Macau Business | December 2023
Keith Morrison – Author and educationist
In an eventful year that saw the startling resurrection of Macau’s economy and the return of tourist crowds, the picture could be seen as positive, and, indeed, in some areas this is undeniable. Construction work on unused and reclaimed land has proceeded apace; new, gleaming conference facilities have opened; the unemployment rate of local residents has fallen to its lowest for the last three years; the fiscal reserves are up; Gross Domestic Product has rocketed; the number of doctors and nurses (approaching 5,000) has risen to its highest ever; the hours of internet usage are at record level (over 143,000 hours each month), with over 710,000 subscribers; the number of mobile phones (approaching 1.4 million), with around 730,000 subscribers, is the highest on record. Who could ask for more? Well, I could.
Consumerism renders Macau a permanently greedy stomach or a furnace; it consumes. Macau’s consumption of water and electricity is the highest on record; its number of registered vehicles is at an all-time high (over a quarter of a million). Its city-level peristaltic throughput creates monumental waste: in 2022 (latest figures available), municipal waste topped 400,000 tonnes, special and hazardous waste reached nearly 5,000 tonnes, and over 2.3 million cubic metres of construction waste was landfilled.
The lived experiences of Macau residents continue to tell a problematic story. It remains very difficult to afford housing and is almost impossible for younger adults. Employment still needs massive diversification. Waste management and recycling are still largely in their infancy in much of Macau. Severe environmental pollution of all kinds persists. Poverty remains. Macau continues to be a pan-territory, dirty building site. Concerning rights to abode in this would-be international, multicultural city, the number of new individuals granted rights of abode has declined in the last decade (see the graph) and is tiny (132 in the third quarter of 2023), with problems of residency fracturing international relations.
However, as a Christmas treat, read this statement on Macau, generated by ChatGPT (which was the flavour of the month earlier this year): ‘With its vibrant tourism and entertainment industry, Macao attracts millions of visitors from around the world’. Whilst its tourism might be vibrant, Macau’s residents cope with crowds on every street, ear-splitting noise in restaurants and public places, and a plethora of no-go honeypot locations.
The great ChatGPT statement continues: ‘Macao’s strategic location within the Greater Bay Area positions it as a vital transportation and logistics hub. Its well-established transportation infrastructure ? facilitates the smooth flow of goods, services, and people throughout the region. Macao’s role as a transportation hub enhances regional connectivity and strengthens its own economic competitiveness’. Tell this to the daily commuters crammed onto a bus, squashed like Macau’s famed, resplendent tinned sardines, and to car drivers caught in monstrous congestion and multi-kilometre lines of traffic jams, trying vainly to negotiate nose-to-tail fleets of tourist coaches and buses on its bridges. Tell this to lorry drivers with the ‘veiculo longo’ sign on their wagons, trying to negotiate Macau’s Lego-size roads, chicane-like road works everywhere, and frustratingly tight bends. The number of traffic accidents in Macau averages over 1,000 per month and the number of victims averages over 380 per month (including over 36 pedestrian victims). On transportation, for Port Laden Container Throughput and the Laden Container Flow for the last ten years, the trendlines are completely flat, i.e. no change.
ChatGPT has done a neat promotion job here, illustrating its Artificial Non-intelligence, selectivity, and lack of balanced judgement. ChatGPT’s much-vaunted, enthusiastic attraction is the triumph of the optimism of ignorance. Where is Macau’s positive, inward investment for its residents, families, international members, and non-local workers? When is Santa Claus going to put these right?
