The government has announced that it is aiming to relocate its current Government Services Centre in the peninsula, located in a building in Areia Preta district, to the podium area of the nearby new social rental housing estate on Avenida de Venceslau de Morais (慕拉士大馬路) in the fourth quarter of this year.
Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM) President Chao Wai Ieng made the remarks while attending this year’s first regular meeting of the bureau’s Consultative Committee at its headquarters in the city centre on Friday.
Vehicles drive past the new Mong Son Building on Avenida de Venceslau de Morais yesterday. An area on its podium will house the new Government Services Centre.
A car and a motorcycle drive past the current Government Services Centre on Rua Nova da Areia Preta (黑沙環新街) yesterday. – Photos: Tony Wong
Macau has two Government Services Centres, with the other one located in Taipa.
The two Government Services Centres are one-stop facilities where various government entities run their respective service counters so that those needing services from different public entities can complete public administrative formalities at one place.
Private property leased to govt
The Government Services Centre in Areia Preta, which opened in 2009, is housed in a low-rise private building, located opposite the Luso-Chinese Vocational and Technical School, initially earmarked for commercial purposes. The government has leased the entire building, with four floors above ground, for its Government Services Centre. Before being leased out to the government, the building was initially known as San Kin Wa Commercial Centre (新建華商業中心).
The Government Services Centre in Taipa, which opened in 2019, is also a private property leased out to the government, located on a podium floor of the Nova Park (濠珀) residential estate.
The two Government Services Centres are operated by the Municipal Affairs Bureau.
The new social rental housing estate comprising three blocks, built on the plot of the former CEM power station on Avenida de Venceslau de Morais, is known as Mong Son Building (望信樓), where tenants started to move into their flats late last year.
Avenida de Venceslau de Morais serves as a dividing line between Areia Preta and Mong Ha districts.
The social housing estate will have a public bus terminal on the ground floor, while its other podium levels will house commercial facilities and various other communal facilities.
According to previous news reports, the government decided to relocate its current Government Services Centre in Areia Preta to the podium area of the new social rental housing estate on Avenida de Venceslau de Morais so that it will not have to pay rent to operate the centre anymore.
Fewer service counters
Speaking to members of the government-appointed committee during Friday’s meeting, which was open to the media, Chao said that an area in the podium of the Mong Son social housing estate is being decorated for the new Government Services Centre, adding that the government is aiming for its decoration to be completed in the fourth quarter of this year when its current Government Services Centre in Areia Preta, could be relocated to the new location.
However, Chao said that as the new Government Services Centre in the Mong Son social housing estate will be equipped with more self-service kiosks, the number of its service counters will be smaller than in the current Government Services Centre in Areia Preta. Chao underlined that the number of service counters in the new centre would be sufficient to meet residents’ needs as they have become more willing to use e-government services over recent years.
