Macau's new CEO appointed by Chinese committee
Updated
The Chinese-ruled territory of Macau has a new chief executive, after Fernando Sai-On Chui was elected at the weekend.
The result was hardly a surprise. Mr Chui was the sole candidate in the race for the position. He replaced Edmund Ho, who served the maximum of two consecutive five-year terms since Macau's return to Chinese rule in 1999. The territory's half-a-million people had no direct say on their new leader, as he was endorsed by a 300-member committee known as an electoral college.
Presenter: Claudette Werden
Speakers: Harald Bruning, Macau Post Daily
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BRUNING: He is a member of one of Macau's most influential families, that's pretty important in a small city like ours, city of half a million people. His father was a very important community leader, two of his relatives are law makers and he has been a political figure since 1999 when Macau returned to Chinese rule, so he's very well plugged in.
WERDEN: When you say he's a political figure, what's he been doing?
BRUNING: The government consists of a chief executive and then you have five secretaries, in Australia you would call them ministers and he was a minister in charge of social affairs and culture, tourism, sport, welfare, public health, actually he had the biggest portfolio of all those five so he was very visible
WERDEN: I know he was endorsed by a small pro-Beijing electoral college, so do we take it that he has a pro-Beijing stance?
BRUNING: Well that's not an issue in Macau, Macau's Chinese population makes up 95% of the population has always identified with China, very different from Hong Kong, maybe because of Portugese colonial rule, because of the language barrier people did not identify with the Portugese they always identified with China, irrespective if you had the communist party there in power or the Kuomintang or even the emperor back then, so the notion of being pro-Beijing in Macau doesn't apply, everybody here among the chinese is basically patriotic and that means identifying with China as a nation.
WERDEN: Are we expecting any changes in gaming policy?
BRUNING: Well in his electoral program he talked, he mentioned that he would like to have stricter regulations of the gaming industry but it was a bit vague he didn't say what he was trying to do, but I don't see drastic changes coming up in anything actually but especially in the gaming industry, the gaming industry is so important to Macau, generates over 50% of GDP, generates about three quarters of Macau's income, it employs maybe 20% of the workforce, tourism and gaming in Macau are basically identical, there are no experiments possible with the gaming industry even as a politician.
WERDEN: In recent times, there's been negative press about the criminal element has he been vocal on any of that?
BRUNING: The problem you are referring to is money laundering, that type of thing, Macau has joined a number of international entities over the last couple of years and passed legislation on that but I don't think there will be any major changes in that respect either.
