Group photo of guests and participants at the Forum

On 27 April, the Macao Polytechnic Institute successfully held the “Forum on Macao Integrated Tourism and Leisure Operators and Corporate Social Responsibility”. The forum was graciously supported by the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Macau SAR. It also attracted enthusiastic response from the Macao Federation of Trade Unions and six local integrated tourism and leisure operators to participate in this event.

The Forum was organized with the theme on "Professional Training and Nurturing Talents". Its overall objective was to "showcase and further promote corporate social responsibility commitments among local operators of integrated tourism and leisure properties; with a view to providing the whole industry and the general public with a comprehensive understanding of these corporations' talent nurturing initiatives and measures, as well as the impacts brought to Macau’s strategic plans towards moderate economic diversification, and their potential contributions to local community development and charity endeavors." As such, the Forum is poised to offer local participants an interactive platform to exchange viewpoints on such critical issues as mutual development for small and medium-sized enterprises, environmental technology for hotels, community welfare and charity work, supporting mainland development projects and staff education of mainland China's status-quo, implementing responsible gaming, navigating Macao towards moderate economic diversification via non-gaming projects etcetera.

During the Forum, representatives from the major operators of integrated tourism and leisure properties introduced their internal staff training programs, their tailor-made initiatives to train local talents, as well as their incentive mechanisms to subsidize local young people for further education. For example, the "GEG Youth Achievement Program" and the "GEG Accelerated Development Program" launched by Galaxy Entertainment Group to nurture young people and local talents; the "PRIDE Program" by MGM offers each level of high-potential local talents intensive career development training, paired with overseas cross-training experience; the "Dare to Dream" program  launched by Melco Crown Entertainment offers local talents the exposure and opportunities to study with the best of the best in different fields, fueling that the impossible can be possible; the "My Way" Career Development Initiative by Sands China Ltd. to train their Team Members with multiple skills which further developed their capabilities and broaden their opportunities to grow horizontally and upwards in an integrated resort; the "Career Advancement Program" launched by Wynn Macau to offer local talents from the gaming team opportunities to advance their career in the hospitality management team. On the other hand, Sociedade de Jogos de Macau S.A. has called on “local integrated gaming and entertainment operators to forge closer partnerships under the principle of mutual development and fair competition, as well as to collaborate with tertiary institutes to conduct needs analysis surveys of talent training programs and to hammer out training evaluation standards for the whole industry to benchmark against”.

In the Forum, the Macao Federation of Trade Unions also reflected upon its over 30 years’ experience as a devoted service provider of amateur education, vocational secondary education and vocational skills training programs for gaming employers, with particular emphasis attached to their career paths and upward mobility potentials. To that effect, the Federation points out that more gaming practitioner should be encouraged to get involved in these beneficial training programs so that their job performance can be further upgraded and obtain professional certification successfully.

The Macao Polytechnic Institute has also introduced the efforts being made by its Gaming and Teaching Research Centre in providing technical training courses; Bachelor degree program in Gaming and Recreation Management; research on gaming regulations and on human resources needs of the industry. Based on these, the Centre proposes to incorporate government policies, corporate commitments and cooperation from educational institutes into future training programs. In addition, gaming employees should be encouraged to develop autonomous learning to improve their job performance continuously. As the Centre added, it is particularly important to nurture local talents with a competitive edge.

Attending and/or officiating guests of the Forum have also included Mr. Alexis Tam Chon Weng, Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture of Macau; Mr. Wang Xindong, Secretary General of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government; Ms. Lok Kit Sim, representative of the Secretary for Economy and Finance of Macau; Mr. Ip Peng Kin, Chief of Office of the Secretariat for Social Affairs and Culture of Macau; Mr. Huang Huagai, Deputy Secretary General of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Macau SAR; Deputy section chiefs Mr. Chen Xiang and Mr. Kou Ming from the Liaison Office; Mr. Paulo Martins Chan, Director of Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau; and Mr. Sou Chio Fai, Director of Tertiary Education Services Office; Ms. Ho Sut Heng, President of the Macao Federation of Trade Unions; Other representatives from local key integrated tourism and leisure operators that also attended the Forum have included (in alphabetical order of their company name): Mr. Michael Mecca (President of Galaxy Entertainment Group); Mr. Ted Chan (Chief Operating Officer of Melco Crown Entertainment); Mr. Grant Bowie (Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of MGM China Holdings Ltd.); Dr. Wilfred Wong (President of Sands China Ltd.); Ms. Angela Leong (Managing Director and Chief Administrative Officer of Sociedade de Jogos de Macau S.A.); Ms. Linda Chen (Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of Wynn Macau Ltd.).