{"id":24903,"date":"2021-11-26T09:51:38","date_gmt":"2021-11-26T12:51:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=24903"},"modified":"2026-04-23T13:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T16:28:10","slug":"macau-economic-diversification-is-inevitable-authorities-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/macau-economic-diversification-is-inevitable-authorities-say","title":{"rendered":"Macau: economic diversification is inevitable, authorities say"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Lei Wai Nong spoke at the Legislative Assembly during his 2022 policy address.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Macau.- Lei Wai Nong, Macau’s Secretary for Economy and Finance<\/strong>, shared his views regarding the possibility of economic diversification in the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking at the Legislative Assembly during his 2022 policy address, he said: “With the launch of the 14th National Five-Year Plan and the General Project for the Construction of the In-Depth Cooperation Zone between Guangdong and Macao in Hengqin, a fundamental period for accelerating the development of adequate diversification of Macau\u2019s economy is provided.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gaming industry contributed more than half of the city\u2019s US$54bn pre-pandemic GDP<\/strong>, provided employment opportunities for approximately 17 per cent of Macau\u2019s 600,000 residents, and created 80 per cent of the local government\u2019s tax revenue.\u00a0 However, since the Covid-19 pandemic, authorities have repeatedly highlighted the importance of diversifying the economy as the pandemic showed the city’s dependence on gaming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2022 policy address made little mention of the government’s plans for the city’s gaming industry, only stating that authorities will “improve the gaming industry-related legal diplomas” and the supervision procedures for the sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lei Wai Nong stated: “Legal diplomas relating to the gaming sector will be improved, reinforcing the synergistic development between gaming and related non-gaming activities, in order to consolidate and strengthen the global competitiveness of Macau\u2019s integrated tourism and leisure sectors.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government of Macau<\/a>\u00a0has recently predicted that\u00a0GGR for 2022 will be MOP130bn (US$16.2bn)<\/strong>, half that seen before the Covid-19 pandemic.\u00a0Authorities forecast that the\u00a0city will continue to run a fiscal deficit\u00a0<\/strong>and will face \u201cgreat uncertainty\u201d amid the continuing impact of the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the budget plan, the government estimates that gaming tax income will reach MOP45.5bn in 2022<\/strong>. The government said it will use the city\u2019s accumulated fiscal reserves to support expenditure on social welfare and public infrastructure projects. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for the tourism plan for 2022, Lei Wai Nong said that it will focus on enhancing the image of Macau as a safe and livable city. Authorities will also support the tourism industry and launch more tourism projects to revitalise the community economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the first eight months of 2021, the\u00a0number of tourists<\/a>\u00a0increased by 43.6 per cent year-on-year to 5.1 million, which is still far behind the nearly 40 million reported before the 2019 pandemic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lei Wai Nong spoke at the Legislative Assembly during his 2022 policy address.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":22027,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Macau's Secretary for Economy and Finance, Lei Wai Nong, outlined the city's 2022 policy address, emphasizing economic diversification away from its gaming-centric model, spurred by the pandemic and national strategic plans. The government forecasts a 2022 GGR of MOP130bn, half of pre-pandemic levels, and plans to refine gaming legal frameworks while bolstering non-gaming tourism and leisure sectors to enhance global competitiveness. This strategic pivot aims to mitigate fiscal deficits and foster a more resilient economy.","focusai_entities":"Lei Wai Nong, Legislative Assembly, Macau, Guangdong","focusai_location":"Macau, Hengqin, Guangdong","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (0.9), compliance_legal (0.85), operator_casino (0.95), investor_analyst (0.95), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Gaming Law Reforms","query":"What specific amendments or new legal diplomas are anticipated to \"improve the gaming industry-related legal diplomas,\" and how will these impact B2B\/B2C licensing and operational compliance for concessionaires?"},{"label":"Diversification Strategy Impact","query":"How will the \"synergistic development between gaming and related non-gaming activities\" be quantitatively measured, and what specific capital allocation strategies are being considered by integrated resort operators to align with Macau's economic diversification goals?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[157,16338,158],"tags":[23906],"class_list":["post-24903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-news","category-east-asia-news","category-slider-home","tag-macau-casinos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24903"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24924,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24903\/revisions\/24924"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}