Attention all artists: the Macau Foundation is preparing a programme of acquisition of local contemporary artworks. In an exclusive interview with Macau Business, the new president of the foundation, Wu Zhiliang, announced the programme might be launched as soon as next year.
“We always stress the need to protect Macau’s identity but what is it made of? We have the buildings in the historical centre but we also have the so-called intangible heritage. Our goal is to systematically collect local artworks in several areas, in order to make up a collection that represents Macau culture,” Mr Wu said.
However, the foundation has no plans to build a museum to hold its future collection. “It is unnecessary. Macau already has so many museums. We will work hand-in-hand with them,” he says, adding that discussions are already underway.
To select which works to buy, the foundation will create a special committee, mostly made up of artists, Mr Wu said.
The foundation already owns a collection which includes about 1,100 pieces. However, most are gifts from outside artists that have held exhibitions in Macau. “Over the years, we have bought some art pieces, but very few,” he said.

New image
The foundation is also creating an internal research centre, composed of about 10 people. According to Mr Wu, one of its fields of study will be “Macaology”, the study of Macau’s rich culture and history, which is Mr Wu’s field of expertise.

“We will study and translate more sources. The final goal is to create a new cultural image of Macau, by stressing its cultural and historical heritage,” he said.
At the helm of the Macau Foundation since mid-July, Mr Wu replaced Victor Ng, who declined to stay in office for a new term for “personal reasons”. Mr Ng had been the foundation’s president since 2001.
However, Mr Wu is no newcomer to the foundation. He has been part of its administrative council for almost 20 years. “Mr Ng consolidated the foundation and contributed a lot to its development,” Mr Wu stressed.
Rather than talking about big changes, he says that the new projects, with more focus on culture and education, are needed “because society has changed”.

Going it alone
The Macau Foundation is a corporate public body autonomous in administration, finance and asset management, which comes under the supervision of the chief executive. It was established in 1984. Since major reforms in 2001 that included amalgamation with the Foundation for Cooperation and Development of Macau, the foundation’s scope has included facilitating the development of culture, the economy and science, and promoting Macau.
However, the foundation is known chiefly for the grants it gives to support local associations. This is something Mr Wu wants to change.
“The Macau Foundation has very few activities of its own,” he said. “Only around five percent of our budget goes to activities organised by us, which is very little. In the future we will invest more in culture and education, with projects of our own, but also through partnerships with the institutions and associations we already support.”
Mr Wu says there is a need for the foundation to be more project-focused, instead of just handing out money. He adds that the reasons for its grants need to be better explained to the public, making better use of the media.
Last year, a programme set up by the foundation to sponsor activities to celebrate the 60th anniversary of People’s Republic of China and the 10th anniversary of the Macau SAR led to some criticism of alleged misuse of public funds. Eventually, most of the sponsored activities were celebratory dinners and the final bill reached MOP100 million.

Too much dinner
“We did an internal evaluation on the programme. The criticism was strong, but the initiative reached its goal: to create a cheerful environment and to improve the relationship between local associations and their members, while also boosting inter-association cooperation,” he said.
However, Mr Wu says it is unlikely that any similar programme will be launched in the future. “We have achieved a consensus: we should not sponsor too many celebration dinners. We need to promote the local associations’ imagination and creativity instead.”
One of the major projects supported by the foundation is the Science Centre, built to celebrate the Macau SAR’s tenth birthday. The foundation invested MOP300 million in equipment to furnish the facilities, besides putting up the annual operating budget of MOP80 million.
“The Science Centre has already transformed itself into a Macau icon, which is very positive,” Mr Wu says.
The centre opened less than a year ago and there are already some structural problems, namely peeling paint and mould. Mr Wu said the foundation was not responsible for the construction. “But those problems were unavoidable, since there was so very little time for construction. They are minor issues and easy to fix,” he said.

Solid base
Several foundations worldwide took a big hit from the international financial crisis, with their assets suffering huge drops in value but not the Macau Foundation. Of the foundation’s MOP8 billion in assets, most are long-term deposits with annual returns ranging from 3.0 percent to 3.8 percent, according to its president, Wu Zhiliang.
Mr Wu expects to spend less than MOP2 billion this year, although the foundation’s official budget is MOP2.6 billion.
At present, casinos must pay a tax of 1.6 percent on gross gaming revenue to the foundation for “cultural, social, economic, educational, scientific, academic or philanthropic actions” in Macau. This means that, for the first nine months of this year alone, the foundation raked in more than MOP2.1 billion.
Some gaming operators are lobbying for a decrease in this tax. In September, Sociedade de Jogos de Macau’s chief executive, Ambrose So, suggested a refund of part of the tax. Mr So said the gaming operators should invest the money refunded in cultural, recreational and educational activities for their employees.
Mr Wu disagrees, although he stresses that any change in the tax would be a political decision. “All the associations, including the gaming workers’ associations, are welcome to present projects to the Macau Foundation,” he said.
“There were also cultural activities held in the past in partnership between the foundation and gaming operators. We are open to similar projects.”
By Paulo A. Azevedo and Emanuel Graça |  Photos by Carmo Correia