Macao’s Science and Technology Development Fund (FDCT) is planning to streamline its subsidy procedures to give scientific innovation a boost.
The FDCT will introduce “technological maturity” to evaluate potential projects’ eligibility for subsidies. The new apparatus will mainly be used to evaluate applied research and experimental development projects.
At present, Macao’s science and technology research is not coming up to standard, the fund’s Executive Council member, Ip Kuai Lam, has revealed.
He told the Macau Daily Times that the city lacks investors. Many projects are being developed in Hengqin, so the fund hopes to collaborate with mainland authorities to attract larger enterprises to Macao.
Ip also said that Hengqin has more talented personnel available for research and development, while the lack of marketisation in Macao is disadvantageous to project applications.
Last year, the FDCT received 885 applications for subsidies, amounting to MOP 870 million. The fund approved 553 projects, and granted MOP 210 million.
Two of the projects subsidised by FDCT are already going ahead.
A system testing vehicle sterilisation and a sterilisation system using nano-silver technology have both entered marketisation. A third project, aimed at developing robots to conduct cleaning and sterilisation, has also started test applications.
