The local government announced yesterday that it has finished drafting a bill regulating the use of the Macau Special Administrative Region’s (MSAR) coastal waters, proposing the formal establishment of a system on granting private entities a concession or permit to use designated maritime areas for a certain period of time.
The bill proposes that a concession will be granted to private entities, through public tender, to use a maritime area for a long period of time, for up to 15 years, involving major investment projects, while a “temporary” permit will be granted to private entities to use a maritime area for a short period of time. The bill proposes that they will be required to pay to use maritime areas.
Secretary for Administration and Justice Wong Sio Chak and Marine and Water Bureau (DSAMA) Director Susana Wong Soi Man made the announcement during a press conference at Government Headquarters yesterday. Wong Sio Chak is also the spokesman for the government’s top advisory Executive Council.
The bill will be submitted to the Legislative Assembly (AL) in due course for debate, review and vote.
On December 20, 2015, i.e., the 16th anniversary of the establishment of the MSAR, the Central People’s Government granted Macau formal jurisdiction over its coastal waters covering 85 square kilometres. Previously, unlike Hong Kong, Macau did not have formal jurisdiction over its coastal waters. Macau’s current land area amounts to 33.4 square kilometres.
Afterwards, in July 2018, Macau enacted its current framework law on the management of its coastal waters, officially known as Maritime Areas Management Framework Law.
The current framework law lists the objectives of the local government’s management of the MSAR’s coastal waters as well as the principles with which the local government must comply when managing the maritime areas.
During yesterday’s press conference, Wong Sio Chak noted that the 2018 framework law stipulates that Macau’s coastal waters are owned by the nation and that the Central People’s Government authorises the MSAR government to exercise its administrative power to manage the coastal waters.
He noted that the framework law requires the local government to draft laws and regulations on the management of Macau’s coastal waters. The framework law also enables the MSAR government to allow certain entities to use designated maritime areas by granting a concession or permit or through other official means, which is to be regulated by a specific piece of legislation, the policy secretary pointed out.
Consequently, Wong Sio Chak said, the local government has drafted the bill, officially known as Law on the Use of Maritime Areas, establishing a legal system formally governing the use of the MSAR’s coastal waters, putting the respective requirements listed by the 2018 framework law into practice.
The bill proposes that the MSAR government can grant private entities a concession to use a maritime area for a long period of time or grant them a “temporary” permit to use a maritime area only for a short period of time.
The bill proposes that private entities will have to pay to use maritime areas.
Wong Sio Chak said that the different fees that private entities will need to pay to use the respective maritime areas will be determined by a chief executive order to be promulgated after the future enactment of the new Law on the Use of Maritime Areas.
During yesterday’s press conference, Susana Wong said that a concession will be granted to private entities to use a maritime area for launching a long-term project requiring a large sum of investment, such as those involving public interest and those set to make major contributions to Macau’s economic development.
She said the bill proposes that a concession to use a maritime area may last between 2 and 15 years and that such a concession will be granted through public tender.
Susana Wong said that a “temporary” permit will be granted to private entities to use a maritime area only for a short period of time “in which their application to use the respective maritime area does not involve any major investment projects”.
She underlined that after the future enactment of the new law, the local government will assess private entities’ applications to use maritime areas in full compliance with its official plan for the coastal waters’ marine functional zoning.
The local government’s official plan for the coastal waters’ marine functional zoning, which was promulgated in 2024, divides the MSAR’s coastal waters into various zones earmarked for different use and purposes.
Susana Wong also pointed out that activities such as sightseeing cruises and sailing races are classified as maritime activities in general where the respective organisers or entities are only required to file an application under the current administrative procedures, because of which such activities will not be regulated by the future Law on the Use of Maritime Areas.
According to the current Maritime Areas Management Framework Law, use of maritime areas covers the surface of the water, the water per se, the seabed and the subsoil.
Susana Wong also said that about 30 square kilometres out of Macau’s 85-square-kilometre coastal waters are currently being used in different ways and for different purposes.
Wong Sio Chak also said yesterday that the government is still planning its “ecological island” project.
The project was first proposed by the local government about two years ago, for the reclamation of an artificial island to be used as a landfill for construction waste, to be located in a maritime area about one kilometre off Coloane’s Hac Sa Long Chao Kok coast.
Secretary for Administration and Justice Wong Sio Chak (right) and Marine and Water Bureau (DSAMA) Director Susana Wong Soi Man address yesterday’s Executive Council press conference at Government Headquarters. – Photo courtesy of TDM
