Macau: So near and a promising market for Philippine products
Credit to Author: DANILO T. IBAYAN| Date: Fri, 12 Apr 2019 16:41:54 +0000
CHINA’s Special Administrative Region of Macau is a small, densely populated place with an oversized wallet. With a total land area of only 29.2 square kilometers and a population of 650,000 (2016 census), it is one of the most densely populated regions of the world. With tourist arrivals of 30 million every year (2016), second only to France, it is thickly populated indeed. With the economy mainly based on gaming and tourism (Macau overtook Las Vegas in 2006 as the casino capital of the world in terms of casino revenues), it is one of world’s richest regions. The nominal GDP per capita is $77,451 and GDP per capita relative to purchasing power is $114,430. In 2015, the Brookings Institution ranked Macau as the fastest growing metropolitan region on the planet. Over the past three years, government budget surpluses have averaged 14.7 percent of GDP. It has no public debt.
Macau SAR is very friendly to the Philippines. Philippine passport holders are allowed visa-free access to Macau for a maximum of 30 days, while the Philippine government reciprocates with a no-visa for 14 days for Macau passport holders. The Macau Yearbook lists only three of its major nationalities as: “Chinese 99.9 percent, Filipinos 2 percent, Portuguese 1.7 percent.” Major birthplaces of Macao residents are listed as: “Macau, 42.5 percent, Mainland China, 47.1 percent, Hong Kong, 3.7 percent, Philippines, 2 percent, and Portugal, 0.3 percent.”
Predominantly Catholic Filipinos perhaps feel at home in Macau because for four centuries from the first Portuguese settlement in 1557 until the transfer of sovereignty to China on Dec. 21, 1999, Macau was a Portuguese colony. As a result of the long Portuguese presence, there are three Catholic cathedrals and the Macau diocese maintains 31 educational institutions. The ruins of St. Paul Church, destroyed by fire in 1835, is frequently depicted as a symbol of Macau along with the lotus flower. As of 2008, Macau had 122,878 Catholics, and if foreign residents are included, 28,686.
The close friendship between the people of the Philippines and Macau has been demonstrated by the readiness of the Macau government and people to extend assistance to the Philippines when struck by destructive natural calamities. I was Philippine Consul General in Macau from 2012 to 2014. On Nov. 28, 2013, I was summoned by the Chief Executive of Macau to his office to convey to me his message of sympathy and a donation of 5 million patacas ($630,000 or P27.5 million) for the victims of typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) in central Philippines. The Roman Catholic priest Secretary General of Caritas Macau sent through the Philippine Consulate General check donations of HK$75,000 for Filipinos affected by typhoon Haiyan, HK$50,000 for victims of typhoon Pablo, and HK$100,000 for victims of typhoon Sendong. On Nov. 27, 2013, a fund-raising concert was held at the big Macau Square for typhoon Haiyan victims by the Macau Artists Association in cooperation with the TDM Portuguese television and the Philippine Consulate General.
Let me relate some incidents during my stint in Macau showing the popularity and potentials there of Philippine products. During my Macau posting, I resided at the 40-story downtown building of Manhattan. You tell any taxi driver you want to go to Manhattan, and he will take you there. On its ground floor is a huge supermarket selling a wide variety of consumer and food products, including many Philippine goods.
Whenever I needed Philippine bananas, I had to go down to the supermarket before 6 p.m. because past the time, all the bananas you would find there were other types from another country. Other best-selling items from the Philippines were mangoes, pineapples, canned tuna, sandwich spreads, Eden cheese, San Miguel beer and Sunflower crackers. Our calamansi is also known as calamansi. In the supermarket in my building, a calamansi-nata de coco juice made in Hong Kong labeled “the No. 1 selling juice in Hong Kong,” quickly disappeared from the shelves. In the dining areas of the five-star hotels you would find pastries tagged “calamansi tart.”
While I was in Macau, among my best friends there were the honorary consul of Niger and her husband, the honorary consul general of Mali. During one of our lunches, I gave the couple a kilogram of Philippine coconut sugar with an analysis of its nutritional value. The couple was so impressed with the product and realized its commercial potential; the wife after a week was proposing to me that we should be partners in a coconut sugar business in Macau. I told her that Philippine foreign service rules prohibit diplomats from engaging in private business in the country of assignment. Later I got another business partnership proposal from a Macau businessman about the sourcing of live grouper fishes, lobsters, prawns, and crabs from the Philippines which are main dining attractions in Macau restaurants. I politely turned him down informing him of the foreign service regulations.
As mentioned above, Filipinos account for the third largest resident community. During my stay in Macau, there were 17,000 Filipinos, most of whom were domestic helpers (51 percent), hotel and restaurant workers (21 perent), retail sector workers (13 percent), and gaming sector workers (8.5 percent). Filipino workers are treated well and the Consulate General received hardly any report of maltreatment. There were 94 Filipino university lecturers. Twenty Filipino residents had small businesses such as shops, groceries and beauty parlors. Filipino success stories in Macau include that of Edwin Go, who owns three groceries selling Philippine goods and some Oriental products and who purchases items from the Philippines worth half a million US dollars; that of Ronald Bartolome, proprietor of La Cucina Italian restaurant established in 2005, which did very well in Macau (Bartolome opened a branch in Hong Kong five years after) and that of Architect Gualberto Cabungcal, who lives in a nice house, the restaurant “Umani” serving Filipino dishes and patronized not only by Filipinos but also by locals and foreign residents. Due to the presence of a big Filipino community, Jollibee has opened in Macau. Philippine Airlines has daily flights to Macau from Manila. Cebu Pacific flies daily from both NAIA and Clark, with additional flights from Manila on Fridays and Sundays; from Cebu, it has direct flights to Macau Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Air Asia Philippines also operates daily flights from Manila to Macau.
According to International Trade Center statistics, Macau’ts total imports in 2017 was valued at $10.93 billion. Its main Asean import partners are Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia. Top imports from the Philippines were fish and crustaceans, molluscs and other aquatic invertebrates; toys, games and sports requisites; dairy produce, birds’ eggs, natural honey, edible products of animal origin and preparations of vegetables, fruits, nuts; and furniture, mattresses, mattress supports and similar furnishings.
According to the ITC, some of the other main world products imported by Macau in 2017 included electrical machinery and equipment, sound recorders and reproducers, television; natural or cultured pearls, precious or semi-precious stones, precious metals, clocks and watches; leather, travel goods, handbags and similar containers, pharmaceutical products, articles of apparel and clothing, and accessories. footwear, gaiters and the like.
Philippine businessmen and exporters should take advantage of the enormous purchasing power as well as friendliness and proximity of Macau to promote their products. The Philippines has lots of produce which Macao needs, not just the $20 million worth that it currently supplies annually.
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