SHF critical of Macau’s bureaucratism and red tape

 Abr25 BOnny Lo

Fourth, what distinguishes Sam Hou Fai’s maiden policy address from any other policy address delivered by his predecessors in Macau, ranging from Edmund Ho to Fernando Chui to Ho Iat Seng, is that he is tackling the lack of strong leadership and forceful coordination in the Macau bureaucracy. Unlike all his predecessors, Sam Hou Fai has remained quite openly critical of Macau’s bureaucratism and red tape, pointing to the lack of intergovernmental coordination.

As such, he set up six leading and coordination committees: (1) the public administrative reform leading group chaired by the Chief Executive; (2) the leading group of promoting the construction of the In-Depth Cooperation Zone chaired by himself; (3) the coordination group on public administrative reform chaired by the Secretary for Administration and Legal Affairs; (4) the coordination work group on legal reforms chaired by the Secretary for Administration and Legal Affairs; (5) the working group on urban image, beautification and hygiene work chaired by the Secretary for Administration and Legal Affairs; and (6) the coordination working group on the improvement of road work chaired by the Secretary for Transport and Public Works.

Sam Hou Fai’s policy address is quite comprehensive and bold in its push towards Macau’s economic diversification away from its previous overdependence on casino capitalism

The establishment of these committees is an unprecedented move made by the Chief Executive of Macau to address the problems of the lack of leadership and the persistence of weak coordination among the government departments. The leading groups on the In-Depth Cooperation Zone and on public administrative reform that are to be chaired by Sam himself illustrate how eager he is toward the necessity of formulating and implementing not only a faster pace of economic diversification but also public administrative reforms.

However, the extent to which these reforms will be successful depends on two critical issues: (1) whether the bureaucracy at the middle and lower strata will really implement Sam’s reform plans, and (2) what kinds of key performance indicators will be utilised to ensure “perfect” or smooth implementation. Quite often, Macau’s bureaucracy is hampered by red tape and lack of strong leadership at the middle and lower levels. For example, since December 1999, the Macau government has been often consulting public opinion in public opinion hearings and other platforms, but it remains unclear how it categorises, analyses and utilises such opinions. Some citizens have already demanded that the government should consider how to use Artificial Intelligence to collect public opinion and to respond to public views in a coherent platform along the line of the mainland’s 12345 public administrative affairs (Macau Daily News, April 19, 2025).

Sam Hou Fai’s political will of reforming Macau’s bureaucracy is undoubtedly strong, but the challenge to his reform plans is whether the middle and lower level of the government officials can and will conduct his reform initiatives in a more effective and efficient manner.

https://www.macaubusiness.com/opinion-sam-hou-fais-maiden-policy-address-and-the-politics-of-reform-in-macau/

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