Inside Asian Gaming

IAG AUG 2022年8月 亞博匯 84 “zero-COVID” as expected by the government, there is no end in sight for many of these businesses. Likewise, while the government announced on 19 June that financial relief measures tailor-made for SMEs would be rolled out as part of a financial aid package worth MOP$10 billion (US$1.24 billion), there is no timetable for when these measures will be put forward. In this despairing business environment, a restaurant owner told IAG that what SMEs really want is not “financial aid” but a concrete future. The owner remarked, “The financial aid is only enough to settle staff wages but it cannot cover the total expenditures of a restaurant for a month. If there is another outbreak two months after the conclusion of the current outbreak, does it mean SMEs have to suspend operations again?” In the wake of the ban on dine-in service, the owner said business turnover dropped nearly 70%, and the restaurant recorded a significant loss because expenditures like staff wages and rents remain the same. “SMEs need to see what lies ahead in the future – a blueprint. Perhaps the community needs to consider living with COVID,” the owner said. In the early stage of this outbreak, on 22 June, an owner of a souvenir store in the vicinity of the Ruins of St Paul’s told IAG that the outbreak meant “an economic zero” for Macau. A month later, the outbreak still persists. Before the implementation of the lockdown measure, IAG re- visited the Ruins of St Paul’s but the situation was different compared with the business environment in June. About 70% of souvenir stores in the area were now closed, including the shop IAG had previously visited. The President of the Industry and Commerce Federation of Macau Central and Southern District, Lei Cheok Kuan, said about one- third of shops in the district of the Ruins of St Paul’s had been shuttered. “Some of them did not wind down, but they just suspended Chairman of the Industry and Commerce Federation of the Macau Central and Southern District, Lei Cheok Kuan. 澳門中區南區工商聯會會 長李卓君 FEATURES