Chief Executive (CE) Fernando Chui Sai On pledged Wednesday that his government would continue to look for solutions to revitalise the city’s old neighbourhoods and pledged that the government would improve social services for the mentally disabled.
Chui went on a walkabout in the Patane and Rotunda de Carlos da Maia (popularly known as Three Lamps) neighbourhoods in the morning, followed by a meeting with residents of the two districts in a community centre run by the Macau Women’s General Association in Rua da Barca.
Chui also visited Rua da Emenda where he was greeted by several shop owners who urged him to revitalise their community so that more people will visit and shop in the area.
Rua da Emenda was one of five streets in the Three Lamps neighbourhood that underwent a controversial redevelopment process initiated by the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau (IACM) last year along with several other streets.
A few shopkeepers urged Chui in the meeting to revitalise their neighbourhood because their businesses had taken a hit in the past year by as much as 60 percent.
The chief executive responded that the government would continue to look for solutions to help shopkeepers as part of its long-term plan to aid the city’s small- and medium-sized enterprises, (SME’s). According to The Macau Post Daily, Chui stressed that the old neighbourhoods are Macau’s “important cultural heritage”, pledging the government would preserve them as best as it could.
Chui visited two rehabilitation centres for the mentally disabled located in a public housing estate in Fai Chi Kei in the afternoon.
The visit included a discussion with government officials and the directors of the two care centres.
Chui said the government would do it best to ensure that the needs of the mentally and physically impaired will be taken care of. “I know that no parent would want to have a disabled child… and they [impaired people’s parents] don’t want to die before them,” said Chui. “We have the duty to take care of them.”
Iong said his bureau would introduce more social service programmes in the next three years, adding that the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau (DSEJ) was providing scholarships to local students enrolled in social service programmes abroad so that they could be expected to return to work in Macau in the field once they graduated.(macaunews)
The chief executive’s visit to the neighbourhoods came just a few weeks before he delivers his policy address for next year, the last of his current term.
Yesterday’s walkabout also included an informal meeting with residents in one of the city’s few remaining traditional “gafesat” (cafés), many of which have been forced out of business by skyrocketing rents and rising labour costs.(macaunews)
