Commentary by Manuel Silvério
Independent Analyst on Public Policy and Regional Development (Former senior public official with international experience and a longstanding commitment to public policy and sports development)
When we think of Macau’s biggest investments over the past few decades, our minds naturally turn to the bridges, the international airport, hospitals, universities, major tourism projects, and the cultural and sporting facilities that have transformed the city. All have contributed to the progress of the Macao Special Administrative Region (MSAR) and significantly improved people’s quality of life.
Yet, looking back over some of the articles I have written in recent months, I noticed something curious. I had written about international volleyball in Macau, the Lusofonia Games, Cabo Verde at the FIFA World Cup, the Sports Medicine Centre, the Asian Football Confederation’s (AFC) club licensing system and, more recently, the Association of Macanese Youth’s visit to Qinghai. At first sight, these subjects appeared to have very little in common.
But they all led me back to the same question: what has really been Macau’s greatest investment?
The answer is not infrastructure. It is people.
Infrastructure creates the conditions for development. It matters, and it will continue to matter. But bridges do not make decisions, buildings do not teach and equipment does not create knowledge on its own. It is people who turn investment into progress.
Macau began to understand this particularly well during the final years of the Portuguese administration. As the establishment of the Macao SAR approached, it became clear that institutional continuity alone would not be enough. People had to be prepared to carry those institutions forward.
Many young professionals were given responsibility early in their careers. They learnt alongside more experienced officials and specialists and developed through the practical demands of their daily work. Looking back, that quiet investment in people helped ensure a stable transition and produced a generation of professionals who would continue serving Macau for decades.
That commitment did not end in 1999. Macau’s progressive integration into national development, the emergence of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), the establishment of the Guangdong-Macao In-Depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin and steadily improving links with the Chinese mainland have opened new opportunities for education, research, employment and cooperation. These developments have done more than bring cities closer together. They have brought people closer and widened the range of possibilities available to them.
At the same time, Macau has developed highly qualified professionals across many fields. Today, its public services, universities, hospitals, businesses and associations possess considerable expertise. The challenge is no longer simply to train capable people. It is also to create the conditions for institutions to work together more effectively.
Modern societies do not advance through sectors operating in isolation. The major challenges of our time require coordination, shared knowledge and the ability to work across institutional boundaries.
I was reminded of this when revisiting the history of international volleyball in Macau. For more than three decades, some of the world’s finest national teams competed here. Spectators naturally remember the matches and the titles. What I remember most, however, are the hundreds of young people who took their first steps as volunteers, interpreters, technicians, administrators and event organisers.
Many later pursued entirely different careers, but the experience they gained through those international events stayed with them. The real legacy was never confined to the sports hall. It remained with the people.
The same was true of the Lusofonia Games. Their greatest value was not simply the medals or the international scale of the event. It lay in collective learning, the friendships that were formed, the networks of cooperation that emerged and the experience accumulated by those involved in organising them.
A few days later, writing about Cabo Verde at the World Cup brought me back to the same conclusion. A small country demonstrated that success depends less on territorial size than on the ability to develop people, build sound institutions and mobilise talent.
My reflections on the future of Macau’s Sports Medicine Centre pointed in the same direction. Beyond providing clinical services, an institution of this kind can become a centre for knowledge, research, training and innovation. Even an apparently technical subject such as the Asian Football Confederation’s club licensing system reveals a similar truth: development increasingly depends not only on material resources, but on the ability of institutions to cooperate.
More recently, the visit to Qinghai strengthened this conviction further. Over several days, young people from Macau encountered a reality very different from their everyday lives. They experienced the vastness of the country, its ethnic diversity, the importance of ecological security, its strategic resources and the demands of life in regions where development takes place far from the great metropolitan centres.
It was more than a journey. It was an educational experience.
They discovered that understanding the country requires curiosity, a willingness to learn and the courage to leave one’s comfort zone. Such experiences are not easily forgotten. They can help prepare more aware and responsible citizens, better equipped to contribute to Macau.
Today, it is easy to measure Macau’s progress through new infrastructure, economic indicators or changes to the urban landscape. Much harder to measure are the things we cannot readily see: accumulated knowledge, experience passed from one generation to the next, trust built between institutions and the ability to prepare those who will assume responsibility in the future.
That is where a society’s real wealth lies.
Over the past decades, Macau has invested billions of patacas in building the city. That investment was essential, and its results are visible everywhere. But a bridge does not bring people closer unless someone crosses it in search of new opportunities. A university does not create knowledge without teachers and researchers. A hospital does not save lives merely because the building exists. A cultural centre cannot preserve identity without artists, creators and audiences. And a major event leaves no meaningful legacy if it fails to develop people.
Development, therefore, can never be measured by construction alone. What matters is our ability to turn material investment into human capital.
Looking back at the articles I have published in recent months, I now realise that they were all telling the same story, though from very different perspectives.
International volleyball showed how a major sporting event can help shape generations. The Lusofonia Games reminded us that cooperation between peoples leaves a legacy extending far beyond medals. Cabo Verde demonstrated how a small country can achieve remarkable things when it believes in its people. The Sports Medicine Centre showed that an institution should be valued not only for the services it provides but also for the knowledge it creates. The AFC club licensing system illustrated how the future increasingly depends on coordination between institutions. And Qinghai reminded us that knowing the country better also means preparing Macau better for the future.
All these examples lead to the same conclusion: sustainable development does not begin with infrastructure. It begins with people.
Bridges connect shores. Buildings reshape skylines. Institutions organise society. But none of them dreams, learns, teaches or serves. People do.
Perhaps, then, when future generations ask what Macau’s greatest investment really was, the answer will not be found only in the projects that transformed the city.
It will be found in the generations we were able to nurture, in the institutions that knew how to pass on knowledge, and in the people who continue, every day, to build the future of the Macao Special Administrative Region.
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