MB April | Think Tank Rethink

One of the highlights of the latest Policy Address by Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet Ngor was to revamp the Central Policy Unit, which has been under criticism for years for being just a human resources department for recruiting close allies. The nearly 30-year-old think tank will be renamed the Policy Innovation and Co-ordination Office with a focus on hiring young people to drive policy co-ordination and consultation in the nearby financial centre. 

In Macau, the government has set up a similar official think tank to assist in its decision making process – the Policy Research Office – which has also been accused of failing to perform its functions and requires an overhaul from working practice to positioning, argue political observers. 

The Policy Research Office was officially established in 2011 with a remit to provide technical and organisational support for the Chief Executive in making policy decision more ‘democratically, scientifically and efficiently’. The Office, which has been headed by Lao Pun Lap since inception, conducts research and other relevant work concerning the areas of politics, law, economy, social affairs and culture.  

A government spokesperson said in 2010 during the set-up of the Office that it was a “high-level official think tank” which could resolve the territory’s deep-rooted social and economic problems.  

“As the election platform for [Fernando] Chui Sai On underscored formulating policies in a scientific manner back in the re-election [of the Chief Executive] in 2009, Mr. Chui set up the Policy Research Office for fulfilling his pledges,” explained legislator Au Kam San.  

But the Office directly under the supervision of Mr. Chui has apparently failed to meet expectations. “It could not perform its role in helping make policy decisions about social topics that mostly concern the public, such as housing and inflation,” said Au.  

Waste of money 

Over the years the Office has conducted studies and consultations on the city’s population growth, Macau’s first Five-year Development Plan, and the territory’s involvement in the Greater Bay Area and others – but its activities have regularly been criticised for being ambiguous and vague. For instance, the Five-year Development Plan covering the 2016-2020 period has been lamented as a summary report of all the government’s previous established goals and initiatives. 

“Right now its existence is simply a waste of public [funds]. The authorities have to overhaul the Office, adjusting its positioning and functions to bring out the true value of the body,” Mr. Au added. According to the government’s budget report, the annual expenditure of the Office is expected to be MOP51.57 million (US$6.45 million) this year, representing a 1.75 per cent increase from last year and a jump of more than half from 2011 when it was established.  

The pan-democratic lawmaker is not the only one drawing a bead on the Office. Fellow legislator Ella Lei Cheng I has also urged the authorities to have a rethink about the functions of the Policy Research Office, which should help other government departments conduct research.   

“Many government departments now commission third-party institutions to undertake surveys on some socially significant topics like housing,” she said. “But some studies could be done in-house by the Policy Research Office, and in this way the government could better utilise its research resources.”  

Macau Business reported last month that the government is expected to fork out MOP521.4 million in third-party services for research, consultancy and translation this year, up 20.5 per cent from the MOP432.8 million expended in 2014. 

Provide groundwork 

In a written statement, the Public Administration and Civil Service Bureau defended the record of the Policy Research Office after consulting with it following Ms. Lei’s criticism, saying that the Office ‘formulates policy initiatives for the Chief Executive, provides professional insights for various public policies and development plans, and conducts some mid-to-long term studies for the development of Macau.’ 

The studies the Office is now working on include Macau’s population growth, the legal issue of the collaboration between Guangdong Province and Macau in Hengqin, and others, the statement said. Although the Policy Research Office does not support government departments on policy analysis, its studies on the reform of the Civil Service regime, an overhaul of functions of the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau, and the regulations of the city’s territorial waters have ‘provided a research basis to a certain degree for government departments to conduct the relevant works,’ the statement added. 

| MOP51.57 million 

Budget for Policy Research Office in 2018 

“It cannot be denied that the Office has done some work over the years but the key problem is that there is no way the public can oversee what it has done and how well its work has [achieved its objectives],” notes political commentator Larry So Man Yum.  

| “Its operation is not transparent, like a black-box operation,” says political commentator Larry So Man Yum. 

Black box 

“Its operation is not transparent, like a black-box operation,” he says, adding that its Hong Kong counterpart – the Central Policy Unit – is more transparent, despite criticism, with information available to the public regarding the results of its studies and its co-operation with other institutions.  

Indeed, Hong Kong’s Centre Policy Unit has its own official website, uploading full reports or excerpts of its studies while listing the details of third-party projects and research it subsidises for facilitating policy formulation. For instance, the unit publicised seven studies last year and subsidised 24 third-party projects in the 2017-18 period. 

By contrast, the Policy Research Office here does not have an official website and its activities and studies are only made known to the public via press releases or press conferences. Its studies are not publicised and only submitted to the Chief Executive for review.  

“The Office literally serves like an internal organ to the secretariat of the Chief Executive rather than as a public body,” lamented Mr. So, adding that the operation and working practices of the Office have to change to become more transparent. 

But Mr. Au is not optimistic that the Office will undergo any transformation in the near future given its remit has been renewed for another three years until December 2019. “Based upon the current situation,” he said, “it looks like the Office will just sit here and rot.” 


More than one  

The Policy Research Office is not the sole official think tank in the city, with a research unit incorporated under the semi-official Macau Foundation. 

Prior to the establishment of the Policy Research Office, former Chief Executive Edmund Ho Hau Wah set up the Life Quality Research Centre in 2005, conducting studies that could help the authorities formulate policies to improve the livelihood of residents.  

A year later, the Centre was renamed the Sustainable Development Research Centre, given the rapid economic development of the city and closer co-operation between Macau and the Pearl River Delta region and various Asian nations. Its functions extended to providing basic research groundwork for the government on various social-economic issues, especially the impact of the growth of population upon the city’s education, health, security, living quality, education and so forth, as well as the economic diversification of the territory.  

After Fernando Chui Sai On succeeded Mr. Ho to the city’s top job in December 2009 he set up the Policy Research Office to replace the Sustainable Development Research Centre, which was voided in December 2010. The Centre’s research team was then incorporated into the research unit of the Macau Foundation.  


Controversies rife  

The Policy Research Office has been bogged down in various controversies and criticisms over the years. 

2012-2013 — The Office issues a blueprint for the city’s population growth up to 2036 for public consultation at the end of 2012. But the proposal, which predicts that the city’s population will grow by nearly half in less than 25 years, sparks worries that the city will become overcrowded. Some also accuse the Office of overestimating population growth and the demand of workers to pave the way for Mainland students working and attaining residency in the city after graduation.  

February 2013 — Regarding the city’s tourism carrying capacity with overcrowded scenes at tourist sites ringing alarm bells, the Office declares it will conduct a study on the impact of the Individual Visit Scheme, which allows Mainland Chinese travelling to Macau to arrive on an individual basis. The study, which has never been publicised, was only revealed earlier this year following a legislator’s interpellation that the study had been completed and submitted to the Chief Executive for review a long time ago. 

2014 — The Office is instructed by Chief Executive Fernando Chui Sai On to analyse over 120,000 opinions his office has collected from the public during his re-election campaign for the city’s top job. The unit, headed by Lao Pun Lap, is criticised for failing to provide any insights besides concluding that residents had high expectations and support for the new term of government led by Mr. Chui.   

2015-2016 — The Office is in charge of public consultation on the city’s first Five-year Development Plan, outlining key strategies for the socio-economic development of Macau in the 2016-2020 period. But the final version of the document is slammed due to a lack of new ideas and concrete plans, while most of the contents regurgitate the previous initiatives of the Administration.