With the outbreaks of the new coronavirus epidemic in Macau, the local economy has fallen into difficulty. A few days ago, Distinguished Professor Angus Chu, Head of the Department of Economics in the Faculty of Social Sciences of UM and chief researcher of Asia-Pacific Economics at the Institute of Asia-Pacific Economics and Management, accepted an interview with the Macau Platform titled “Looking to Next Year” and gave some professional opinions and suggestions for Macau’s revitalization in the context of the epidemic.
Chu said that under the uncertain conditions of the current epidemic, open borders are the key to ensuring the passenger flow of the tourism industry, a pillar industry. To this end, Macau needs to increase the vaccination rate to ensure the safety of the tourism environment. And because the mutated strains of the new coronavirus are more contagious, increasing the vaccination rate to more than 80% will be a necessary measure.
At the same time, Chu believes that the local government will eventually achieve good vaccination results and promote economic revitalization. A new round of financial aid will buy valuable time for companies to wait for the economic recovery. A huge advantage of the Macao SAR government is that it has sufficient financial reserves. Although the government has sufficient resources to support the local economy for a period of time, the best way to solve the dilemma in the long term is to “increase the vaccination rate as soon as possible to ensure that the borders are open.”
