2021-2025 economic and social development plan emphasizes diversification and gaming mass-market expansion

The plan is, however, scarce in terms of references to the future of one of the main pillars of the local economy, the gaming industry, stating in one of the few mentions that authorities intend to “continuously increase the proportion occupied by the mass market in gaming revenue, and rigorously assess requests regarding the increase of gaming tables”.

In 2019 VIP represented only 39 per cent of the city’s total MOP295 billion in gross gaming revenues, with premium mass accounting for 30 per cent, base mass tables for 25 per cent and 6 per cent for slots/ETGs.
The percentage represented by the VIP sector has since then dropped to 35 per cent in 2020 and is expected to further decrease to 23 in 2021.

The increase of live dealer table numbers was also limited to a 3 per cent compound annual expansion under a previous government policy set to last until the end of 2022. As of the end of September, there were 6,302 dealer tables in SAR casinos.

The government also proposes to increase the revenue gained from the mass market, improve the laws and regulations of the industry, strengthen supervision and strictly review new applications for gaming counters.
Gaming concessionaires will also be urged to ‘fulfil their social responsibilities in education, social livelihood, and environmental protection’, encouraging them to strengthen linkages with local SMEs and ‘contribute to society’.

Authorities are currently in the process of preparing a revision of the current gaming law and preparing the public tender that will decide the future of the current six gaming concessionaires and sub-concessionaires.

Take your pick
The plan emphasizes that in the next five years, new economic growth points will be developed promoting industries such as medical and health, modern finance, high-tech, exhibition and trade, and culture and sports.

The traditional Chinese medicine industry will be a “starting point”, with the promulgating of the new law and establishing of medical products administration to regulate the industry, to attract large pharmaceutical companies to settle in Macau.

Also, with the “preferential policy” given by the central government, the SAR government aim to enter the mainland market and gradually expand to Africa, Europe, Southeast Asia, using Portuguese speaking countries as a breakthrough point.

For traditional industries and small and medium-sized enterprises, the plan pointed out the need to assist enterprises in building the “Macau brand” and exporting products to the mainland market by promoting good use of technology and digitalization together with the Mainland and Macao Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) zero-tariff policies.

The CEPA is a trade agreement that upholds the ‘One Country Two Systems’ principles which deals with customs procedures, intellectual property rights, and economic and technical agreements. Under the agreement, no tariffs will be enacted on goods traded between the two regions.

Regarding the current pillar industry, gaming and tourism, the plan states that while ensuring the stable development of the gaming industry, it is essential to promote the development of non-gaming businesses with creative and distinctive elements, thereby attracting more international and diversified tourists.

With the aim of promoting “tourism +” products and high-quality tourism, elements such culture, food, exhibition, sports will be further integrated into the development of the tourism industry.

All about finance
On the financial industry side, the plan highlights the need to accelerate the development of the bond market with more policies to attract companies from Portuguese-speaking countries and mainland China to issue bonds and raise funds in the city, especially from the Greater Bay Area.

The government hopes to build the central securities depository (CSD) into a widely recognized system for the mainland and international bond markets.
The central securities depository (CSD) opened yesterday (Wednesday) aim to develop the bond market and consolidate Macau’s role as a financial services platform linking mainland China and Portuguese-language countries.

The government also emphasized the need to make use of the Cross-boundary Wealth Management Connect Scheme and improve the laws and regulations in the financial industry, as to develop wealth management and financial leasing businesses and attract more foreign financial companies to settle in Macau.