Government-appointed Central District Social Services Consultative Committee deputy convener Luo Ping quoted Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM) officials as saying yesterday that as of last Saturday, the bureau received 47,654 complaints from the public via its “IAM Connect” website and mobile app last year, of which 22,184 related to street hygiene with rubbish accumulation problems, while 5,583 were roadwork-related.
“IAM Connect”, which was launched in 2019, is a platform for residents to provide feedback to the bureau.
Luo made the remarks during a press briefing after the committee’s regular closed-door meeting with IAM officials at the Patane Activity Centre.
According to the officials, Luo pointed out, 97.76 percent of the cases were replied to within 24 hours, with 85.7 percent and 89.9 percent handled within three and seven days respectively.
When asked about whether the “IAM Connect” mobile app can merge with the “Macao One Account”, council member Lo Chong Fai quoted the officials as saying that the features of the two mobile apps are different, adding that the “IAM Connect” is a platform for the public to provide feedback, while the “Macao One Account” is a platform where local services are provided for the public. Consequently, according to the officials, the “IAM Connect” is unsuitable for adding to the “Macao One Account”.
Meanwhile, fellow council member Tou Mio Leng urged the government before yesterday’s regular meeting to formulate a post-COVID-19 economic recovery plan to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) maintain sufficient cash flow so that their business can recover, to implement the government’s “Stay, Dine and See Macao” as a new tourism product, and to enhance Macau’s overall tourism attractions to increase the number of tourists. In addition, Tou said, the city’s neighbourhoods should be more promoted by the government, and communication and cooperation should be increased between the government and the business sector to promote the neighbourhoods’ economic recovery.
Considering that many local SMEs have suffered heavy financial losses due to the current COVID-19 wave, during which in Rua da Felicidade, for example, according to Tou, more than 70 percent of the businesses were closed during the Christmas holidays, mainly because there were not enough staff members able to work as a large number of them were infected with COVID-19, Tou urged the government to make good use of the remaining amount of its second 10-billion-pataca financial support plan, which got off the ground in September in response to the adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the local economy, such as by providing more subsidies to the affected SMEs to alleviate their difficulties.
Luo Ping, deputy convener of the government-appointed Central District Social Services Consultative Committe (left) and committee member Lo Chong Fai pose during yesterday’s press briefing after the council’s regular closed-door meeting with Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM) officials, at the Patane Activity Centre. – Photo: Yuki Lei
