Kapok: The holistic imperative

Occasionally taking a few steps backwards in order to get a better and wider perspective on one’s own status and development sounds like an imperative, and better even when it is done with comparative spin. The PricewaterhouseCoopers’s study on “Building Better Cities” that was released mid-November at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings in Manila perfectly illustrates this point.

Using the now well-established methodology of its “Cities of opportunity” reports that aim “to shine a light on urban success in […] cities by measuring their livability, sustainability, and competitiveness”, PwC has produced a holistic document that compares 28 cities across the APEC economies in order to provide guiding principles of best practices derived from actual experiences. Criteria and ranking are relative – from best to worst of the 28 urban centers on each of the 39 variables – and thus not normative: the idea is not to shame anyone, but to let everybody, at every level of responsibility, realize what works better. Inspirational lessons are sought out, and the whole study noticeably substantiates that “pondering” is needed if “acting” is to be successful.
I was originally attracted to the PwC study because of an op-ed regarding Hong Kong – Hong Kong is one of the 21 APEC economies whereas Macao is not, although our SAR has applied for membership –
in which the author was lamenting that out of the 28 cities considered, Hong Kong only ranked 11th and therefore concluded that the branding of Hong Kong as “Asia’s World City” was nothing more than “an empty marketing shell.”
APEC is particularly interesting for us as it brings together “political entities” with very different economic, social, cultural and political backgrounds. Consequently, criteria that define the fundamentals of any city have to be diverse and broad if they are to pay justice to all participants. Indicators were grouped together into five categories: Culture and Social Health, Connectivity, Health and Welfare, Sustainability, and Economics.
Culture and Social Health included criteria such as “tolerance and inclusion”, “cultural vibrancy”, “political environment” and “income equality”. Best performers were Toronto, Melbourne and Auckland. Connectivity, both physical and digital, encompassed, among others, “public transport systems”, “traffic congestions” and “broadband quality,” and the lead was taken by Singapore, followed by Hong Kong and Tokyo. Health and Welfare brought together criteria such as “health system performance”, “controlling crime” and “housing.” Best performers were Tokyo, Osaka and Toronto.
Sustainability was concerned by criteria such as “air pollution”, “natural disaster risk” or “public park space.” Top performers were Vancouver, Toronto and Seattle. Finally, for Economics, meaning “ease of doing business”, “GDP per capita”, “foreign direct investment” but also “incidence of economic crime,” Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo snatched the top positions.
Interestingly enough Hong Kong scored low for Culture and Social Health – with the Fragrant Harbor achieving its unique lowest ranking out of 28 for “economic equality” – as well as Health & Welfare, and very low for Environmental Sustainability. I could not help wonder how Macao would have fared, especially with Shanghai (13) and Beijing (14) in the middle of the pack: closer to Kuala Lumpur (15) or to Port Moresby (28)? With APEC, one has to measure itself against Toronto, Vancouver and Singapore as the three overall top performers!
Eventually, the PwC study provides a set of recommendations for what it calls “city managers” and “city and national leaders”.
To the former, the message is clear: “build a brand”! Thus, what matters is to clearly define ones’ own identity and attractiveness, and this should “ring true for all stakeholders”: a city “must preserve its unique past while inspiring residents to imagine a rich future.” Could this be the meaning of a diversification through “creative industries” and a greater reliance on SMEs, yet grounded on the gambling industry and a dynamized unique heritage?
To the latter, the path is unequivocal: strike “a new urban-national partnership”! Could this be the meaning of an extension to Hengqin island as well as an enlarged maritime perimeter together with a greater integration with the Pearl River Delta? It could very well be, if the partnership is genuine…

Published in Macau Daily Times, December 18th 2015

A heavy load and a long road!

And now we are getting Confucian Analects (8.7), 任重道遠! 10 pages of advertisement today (altogether) in the Macao Daily News (澳門日報). With the page A01 costing on its own MOP$200,000... When too much is not enough! I also like the one in A04: 感恩的心 感谢有你! "With a grateful heart, we are grateful to have you!" D11 is not bad either: 為澳為民，實至名歸！"Towards Macao, towards the people, fame follows merit!"

Chan Meng Kam (陳明金) celebrates his medal with a splash!

Getting a Silver Medal obviously means a lot to legislator Chan Meng Kam: 7 full pages of ad in total today were printed in Macau Daily News (澳門日報)! On these pics, one wonders who is the actual sponsor and who is the actual recipient… I can't imagine what it will be like when Mr Chan gets the Gold!

