Secretary for Administration and Justice André Cheong Weng Chon, who is also the spokesman for the government’s top advisory Executive Council, has announced that the government has finished drafting a new bill regulating the setting-up and operation of investment funds and fund management companies, with the aim of promoting the development of Macau’s modern finance.
Cheong made the announcement during a press conference at Government Headquarters on Friday. The bill will be submitted to the Legislative Assembly (AL) in due course for debate, review and vote.
Cheong said that with the aim of accelerating the development of Macau’s modern finance, one of the government’s measures promoting Macau’s appropriate economic diversification, the government has drafted the bill after consulting representatives from the city’s financial sector as well as experts and scholars in the field and referencing the respective laws in a number of countries and regions.
The bill proposes to update legislation on investment funds and fund management companies to replace the current decree law enacted back in 1999 when Macau was still under temporary Portuguese administration.
According to Cheong, the bill proposes to strengthen coordination between Macau’s legal system regulating investment funds and the international supervisory system.
The bill also aims to enhance the protection for investors, such as by proposing tougher statutory requirements for information disclosure for investment fund prospectus and investment portfolios.
Also addressing Friday’s press conference, Henrietta Lau Hang Kun, a member of the Administrative Committee of the Macau Monetary Authority (AMCM), said that modern finance is an important component of the government’s campaign to appropriately diversify Macau’s economy.
Lau said that the government has drafted the bill after referencing the respective legal systems in a number of countries and regions whose investment fund markets have been maturely developed such as Hong Kong, Singapore and the mainland.
Lau said that the bill aims to create favourable conditions in Macau aiming to attract companies from elsewhere to launch and operate investment funds here.
Secretary for Administration and Justice André Cheong Weng Chon (right) and Henrietta Lau Hang Kun, a member of the Administrative Committee of the Macau Monetary Authority (AMCM), address Friday’s press conference at Government Headquarters. – Photo courtesy of TDM