The local government “has never launched any so-called 40 billion yuan (44.7 billion patacas) public investment in the metaverse, the Financial Services Bureau (DSF) said in a statement on Friday in reply to enquiries by public broadcaster TDM.
Addressing a Q&A session in the Legislative Assembly in August 2022, Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng highlighted the key development of the high-tech and big health industries in the Guangdong-Macau In-depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin: “There’s a large-scale project involving state-backed investment funds in boosting the semiconductor industry that has already got off ground in the in-depth cooperation zone, with an initial estimated investment of more than 40 billion yuan, which can complement Macau’s downstream products,” adding that artificial intelligence (AI) will be the main direction of emerging industries in the future, in which the development of the so-called metaverse was worthy of attention: “The first metaverse-related project in the cooperation zone has already commenced”.
As cited by TDM, the bureau insisted that the government has never had any project related to the so-called 40 billion yuan public investment in the metaverse, underlining that all government budgets and expenditures are subject to strict adherence to the budgetary governance rules and scrutiny by the Legislative Assembly: “In accordance with the provisions of Law 15/2017, the Budgetary Framework, and other laws and regulations, the budgetary process of the public finances of Macau includes the preparation, legislation, authorisation, execution, implementation, and budget accountability”.
According to the bureau, the government’s expenditure estimates are recorded in its budget bill and submitted to the Legislative Assembly for review and approval. If public financial resources are to be used, they must be used in accordance with the rules for compiling the budget, “by applying public funds in the process of obtaining Legislative Assembly approval for the budget beforehand and post-budget execution oversight,” the bureau said in its reply to TDM’s enquiry.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines the metaverse as “the persistent virtual environment that allows access to and interoperability of multiple individual virtual realities, pointing out that “to its proponents, the metaverse is the natural evolution of the internet. They envisage a sprawling network of interconnected virtual worlds...”.
This file photo taken in May shows the emergence of metaverse at the former Great Bao’en Temple in Nanjing. – Photo: Maria Cheang Ut Meng
