Chui Sai On, the only candidate for the next Chief Executive (CE) of Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR), Saturday presented his political platform to the public, promising to reform the SAR government and enhance local people's livelihood.

Chui stated the goal for his future administration once he is elected at the CE candidate political platform presentation and question and answer session, which was held at Macao's East Asian Games Dome Saturday morning. The over-two-hour event was attended by 254 members of the 300-member CE Election Committee, within which the new CE will be elected on July 26.

Chui's platform comprises four parts which concern the negative impact of global financial crisis, the quality of local people's life, the diversification of local economy, and the reformation of the SAR government.

Addressing the financial crisis that has led to the stalling of local economic growth, Chui proposed to create more jobs for the locals through a series of measures such as pouring more public investment into infrastructure, encouraging investment in the private sector, providing more training opportunities to the unemployed.

In terms of local people's life quality, he said he will focus on improving the standard of Macao's social welfare, housing, health, culture, education, environment, etc with the people- oriented idea, said Chui, who was the SAR government's secretary for social affairs and culture for the past ten years.

Chui quit his office in May this year, so as to run for the CE office, since the law prescribes that the SAR's government and judicial officials who intend to participate in the CE election must resign or retire from their posts before the start of the election's nomination process.

Meanwhile, Chui also said that he will strengthen the competitiveness of Macao's gaming industry, the pillar of local economy, in Asia, while promoting the development of other industries such as culture and MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibition) so as to achieve the goal of diversifying the economy.

As for the integrity issues of the SAR government which has caught wide attention from the public, Chui said he and his future administration will make effort to reform the SAR's governing system once elected, promoting the opening-up of governmental affairs, and enhancing the transparency of policy-making.

According to the CE Electoral Committee, which oversees the election, candidate can launch campaign activities starting from Saturday to July 24. Although Chui is the only candidate, his campaign office still announced that a series of activities, including meetings with civil groups and representatives from various socio-economic sectors and forums which will see Chui answering questions directly from the local residents, will be held during the period.

(Xinhua News Agency July11, 2009)