The Government of Macau has announced that the Committee for Development of the World Centre of Tourism and Leisure will conduct a review of the city’s first Five-Year Development Plan.
The decision to conduct the interim review was made last Thursday. It will be conducted in order to prepare for the next five year plan.
The Five-Year Plan was announced in February 2016. It outlined 7 primary objectives for the government. These included stable economic growth. It also included improvements to the structure of industry, quality of life, education and environmental protection. The five year plan also outlined objects to increase the efficiency of government and the legal industry.
The plan, it is hoped, will turn Macau into a World Centre of Tourism and Leisure.
Macau Chief Executive Fernando Chui Sai On, who heads the committee, noted the importance of the gaming industry in a 2016 speech. He said: “We will encourage gaming operators to engage more in large-scale tourism projects that will help diversify the sector by offering more leisure activities and non-gaming elements.”
Macau: World Centre of Tourism and Leisure
Macao Government Tourism Office Director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes said that she hoped Macau’s IR operators would one day achieve 40% of revenue from non-gaming facilities.
She said: “Whatever the mix is going forward there has to be a balance for the operators and I don’t think Macau can reasonably expect to reach 60% like Las Vegas, but I think 40% non-gaming is the goal in the mid-term. Going forward there are a lot of possibilities.”
A number of infrastructure projects are planned as part of the objects. These include the completion of the long-awaited light rail system, better links between Macau and Guangdong and a fourth bridge to Taipa
Although none of the planned infrastructure projects have been finalised, the government announced last week that its latest quarterly evaluation showed it had achieved “an average accomplishment rate of 90%” across all of its policy goals.
Last year, the Macau Government Tourism office published the Macau Tourism Industry Development Master Plan – a 15 year master plan that estimates that visitors to the city will spend more on non-gaming activities than ever before.
Macau to conduct interim review of Five-Year Development Plan
