Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | June 2010 38 Macau Policy imposition of tougher entry requirements on a statistically insignificant group? A possible answer is to be found not just in Macau’s subsidiary relationship to the People’s Republic of China, but also in the way Macau’s executive political leadership is structured. Macau’s chief executive is nominated by an electoral college of citizens drawn from what, in theory, is designed to be a broadly representative cross section of interest groups within the territory. He or she then nominates a cabinet to head the major spending departments. These departmental heads are usually technocrats and business people rather than career politicians. Without getting into the general debate about representative versus democratic government, because Macau’s chief executive and cabinet aren’t elected by popular mandate, they are arguably more than usually sensitive to public opinion, and arguably less likely to resist populist calls for action on topics such as migrant workers and immigration than leaders elected by popular direct mandate—irrespective of the data or hard evidence supporting the populist demand. This was seen recently in the debate over the use of migrant workers on Macau construction sites. In mid-May, Sands China, the local unit of Las Vegas Sands Corp (LVS), said it needed 10,500 building workers in order to recommence its US$4.2 billion Macau project known as Cotai plots five and six (but in reality, a massive resort in its own right costing almost twice as much as The Venetian Macao). Yet a few weeks before LVS’s statement, the Macau government appeared to paint itself into a corner by announcing—under popular pressure from a noisy and street-demonstrating lobby of the long term unemployed—that in future, construction projects would need to employ one local for every migrant worker brought on site. The problem is that during 2009, only 2,500 unemployed locals surveyed by Macau’s Labour Affairs Office said they were looking for jobs in construction. Macau now says it wants to train locals to fill new construction jobs. Industry analysts argue, with some justification, it’s a bit late to start thinking about that weeks before a massive multi-billion dollar project is scheduled to start. The overall—and not entirely favourable—impression is of a government making policy on the hoof, in knee-jerk response to populist pressure, rather than of a government planning strategically for the medium to long term. Scapegoats? Vietnamese may have found themselves in the firing line of some Macau politicians because slowly— almost without anyone noticing—they have become a major component of the Cotai five and six—Macau policy on migrant workers unworkable?