Macau Special Administrative Region Government : Government to explore new channels for financial reserve investment

The Government is considering sovereign funds or investment development funds as ways to diversify its financial reserve investment based on the principle of prudency and low risks, according to the Secretary for Economy and Finance, Mr Leong Vai Tac.

Talking to reporters on 28 January 2016 after attending the Chinese New Year reception of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in Macao, Mr Leong noted that investment returns on the financial reserves and foreign reserves of the Macao SAR had gained positive growth.

He said among the investment portfolio, the Renminbi account had sustained considerable losses due to the devaluation of the Renminbi in 2015, leading to a drop in overall returns.

The finance chief stressed that fluctuations in exchange rates might lead to losses in the short term, but the Government would continue to hold Renminbi as it had confidence in the currency in the long term.

When asked about new ways of financial reserve investment, Mr Leong said the Government was studying the feasibility of sovereign funds or investment development funds.

But he pointed out that such funds were quite different from the Government's current ways of financial reserve investment and initial returns on these funds might be zero or even negative growth.

Nevertheless he said the Government would take a long-term perspective on its financial reserve investment.

Meanwhile Mr Leong revealed that the Government was revising the report on the interim review of the gaming industry, which would be published in due course.

The major aim of the interim review is to assess the implementation of contracts of the six gaming operators.

'Chinese and Portuguese are the official languages of Macao, the English version of the web site is the translation from the Chinese originals and is provided for reference only.'