Central People’s Government Liaison Office Deputy Director Yao Jian said on Thursday that as long as the employment rights of local residents are protected, the city should be “open-minded” by allowing “more people” to compete in the job market, adding that the city’s sustainable development can only be achieved if there is competition.
Yao made the remarks at the Bank of China Building in Nam Van, where he attended the co-operation agreement signing ceremony for the training of banking professionals between the Macau Federation of Trade Unions and Macau Banks Association.
In response to two indirectly-elected lawmakers from the business sector who urged the government to study the hiring of non-local commercial drivers, Secretary for Economy and Finance Lionel Leong Vai Tac said in the legislature in November that the government would further study the viability of importing non-local drivers without affecting the employment prospects of local drivers.
The business sector has repeatedly called for the hiring non-local drivers in recent months.
In December, Leong said, on two occasions, that the government was open-minded about the hiring of non-local drivers and would keep listening to opinions from the business and labour sectors.
Yao made the remarks when asked by the media on Thursday about the hot-button issue.
Yao said that local civil society should be more “open-minded” (about the hiring of non-residents workers) so that the city could continue developing. “Otherwise, we will not have a [bright] future,” he said.
Yao also said that opening-up to the rest of the world was a trend for the whole nation, adding that therefore it should also be a trend in Macau.
(Macau News / The Macau Post Daily)
