Secretary for Transport and Public Works Raimundo do Rosário said on Thursday that the government has decided not to carry out a public consultation on a research report on the city’s urban renewal process which it has commissioned a consultancy to carry out, as the government had already launched a public consultation late last year on the drafting of a bill regulating the city’s urban renewal process.
Rosário said that after the government approves the preliminary research report drafted by the consultancy, the latter will then draft the research report’s final version, a change from the initial plan in which the drafting process would have included a public consultation.
Rosário made the remarks while speaking to reporters after a closed-door meeting of the Urban Renewal Council which lasted two hours.
The meeting of the council, chaired by Rosário, was held at the Transport Bureau (DSAT) Building, which houses offices of the Transport Bureau and the Lands, Public Works and the Transport Bureau (DSSOPT). The government-appointed council is tasked with advising the government on its urban renewal policies.
The government hired a consultancy – Deloitte Consulting Services Limited – in 2018 to carry out research on how the city’s urban renewal process should go ahead.
During Thursday’s meeting, Urban Renewal Council members were briefed about the drafting progress of the consultancy’s research report.
The government launched a two-month public consultation in October last year on the drafting of an urban renewal bill. The process was headed by the then secretary for administration and justice Sonia Chan Hoi Fan. Rosário told reporters later that month that he had not read the public consultation document before the launch of the public consultation.
Rosário said on Thursday that in addition to last year’s public consultation, the recently-completed public consultation about the government’s draft of Macao’s official urban master plan also covered urban renewal matters. Rosário said that therefore the government will not launch a public consultation on the consultancy’s research report.
Rosário said that the government will not need to bother residents again by asking them about urban renewal matters for the third time. Rosário said that last year’s public consultation had already covered important information and materials in the consultancy’s research report, adding that therefore it would be meaningless to consult residents again about the matter.
According to Rosário, the preliminary research report will be submitted to Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng for approval, after which the consultancy will draft the research report’s final version.
Thursday’s meeting was the council’s first this year. Rosário said that the council completed discussing the third version of the consultancy’s preliminary research report late last year, adding that the councillors did not stop working on the report during the COVID-19 pandemic in the run-up to Thursday’s meeting where they discussed the fifth version of the preliminary research report.
(The Macau Post Daily/Macau News)
PHOTO © The Macau Post Daily/Tony Wong
