Macau`s building sector is in a post-traumatic state as a result of the cash squeeze and subsequent steep slowdown in the private sector over the past nine months.
This has coincided with a period of administrative restructuring in the public sector.
Now, while restructuring seems like a good thing, it might prove an alienating process if carried out in a period when no actual public works are underway, as there are insufficient case-studies to test reforms.
Any government vision must involve professional, technical and entrepreneurial input to create a rounded plan for the city’s future, not waste talent on unimportant projects.
All major cities emerge as a result of different development models. The most successful are those that base their planning on economic patterns and an understanding of their surroundings.
Macau’s plan has to be based on diversification to transform the city into a renewable and self-aware environment. We must decide upon and invest in the most adaptable sectors for development, without overlapping on other Pearl River Delta (PRD) players, while using the huge population of the PRD as a potential market to benefit Macau. We must be a PRD catalyst, not a standalone unit.

Here is my five-point plan.

City of history
The historic centre of Macau is under great re-development pressure from real-estate interests and other investment forces. It offers accessibility, of course, but, if allowed, an increase in building density will destroy these qualities and create further problems for heritage.
To ease pressure on the historic centre two actions are a must. First, a multitude of diversified new centres of urban development have to be created to attract diverse development organised into inter-competing and cooperating centres.
Second, pilot-projects in rehabilitation and renovation should both be implemented by the government and encouraged in the private sector. The proposed revision of the heritage law is a very good project, and should be revised to permit its autonomy.
There should be historic buffer zones and a new classification of heritage earmarked for both rehabilitation and restoration. These could come under one major policy plan, either publicly financed or through a system of space quotas, similar to that in Hong Kong.
The current approach of not helping, and in fact the lack of an active vision, only accelerates the agonisingly slow death of the historic centre.

City of knowledge
Macau’s existing education sector has much room to grow and to make the city a magnet for know-how and cutting-edge science. University research can mobilize a lot of people and money.
If further specialised as an Asian hub for the Latin Educational System, we could become a player in the profitable higher educational system. A strong higher education system will lead to the resolution of a more serious matter: the restructuring of primary and secondary education that is so desperately needed. The recently announced Hengqin Island development is a step in the right direction.

City of creativity
The prospect of locating top-quality facilities to stimulate new public life in previously personified “no-go” areas is critical. The issue of high density neighbourhoods in the north of the city has to be addressed, to integrate the underprivileged of our city.
Dealing with marginal areas and secluded neighbourhoods and redeveloping them, will greatly improve the lifestyle and integration of these groups.
These areas are ideal for conversion into artistic studios, art galleries, specialised high-tech small scale industries and loft housing, nightlife districts and creative areas. This can be achieved by the conversion of industrial areas into multi-functional areas.
It may sound far-fetched at this time, but the cases of Notting Hill in London, and Tribeca and Alphabet city in New York, or Barnes & Noble in Baltimore, are good ones. Once the trend of conversion gets going, it finds a momentum of its own and an become a spontaneous engine for land development.

City of sustainability
A growing indicator of quality in the PRD is the sustainability of both the environment and the economy. Recently published National Planning guidelines for the region indicate that it should become a national leader in sustainability.
The PRD region itself is a triangular system of Megalopolis clusters, with two lines of clusters anchored along the east and west sides of the delta, and the south side of the triangle opening on to the South China Sea
This cluster is a group of cities and towns of varying sizes located along a railway corridor and highways that link to various transportation networks. As such, each city and town will develop its own areas of specialisation.
The PRD region itself is already ordered around a macro-scale of cluster cities. If Macau replicates the muliple-cluster at micro-scale, it can evolve competitively and further consolidate its economic model.

City of movement
A transport revolution is a must. The first phase of the Light Rail Transport (LRT) system – due to its marginal layout along the coast – is mostly sustainable as anelevated structure.
In some critical stretches, like the Nam Van waterfront and near the A Matemple/Barra,it should have a more contained visual and urban impact. The second and third phases that cross the centre, should be underground structures to avoid disruption of the historic environment.
Some stretches of the line should be subject to open architecture competitions, to ensure that good solutions are achieved for high impact zones, including stations, nodes and flyovers in critical areas.
As a complement to the LRT system, a system of public transport priority lanes should be studied to establish a pyramid of inter-transportation modes, and to sustain the viability of a revised public bus network (see Curitiba).

An expansive city
The success of most cities lies in their ability to understand what role they can play in the ever-changing system of global economics and transactions.
Macau has a comples relationship with the surrounding region, therefore it is not viable to think that the answer lies in only the zhuhai hinterland. The focus of Maau's master plan must be on a re-scaled territory, turned towards the whole Pearl River Delta and the South China Sea.
Its relationship with the mainland should be grown and developed, in a word 'symbiotic': absorbing positive input from other PRD cities and offering to the PRD region its own expertise.
Macau's territory must expand to realise its full potential as a global player in this new economic model.