Macau ends the first half of 2025 with a double record that no government likes to showcase: the lowest number of new companies since 2016 and the highest number of dissolutions in the past decade (see pages 8 and 9). It is now all too evident that we still have entire sectors stuck in the uneven recovery of the economy, where tourism and gaming run ahead while everything else is left behind.
Retail is the most glaring example — a victim of weak consumer confidence, increasing spending outside Macau and online, and fierce competition from neighbouring regions. The almost exclusive focus on tourism and gaming has left us exposed to external shocks beyond our control: when average visitor spending drops, local income falls, and domestic demand contracts.
Even before being elected Chief Executive, Sam Hou Fai promised a recovery plan for the sectors and areas of the city most affected. But so far there is nothing to show. In just a few months, his first year in office will be complete. Will we see any news? Or are the signs from the local economy still not alarming enough for the issue to become a priority?
If the government truly wants to exercise the much-talked-about “visible hand” in the market, it cannot simply focus on the future and leave the vast majority of companies at the mercy of a slow death. In Macau, the purge of the weakest means losing a substantial portion of the workforce — a workforce that will hardly be absorbed by casinos or the public administration, whose vacancies are limited, and which, for the most part, lacks the qualifications for emerging industries. The present cannot be left to wither away simply because a future is being promised.
* Executive Director of PLATAFORMA
