Made in Macau

You may have noticed in recent years that our city has been bustling with the slogan, ‘Made in Macau’. It is widely presented as one of our key agendas to promote the economy, yet, is it just me that feels it’s a little too deliberate, even annoying?

 

Those of us with a contemporary understanding of Macau’s local products are familiar with the egg biscuits (or Kai Dan Ben in Cantonese), almond biscuits, beef jerky and other food souvenirs, as well as the ‘home grown’ gaming and tourism industry that has been going strong for more than a decade. It’s all full of fun, but why do we still need the ‘Made in Macau’ slogan? What have we really created that is ‘genuinely’ original and endemic to Macau, or successful enough as to be worthy of the ‘Made in Macau’ label?  

 

A simple local T-shirt, a piece of hand-made craft, a souvenir – these have laughably become hallmarks of our creative industries, born and relentlessly promoted through the government’s well-funded, but hurried and forced incubation initiatives. This has instilled into our mind a distorted, lazy mindset that seeks to cut corners and take shortcuts. 

 

In August 2013, the government launched the Young Entrepreneurs Aid Scheme providing an interest-free loan of up to MOP300,000 to assist local young people who want to set up businesses. Together with the Youth Entrepreneurs Incubation Centre, it advocates young people to get creative and enterprising, with a focus on ‘cultural creativity’.  All of sudden, hundreds of short training courses such as coffee brewing, floral arrangement, bakery and cake making and many others are on offer, which upon completion will provide those without a degree qualification the right pass to apply for the loan. Thousands of people rushed to apply for the loan.

 

Five years on, it was reported that, due to the common problems of high rent and lack of affordable labour, as well as market demands, Macau’s business environment is yet to improve. So behind the glorified initiatives, we see cases where youths consequently run into personal debts to family and friends, face bottlenecks in the job market, build up a poor credit record of unpaid loans (that will in some cases remain permanently unpaid), and most importantly, invest their golden years into an initiative that is not carried out responsibly. The past years have also seen numerous other new businesses closed down, and then replaced by another batch set up with help from the Aid Scheme – an illusion of an ‘active’ economy fuelled by public money that originates from the tax revenue from the hot gaming business.

 

But what is really ‘Made in Macau’? In the past, Macau gave the impression that it was just a fishing village, but there was more to it.  In October 1844, Macau became the place where China’s first photograph was produced. Macau’s firecrackers, fire matches, and incense sticks were the three major handicraft industries in Macau. These three traditional industries accounted for a considerable proportion of Macau’s economy and provided for hundreds of thousands of Macau’s families in those days. There was also a shipbuilding industry and a porcelain industry that once flourished, making Macau an important member within the Guangdong porcelain industry, along with Foshan. The once mighty garment industry also moved out from the city in the 80s. 

 

Internationally, we all know Hong Kong films are ‘made in Hong Kong’, and Aston Martins are ‘made in the UK’. These are examples of creations that really are differentiated from the competition; they first achieve significant domestic success and then are recognized as the benchmarks in the field.  The process calls for substantial hard work involving research, testing and improving through trial and error, until excellence and quality is achieved. High-level technology and expertise knowledge result from a competitive commercial eco-system.

 

With the increasing number of failing business cases in Macau, the politicians are now picking up another promotional vehicle that lures young – and older – entrepreneurs into venturing out into the Greater Bay Area, promoting it with all the lure of many other exciting business opportunities. Unfortunately, I can only predict a growing number of business suicides and lost young minds.