The Macau-Guangdong Union (UMG) candidacy group, the No.4 on the ballot paper for the 2025 direct legislative election, urges the government to launch a 5,000-pataca monthly subsidy for local employers hiring young local people who have newly graduated from tertiary education institutions in Macau or elsewhere, lasting up to 18 months.
The group’s political platform says that with the aim of helping young local people secure a job in the local employment market, the group suggests that the government launch the subsidy for local employers in reference to its newly announced subsidy aiming to encourage young local people to pursue their career development in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area (GBA).
The government announced earlier this year that it will launch a 5,000-pataca monthly subsidy for young local people up to the age of 35 who work in the mainland cities in the GBA, for which the beneficiaries must have graduated from tertiary education institutions in Macau or elsewhere in order to receive the subsidy lasting up to 18 months.
The group is one of the six candidacy groups running in the upcoming direct election with polling day on September 14.
The two incumbent lawmakers fielded by the UMG group in the direct election four years ago, Zheng Anting and Lo Choi In, did not seek re-election this time. Instead, the group has fielded Joey Lao Chi Ngai, 50, and Lee Koi Ian, 50, as its first and second-ranked candidates for the 2025 direct election.
Lao had never run in a direct or indirect election, but he was appointed as a lawmaker by Macau’s then chief executive Fernando Chui Sai On in 2017, while he was not re-appointed in 2021 when Ho Iat Seng was the chief executive.
Both Lao and Lee are running in the direct legislative election for the first time.
Lao is an economics scholar, while Lee is a gold jewellery businessman.
Lao currently heads the Strategy and Planning Office of the public University of Macau (UM).
The UMG group has fielded Ng Nga Fan, 37, as its third-ranked candidate for the 2025 direct election.
Ng, an executive of a kitchen equipment trading company, stood as a candidate for the direct legislative election for the first time four years ago, when she was the eighth-ranked candidate.
The group comprises 14 candidates for the direct legislative election this time.
The UMG group first ran in the legislature’s direct election in 2009, when Mak Soi Kun, a building contractor, was elected.
The group won one seat in the 2009 direct election, when Zheng was the fifth-ranked candidate.
In the 2013 direct election, the group won two seats, enabling Mak to be re-elected and the then second-ranked candidate Zheng to join the legislature for the first time.
In the 2017 direct election, the group won two seats again, enabling Mak and Zheng to be re-elected.
Mak did not seek re-election in the 2021 direct election, when the group fielded Zheng and Lo as its first and second-ranked candidates. Four years ago, the group once again won two seats, enabling Zheng to be re-elected and Lo to join the legislature for the first time.
Lo had been a candidate of the UMG group since the 2013 direct election, ranking fourth and third in 2013 and 2017 respectively.
The group is the electoral vehicle of the influential Macau Jiangmen Communal Society.
The UMG group’s political platform for the 2025 direct election comprises five major aspects, calling for a more vibrant economic development, a more sustainable system for improving residents’ well-being, closer Macau-Guangdong integration, more efficient governance, and a brighter future for the youth.
The political platform says that the group’s election campaign philosophy is to make Macau residents’ lives happier.
In the first aspect laid out in its political platform for the direct election this time, the candidacy group urges the government to roll out fresh measures aiming to ensure that it will make concrete achievements in its appropriate economic diversification drive.
The group calls for the government to launch various measures with the aim of improving the city’s business environment and boosting the community economy.
The group urges the government to strengthen its support for local small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to upgrade their operations through digital transformation, with the aim of enhancing their competitiveness.
The group calls for public entities to choose local SMEs in their acquisition of goods and services more often, while also urging the government to roll out special measures aiming to encourage large enterprises to purchase goods and services from local SMEs.
In the second aspect, the group’s political platform calls for a range of fresh measures aiming to enhance local employees’ competitiveness and help them secure better jobs.
The group urges the government to improve the city’s traffic, healthcare services, and childcare measures, with the aim of improving residents’ well-being.
The group calls for the government to review and reform its social welfare system with the aim of strengthening support for the elderly, children, those with disabilities, and others in vulnerable groups.
In the third aspect, the group’s political platform calls for measures aiming to encourage Guangdong enterprises to set up their international headquarters or branch offices in Macau.
The group also calls for strengthened connectivity between public services for people’s daily life matters in Macau and those in Guangdong Province.
In the fourth aspect, the group’s political platform urges the government to improve its one-stop services aiming to make it easier for residents to complete public administrative formalities.
The group urges the government to reform its business licensing system with the aim of making it easier for residents to start their businesses.
In the fifth aspect, the group’s political platform calls for the government to launch a comprehensive service system aiming to help young local people pursue further study, secure jobs, or launch business start-ups.
Joey Lao Chi Ngai (third from right), the first-ranked candidate of the Macau-Guangdong Union (UMG) candidacy group, its second-ranked candidate Lee Koi Ian (third from left), its third-ranked candidate Ng Nga Fan (second from right), Chan Sio Cheng (fourth from right), the candidacy group’s official representative, and Lao Ka U (fourth from left), the executive vice-chairwoman of the Macau Jiangmen Communal Society, as well as other candidates address a press conference on Friday about the group’s political platform, at their election campaign office in Taipa. – Photo: UMG
