Lao Pun Lap, who heads the government’s Policy Research Office think tank, said Wednesday that the government would start consulting the public on its population policy at the end of this year.
He made the remarks during a press conference at Government House.
Four government representatives, including Alexis Tam Chong Weng, chief-of-cabinet of the office of Chief Executive Fernando Chui Sai On, Lao and two research staff of the office jointly presided over the press conference to introduce the latest developments in the office’s demographic research.
However, Lao declined to forecast how large Macau’s population ought to be in the coming one or two decades, as well as how many non-local resident workers would be needed to fill the city’s shortfall in human resources.
“It is difficult to carry out a projection on population size… we need time to carry out research, as well as analyse the new statistics gathered from [the recent] census. I hope you can understand (the difficulties we face),” Lao said, adding his office would complete preparatory work as soon as possible for the upcoming consultation process.
Lao said that the number of non-resident workers (imported labour) depended on the city’s economy at any given time. However, he insisted that the government has taken into account the needs of small-medium sized enterprises and the staff they require.
According to The Macau Post Daily Lao also said that the key demographic research will focus on the city’s ageing population, human resources and the size of the population.
At the end of last year, Macau had a population of 557,400.
In February, the number of non-resident workers stood at 98,274. Based on Macau’s land area of just 29.9 sq km, its population density amounted to 18,642 inhabitants per sq km at the end of last year, the highest worldwide.(macaunews)
