The Macau government today described New Area Zone A, the largest of the five land reclamation areas as “a small town” where it expects at least 100,000 people will live in the future.
In addition to 32,000 housing units – 28,000 for public housing – Zone A, a 138-hectare artificial island, will house school equipment, including the new Portuguese School of Macau (EPM) hub, and leisure facilities.
“Zone A is a small town where 100,000 people will live, according to the Government’s forecasts,” said Secretary of Transport and Public Works, Raimundo do Rosário, in a Legislative Assembly (AL) plenary session dedicated exclusively to the questions of the deputies.
According to authorities in the region, the five new landfills will receive about 162,000 people in total. With one of the highest population densities in the world, Macau currently has nearly 667,500 inhabitants in 32.9 square kilometers.
Zone A is linked to the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge local checkpoint, the world’s largest sea crossing opened in 2018, and is expected to be connected via zone B to the southern part of the peninsula via an underwater tunnel.
Of the new housing units planned for zone A, 28,000 will be public housing and 4,000 will go to the private market.
“We are making efforts to build more than 30,000 homes,” said the secretary, who renewed his mandate on December 20 when the new Government of the region was sworn in, without giving any dates.
Confronted by some legislators, Raimundo do Rosário stressed that the project is “difficult to schedule”.
Macau has gained, in 20 years of Chinese administration, ten square kilometers by sea and increased its resident population by 200,000 inhabitants, an expansion that will continue in the coming years.
The “New Landfill Urban Plan”, approved by Macau in 2008 and ratified by Beijing in 2009, is still under development planned for five new lands for the region, totaling 350 hectares (or 3.5 square kilometers).
