MICE in Macau, or Who Ate My Cheese?

Exhibition industry is gaining strong grounds, with top managers earning as much as three million HK dollars a year. A promising future, indeed, but have you seen any of these people living in your neighbourhood?

The author of these lines with two of his colleagues, all in meticulous business attire with business cards handy, tried to enter one of the convention events held in the magnificent new Venetian Convention and Exhibition Center just to be stopped by an ice-cube-like cold-faced lady in black at the reception who insisted in her learned Hong Kong – Australian accent that the show was for invited guests only. When asked why was that, she answered that she was working there and her job was … whatever.

So, she was “working”, wasn’t she? This seems to be The Keyword. The very definition of “work” became rather diluted these days. The lady at the reception couldn’t shed any more light on her employer, or her seniors. She was the senior, and we weren’t welcomed. Period.

Playing nice hosts to our guests, as Macau people always do, we didn’t want to spoil the party, and so we didn’t call the labour inspectors from the Human Resources Office or the Immigration Service. Or should we have done that? Should we denounce our neighbour and nurture the culture of vigilantes when it comes to The Keyword? Then again, how many more people behind those closed doors wouldn’t dare to name their employer?

Exhibition industry is undoubtedly one of the major economic engines in about every country where it has any significant presence. There seems to be no question about the benefits it would and should bring to Macau, and hopefully to its people too.

Being law-abiding citizens as we are, we respect the primacy of law. We presume that the law is (or at least should be) the same for everybody, even for the major exhibition agents from neighbouring regions who apparently see Macau as a “runaway” little sister that should be brought to their terms. Is that the reason why we see registration counters, site offices and interpreters’ booths in our, now local, exhibitions packed with fresh faces with tourist visas? What about the rule of law?

It’s not a secret that the owners of about every Macau-based small business are struggling with severe labour shortage or, to be precise, losing their last hopes in their plight for employees, local or foreign alike, and facing imminent hardship and forthcoming closures. But they follow the law, nevertheless.
Exhibition industry is said to be lacking qualified staff, which is absolutely true, but since when a foreign ID card became a free-entry ticket to Macau exhibition industry, or to any of Macau industries for that matter? Have we seen our local newspapers loaded with advertisements calling for exhibition professionals, or Macau Convention & Exhibition Association overwhelmed by requests, to sustain overseas agents’ claims about lack of personnel? Something has gone amiss here.

Standing prohibition for Macau companies, media or exhibition professionals to work directly in Hong Kong exhibitions has long been accepted as a “matter-of-fact” issue. What about our own home, are we being too nice and flexible or outright careless? Don’t we care?

Leo Stepanov, Managing Partner of Macau Translations Ltd.

Footnote: Macau Translations provided top international interpreters to work for the Macau 2007 2nd Asian Indoor Games and supplied a number of qualified linguistic personnel for some of the participants of the 12th Macau International Trade and Investment Fair. All of them, without exception, were holding valid permits to work in Macau.

(Published in Macau Daily Times, 22 November 2007)

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