Social welfare should formulate a new action plan to move towards marketization, strengthen consultation, enhance the credibility of policies, and learn from the mainland to help the development of Macao's social services
Speaking about next year's policy policy, the sixth-term Chief Executive, Mr Shun Ho-fai, pointed out that he will reflect some of his policy philosophy and consider taking effective measures to enable the public to experience fair, accurate and targeted social welfare. Chan Kin Sun, president of the Macau Social Security Association, said that the policy needs to be continuous. It is an inevitable trend for social welfare policies to shift from inclusive to market-oriented, and it is expected that the next government will formulate a new action plan on the basis of what has been established and consider how to apply the new concepts of the central government in its policies. As for the challenges of the next government, he believes that it is necessary to improve policy transparency, strengthen consultation, and allow residents to have predictability and participation, so as to enhance the credibility of policies, and learn from the experience of the mainland to help the development of social services in Macao.
Chen Jianxin pointed out that any social welfare and people's livelihood cannot be achieved overnight, and it takes a long time to set up relevant systems in order to effectively achieve results. Looking back on the past five terms of the HKSAR Government's policies, the handling of people's livelihood and social welfare has been carried out in a step-by-step manner, and the system has been gradually improved. However, there are times when there are drastic changes in society and the economy, resulting in some policies not being able to adapt to the changes, creating a gap between the expectations of residents and the need to make major changes. For example, it has taken 5 years from the beginning of the proposal to the recent unit occupancy, so he stressed that in order to improve people's livelihood and welfare, it cannot be blindly implemented without going through research and building social consensus, and it still needs to be carried out according to the plan. Recently, many young people have expectations for sandwich houses, but because of the sudden epidemic, the economy has been seriously declining, the economy has changed, and the housing needs of the sandwich class have changed, resulting in policies that have not fully met the needs of society.
The introduction of a transparent adjustment mechanism for pensions comes at the right time
He believes that the fifth-term HKSAR Government has made efforts to improve the social welfare system and expects to make some achievements, such as the adjustment mechanism for pension payment amounts. However, for the Government, it is not possible to gain temporary support from the public without considering balancing the long-term development of the relevant mechanism, and the introduction of a relatively transparent adjustment mechanism is timely and in line with the requirement of "living within the limits of income" in the Basic Law, and can better see the direction of sustainable social development.
The mandatory Central Provident Fund (CPF) system, which has attracted more public attention, has been softer than at the beginning due to the unsatisfactory situation of the pandemic and economic recovery. In conclusion, the current-term Government has tried its best to rationalise the social welfare system, but due to the lack of "the right time, the right place and the right people", some policies are difficult to implement as desired.
The Carer's Allowance was implemented by the fourth-term HKSAR Government as a pilot scheme for the current-term Government, which shows that despite the impact of the epidemic, the current-term Government has also made some breakthroughs. Mr Chan also pointed out that policy changes are not "changes for the sake of change", and that many policies need to be continuous, and they should be gradually improved on the basis of the policies established by the previous HKSAR governments. As far as the next-term HKSAR Government is concerned, it is hoped that the "fine tradition" will be carried on on the basis laid in the past.
It is hoped that the social welfare system should be considered on a family-by-family basis
Next year will be the final year of the 10-year Action Plan for Elderly Service and the 10-year Action Plan for Rehabilitation Services. Chen Jianxin said that if Shum Haohui can be re-elected in five years, in fact, the two 10-year action plans will cover his entire term, so it is particularly important to plan the two 10-year action plans in a forward-looking manner. He also hoped that the function of the family would be reflected in the two action plans, which would consider the social welfare system at the family level and strengthen mutual support and care among family members through policy empowerment.
He also pointed out that after the epidemic, many new concepts have emerged in the Central Government, and the next HKSAR Government should also think about how to draw on these new ideas of the Central Government and apply them to the policies that have been established, so as to make the policies more satisfactory. Among them, the successive Chief Executives have been promoting the improvement of e-government, which coincides with the new quality of productivity proposed in the two sessions, which is also to help upgrade social services through digital empowerment. Many areas in the Mainland have advanced experience and concepts in social services that Macao can learn from, and Macao's social services have unique advantages and a strong community culture, and it is hoped that the advantages of both sides will be brought into full play to better promote the development of social services.
There is an effective balance between short-term assistance and long-term mechanisms
As for the fairness of social welfare, how is it reflected? Chen Jianxin believes that throughout the development of social policies, it is usually aimed at the particularly poor and disadvantaged groups at the beginning, and with the gradual improvement of the mechanism, it will gradually expand to the relatively ideal group of people, just like Macao's housing policy, which has gradually developed from social housing to economic housing, and the introduction of apartments for the elderly with certain economic capacity. Social service services began to transform into a market-oriented mechanism to stimulate new service demand, and through the exploration of new demand and effective market competition, mass production of relevant service products, lower technical costs, and cover the disadvantaged groups. He believes that the next government needs to have a clearer explanation of this. Given the uneven economic development and the fact that when the objective environment changes drastically, it is inevitable that some residents will have ardent expectations for social welfare policies, and the Government must review different policies and study how to strike an effective balance between short-term assistance measures and long-term mechanisms.
He believes that the introduction of any livelihood policy needs to be accompanied by transparent and specific consultation, so that the society can better understand and understand the policy, so as to support and respond to it, and better enhance the social credibility of the policy. For the SAR government, the pressure stems from the fact that welfare policies are being used to compare with the mainland, but it needs to be noted that the progress and development of the mainland is even faster than imagined, and Macao has always been a small economy, with "congenital deficiencies" in marketization and a small territory, making it difficult to divide different regions for piloting. In his manifesto, Sam Ho-fai emphasises that "better integration into and service to the overall development of the country" can learn from the successful experience of the Mainland and help Macao's social services to develop better.