Chui: More cost-cutting measures decided soon

Macau Chief Executive Fernando Chui Sai On said on Friday that whether a second round of austerity measures is imposed on the administration will depend upon the city’s financial situation for this month and next, and that the government will pay especially close attention to September’s government revenue.
“When our revenue is lower than expected, a way to deal with it is to tighten our spending,” Mr. Chui told reporters in Beijing on Friday when asked whether more austerity measures will be announced in the coming months.
But he did not reveal exactly what level of government revenue would trigger another round of cost-cutting measures for the administration.
“What I feel now is that we have to observe [MSAR’s public finances] for one or two months, especially our income for September,” the Chief Executive said.
Mr. Chui said recently that the austerity measures put in place will not be repealed even if gross gaming revenue for the city exceeds MOP20 billion (US$2.5 billion) for September.
On September 1, the local government announced the immediate enactment of a set of cuts in public spending seeking to save MOP1.4 billion for the remaining months of this fiscal year.
The cost-cutting moves – dubbed by the government as ‘austerity measures’ – are fully internal to the government as it involves the freezing of the administration’s expenses on office supplies and consumables, as well as the budgeted investment spending on minor items such as furniture purchase or small-scale construction.
The government reiterated throughout last week that cost-cutting will not impact the city’s social welfare policies and public investment plans (PIDDA) – namely those involving hefty multiple-year investments in infrastructure projects.
The announcement of the austerity measures follows the release of official data showing a 35.5 per cent year-on-year drop in gross gaming revenue for August to MOP18.62 billion, representing a losing streak extending to 15 consecutive months. This figure means Macau’s casino revenue for the first eighth months of this year reached MOP158.88 billion, or a monthly MOP19.86 billion.
In March, the government amended the budget for the fiscal year of 2015, revising its estimate for average monthly gross gaming revenue from the original MOP27.5 billion to MOP20 billion – a level below that is the trigger to the government’s cost-cutting measures.
Speaking to reporters upon his return to Macau, Mr. Chui noted an important task for the government at the moment is to increase visitor arrival figures.
“We’ll get proactive in attracting more visitors to come here, as arrival figures have been falling recently,” Mr. Chui said. “We hope that we can make some improvement in enhancing visitor arrivals, which stood at 31.5 million [last year].”
For the first half of this year, the number of visitor arrivals has dropped 3.5 per cent to 14.76 million.
The Chief Executive added that he is currently discussing tourism promotion with Secretary of Social Affairs and Culture Alexis Tam Chon Weng, with the conclusions to be announced to the public soon.