Associate Dean Eva Khong of the Faculty of Finance, City University of Macau was honored to have invited Prof Jerome Yen, Distinguished Professor of Business Information System, University of Macau, to speak at a seminar on “The Impact of FinTech on the Economy of Macau” on 16 April 2019 and had in-depth discussion with PhD students of our Faculty of Finance.

  Prof Yen pointed out that the development of Macao is stagnant and then raised some questions: it is unhealthy for Macao’s economy to rely solely on gaming industry?  How can industrial diversification be achieved?  Great importance has been attached to the Greater Bay Area.  How can Macao participate in the development of the Greater Bay Area, produce research results and nurture outstanding young talent, upgrade its industries, achieve diversification and transformation, and support innovative entrepreneurship?  Can FinTech become a new direction for Macao’s economic development?  Can the same technology be leveraged to develop gaming technology and tourism technology?

  Prof Yen told the audience that the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area included “9+2 cities in Greater Bay Area’, i.e. 9 Mainland cities, Hong Kong and Macao SARs.  It was a cross region and cross system strategic blueprint that covered “one country, two systems, three customs territories and four core cities”.  He then cited the example of Russia, whose 2018 GDP in USD was lower than that of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, to point out that with its geographical advantage and innovation ability, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area would become a world class Bay Area and city cluster.  Prof Yen also used Shenzhen’s high technology contribution rate (60%) to illustrate the possibility of developing a world class technological bay area.  The city had attracted leading technological companies and innovative enterprises, including Huawei, Tencent and BYD etc, and could provide the foundation for technological development in the Greater Bay Area.  Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Center had over 10 universities and would churn out talent for the Greater Bay Area.   In addition, Hong Kong had a number of higher institutions, Cyberport and had made significant investment in technology and innovation.  Macao itself was a place for technological development and innovation.  Prof Yen explained that technological development had gone through the initial stage of intent, AI at a later stage and would go through the final stage of the development of intelligent data analysis of Blockchain in future.  The application of Blockchain technology will be important for driving the development of FinTech and the development of smart banking.

  Prof Yen told the audience the ratio between internet banks and traditional physical banks.  He pointed out that China Ping An Bank had the widest scope of applications while Hong Kong was developing smart banks and launching seven measures to grasp the huge opportunity offered by banks and technology.

  Lastly, Prof Yen raised the questions that “It is important for Macao’s technological innovation to be combined with local economy.  Can the gaming industry take the lead?”   and pointed out that if Macau wanted to pursue industrial diversification, it would be important for research results of universities in Macao to be transformed and Macao’s transformation would require the efforts of everyone.