Bishop José Lai (黎鴻昇) also received the Silver Lotus, and obviously, not everybody is rejoicing… in 正報, 論盡媒體 but also (and even) in 澳門日報! I am sure his answer is: 「唔係，我相信唔係。」(No connection, I trust there is no connection)

Kiang Wu's board

As I was quite intrigued by Mr Fong Chi Keong's bragging about 8 members of the legislature being members of the board of the Kiang Wu Charitable Association (the organisation behind the Kiang Wu hospital), I checked, and of course Mr Fong was… right! The whole list can be found here.

The lucky winners who will "supposedly" support Mr Fong, whatever he says or wants are:
As honorary board member (榮譽理事): 高開賢  Kou Hoi In (indirectly elected)
As vice-president (副主席): 張立群 Victor Cheung Lup Kwan (indirectly elected)
As president of the executive committee (理事長): 馮志強 Fong Chi Keong (appointed)
As vice-presidents of the executive committee (副理事長): 劉永誠 Lau Veng Seng (appointed) and 陳明金 Chan Meng Kam (elected)
As managing directors (常務理事): 蕭志偉 Sio Chi Wai (appointed) and 馬志成 Ma Chi Seng (appointed)
As vice-president of the supervisory committee (副監事長): 歐安利 Leonel Alves (indirectly elected)

Four of them are appointed legislators (out of the 7 appointed in total)!

Kapok: Hooked on junkets

By mid-2015, gambling-related crimes had already gone up by more than a third, with loan sharking cases and unlawful detentions being of particular concern. This trend was just confirmed by Secretary for Security Wong Sio Chak during a media briefing held on December 2nd: for the first nine months of 2015, the overall increase in gambling-related crimes stabilized at 34% (1,118 cases in total), with loan-sharking offences increasing by 40% year-on-year and unlawful detentions by a staggering 112.5%! Mr Wong also previously insisted on a turning point in March this year, with no further explanations being given.
In fact, quite the contrary: the Secretary was adamant in downplaying the significance of this highly noticeable jump. For him, in official speak, the rise was not to be attributed to the “adjustment in the gaming industry” — even though many junket venues are shutting down and all analysts seem to concur that credit lines have been crunched. Furthermore, he insisted on the fact that most of the victims and suspects of these crimes were “non-residents” and that these offences had no spillover effects on the rest of the community, as demonstrated by a slight decrease of the overall number of crimes over the first nine months of the year. To support Mr Wong’s claim, I would even add that gambling-related crimes appear rather limited in scope, representing a mere 11% of the total number of crimes (10,347 over the period), whereas revenues attributed to “gaming” amounted to 85%! Still, there was and there will continue to be an upsurge…
Ultimately, what I find really suspicious are these efforts at attenuating the meaning of everything. This of course goes beyond Macao and local politics: most modern politicians tend to “shelter” public opinions just like a mother or father protects her or his own children from hearing too blunt a disturbing reality and eventually one always benefits from showing that he or she is fully in control of the inner workings of any situation. No wonder then that Mr Wong would remark that the Dore case — theft and default in repayment put together — exclusively resulted from the shortcomings of the gambling promoter itself, and had therefore nothing to do with the ailing situation of the gambling industry. Yet, just like it is pure hypocrisy and manipulation to use the palatable and entertainment-minded word “gaming” (博彩 bocai or even 玩樂 wanle) instead of the highly hazardous and irrational term “gambling” (赌博 dubo), “adjustment” actually means a complete revamping under duress of the industry that has made Macao a “success” over the past decade. Article 118 of the Macao Basic Law has not changed, but drawing policies that will promote “tourism and recreation” in line with Macao’s interests has taken a whole new meaning.
Contrary to what some lawyers and foreign observers profess, it is highly debatable to univocally state that “the territory would not have achieved what it did if the [gambling] industry had been over-regulated.” First, because remaking history with “if” is pointless. Second, because one could infer that whatever the legal framework, investors would still have been tempted by the proximity of such a huge market, especially in a monopolistic position and with a cultural background somehow favoring games of luck. Third, because a lot of rich Chinese millionaires, whatever the origin of their wealth, saw Macao has a way out and on top of that credit did not have to be guarantied by the casinos themselves. In short, Macao was bound to be a magnet.
Actually, I would argue quite the opposite: lax regulation of THE industry delayed necessary adjustments and long term vision — money was simply too easy to make — and we are finally witnessing the beginning of the unraveling of the promise made back in 1993 when the Basic Law was passed. Before Dore, there was Huang Shan in May 2014, with some HKD10 billion vanishing in smoke, so clearly the “adjustment period” is closely related to the “new normal”, for better and for worse.

Published in Macau Daily Times, December 4th 2015