Letters | How Macau can meet Xi Jinping’s 3 expectations

We have long suffered from diversification fatigue and thus we need to be more strategic in this pursuit. Instead of having everyone pull in multiple directions, for instance, with the casinos supporting every activity spurred by the government, we should have each of the six casino operators focus on one specific area related to their own activities. Instead of merely setting objectives, they should set return-on-investment targets so that those activities can stand on their own rather than be fed by gaming revenue.

Attracting talent to Macau has been a major issue for years. To be fair, the government has done a great job of preserving societal stability, which in large part was done through ensuring almost full employment of the local population. There should be, however, a culture change, where non-locals are not seen as taking jobs away from locals but as coming to collaborate with them and to fuel growth. To avoid a competitive mindset, significant effort should be put into upskilling people, rather than reserving some jobs, like croupiers or drivers, for locals. Just imagine the windfall to be gained next from exporting best practices, as Las Vegas has been doing to all gaming regions.

Overall, there seems to be a refreshing wave of optimism, probably because we in Macau are conscious that we really need to do something.