Macau, China, 22 Mar – Some 42.6 percent of interviewees in a survey have labelled Chief Executive Fernando Chui Sai On’s 2020 Policy Address as "so-so", while 14.4 percent expressed "dissatisfaction" with it, Chu Ceng Chong, a data analyst at the Macau General Neighbourhood Unions Association (UGAMM), said Sunday.
According to The Macau Post Daily, Chu presented the result of a recent survey about the residents’ response to the policy address at her association’s premises.
A total of 920 interviewees participated in the survey, which was carried out street-side in the city centre and other residential areas and Taipa the day following Chui’s policy address last Tuesday, according to Chu.
According to the survey, only 4.5 percent of respondents said they were "very satisfied" with the policy address and 22.9 percent said they were "satisfied". Some 15.7 percent said they had "no comment".
"What the residents showed most dissatisfaction with is public housing, transportation and economic development," Chu said, with some 25.9 percent of interviewees who said they were "dissatisfied" with the public housing policy, while 22.3 percent said they were "dissatisfied" with the public transportation system.
Lo Iok Kuan, who heads the association’s social service coordination office, pointed out in the press conference that the hot-button issues for most of the interviewees, in particular young adults aged between 18 to 34 years, was the government’s public housing policy in Chui’s policy address, with proportionately larger numbers of young people "most dissatisfied" with the government’s public housing policy.
"This reflects the mistakes of the government’s public housing policy in the past decade and the unreasonably high-priced property market," Lo said, adding, "(The needs of) some residents have been neglected. They not only have no money to buy an apartment in the high-priced property market, but also do not meet the income requirements to apply for a public housing flat."
Chui’s maiden policy address committed to finishing the construction of 19,000 public housing apartments by 2012.
However, as this is the same figure that was decided five years ago under the previous administration, after the government accepted applications for public housing in 2005, there is speculation that this figure may not address the needs of those who have applied during the latest application period late last year.
Chui did not specify the number of new public housing apartments to be built in his five-year term of office, only saying that the government would make the plan based on "scientific examination".
Lo urged the government to improve the housing security system and divide the property market into different categories in these five years.
Concerning the proposed measures to improve resident’s living conditions and employment security in the policy address, Chu pointed out that some 52.1 percent of interviewees described the measures as "so-so" while 10.7 percent said they were "dissatisfied".
Only 20.9 percent said they were "satisfied" and a mere four percent said they were "very satisfied", while the remainder had "no comment".
Macau’s new chief executive announced in his policy address last Tuesday that the government would keep its annual "wealth share" cash handout, old-age subsidy and raft of tax cuts launched by the previous administration.
(MacauNews)
