Lawmaker Melinda Chan Mei Yi, who heads the Alliance for Change group, No. 18 on the September 17 ballot, said yesterday her group could help the government develop Macau’s role as a business-service platform between China and the world’s eight Portuguese-speaking countries (PSCs) if her group succeeded in its re-election bid.
Chan is the wife of businessman David Chow Kam Fai, a former lawmaker. Her group comprises eight candidates with Macau Travel Industry Council (ATIM) President Andy Wu Keng Kuong and Jorge Valente as second- and third-ranked candidates respectively.
Valente, a businessman and political newcomer, is the son of Jorge Neto Valente, a former lawmaker who heads the Macau Lawyers Association (AAM).
Speaking to The Macau Post Daily yesterday at the Macau Landmark casino-hotel in Zape, Chan, a two-term legislator, pointed out that her fellow candidates have backgrounds in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the MICE sector and the tourism industry, adding she believed Valente and her fellow candidates are all well acquainted with the business environment in China and PSCs.
Chan noted that as she had been a lawmaker for eight years, there are many issues she wants to follow up on in the incoming legislature. “I want to do more in the next four years,” Chan said.
Chan said if her group was elected, it would urge the government to raise its old-age pension to at least 4,050 patacas a month, which would be equivalent to the official minimum subsistence index. She also said her group would put housing as its first priority in the legislature.
Valente said his group was also proposing that all of the government’s consultative committees include representatives from the Macanese community and young people.
Customarily, the term Macanese refers to local people of mixed Portuguese and Asian descent.
Moreover, Chan said she thought that due to the newly-amended Legislative Assembly Election Law and the guidelines set up by the Legislative Assembly Electoral Affairs Committee (CAEAL), this time there’s no election atmosphere in the city, adding that election-related issues are not widely discussed by residents.
Chan said that for future elections she would like the official campaign period to be extended, adding that it would enable registered voters to have more time to get to know political newcomers.
The official campaign period lasts just two week. It started on September 2 and ends on Friday night.
Lawmaker Melinda Chan Mei Yi (right) and fellow candidate Jorge Valente pose yesterday at their electoral group’s office in the Macau Landmark casino-hotel in Zape. Photo: Debby Seng
