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quarter of 2008; and down 11.1 percent will still be thinking. And this will extend ic point of view.
in the case of non-skilled workers. the economic slowdown because there’s “Changing the rules when the game
Also, Martins says, up to August this no labour force. has already started is not pretty,” he says.
year, only 5.8 percent of the 8,380 million “Also, when it re-authorises the im- In his opinion, the government could
PIDDA - the Administration Investment portation of non-resident workers, it will have instead made protocols to make the
and Development Expenses Plan - budget face a huge battle with those who believe gaming operators invest in the training of
for this year had been spent. imported labour should be stopped.’’ local workers.
“You can see the cooling of the mar- In the economist’s view, the govern- With regards to the cleaning, secu-
ket. So I ask: if the market is cooling, why ment should instead improve its supervi- rity and building administration sectors,
does the construction field need more la- sory role and only authorise the impor- the new rule – cutting quotas by half –
bour? Why did the government have to tation of labour when there are no local will affect SMEs the most.
implement this policy if it knew the sec- workers capable of filling positions. To Martins, protests demanding a
tor itself would stop importing?’’. The government should also make stop to imported labour only serve to
He believes that for now, the gov- sure that the qualifications asked for by illustrate that the fruits of economic
ernment will gain some support because companies are not exaggerated so they growth have not reached everyone.
what they have done is in line with mar- can escape hiring locals. Instead, many were left having to
ket trends. But Martins warns that when Martins also says that with the slow- deal with price increases.
the market heats up again and the new down in the casino sector, projects ex- About 26 percent of the active popu-
projects start, the government will have pected to have been concluded in 2012 lation earns less than MOP5,000 patacas
to retreat on their policy. will drag on. a month. The median salary is little more
This, he says, will create a lag: “When As for the new policy on supervisors than MOP 8,000 a month, which means
the builders need (labour), the government in the gaming sector, he contends that it that half of the people earn less than this,
doesn’t make sense in a liberal economy, “It’s too little,” says Martins.
Changing the rules
especially if one is not sure whether there Not even the government’s gloomy
are enough qualified local workers to fill economic growth projections seem to
when the game
the positions. convince the economist.
has already started
“It’s one more measure from outside Martins created a computer simula-
into the business of companies that will tion and concluded that even if the econ-
is not pretty
only cause disturbance.” omy has a zero growth in the last two
Albano Martins
Casinos might adapt but Martins quarters of the year, at the end of 2008,
believes it is wrong from an econom- it would still have grown 12.26 percent
december 2008
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