, it would be better for the government to train more local specialists and equip them with professional skills so that Macau would not lag so much behind neighbouring regions such as Hong Kong.
This photo taken yesterday shows the city centre where the vox pop took place yesterday evening.
– Photo: Ginnie Liang
