The SAR Government issued a statement on Sunday rejecting the content of a newly released report by the United States State Department on the city’s investment climate. Macau authorities described the report as containing “unfounded and irresponsible comments on the economic and political developments and on the electoral system.”
In the 2025 Investment Climate Statement on Macau, Washington said that the push for economic diversification — focusing on MICE, traditional Chinese medicine, modern financial services, and advanced technology — has so far “yielded minimal results.”
The SAR noted in its response that as it “advocates appropriate economic diversification, the local laws and regulations are also improved to further protect employees’ interests and rights, striving for orderly and harmonious labour relations.” Macau authorities also stressed that the SAR is ranked by the World Trade Organization (WTO) as one of the world’s freest economies for trade and investment.
According to the report, US investment in Macau over the past decade is estimated to be at least US$20 billion, “a figure expected to grow,” the US report notes, as the six concessionaires agreed to invest at least US$15 billion in the Macau economy as part of the concession process to advance the SAR Government’s efforts to diversify the economy. Three of the six casino concessionaires operating in the SAR are US-based: Sands, Wynn and MGM.
The investment climate report reviews economic and political developments in recent years, with a focus on the SAR’s latest amendment to the national security legislation, which expanded definitions of crimes such as secession, sedition and collusion, as well as on “several actions” and legal developments since 2021 “that have limited participation in the political process.”
The Macau Government stressed that it has been “continuously improving the electoral system” and cited the latest election held earlier this month as a “vivid manifestation that the reformed electoral system was widely supported and recognised by the general public.”
Regarding the national security amendments, the Government stated that they “were made with reference to the legislative experiences of other jurisdictions, and traditions of the Macau legal system and social conditions were also taken into consideration”, while reminding that Washington has introduced a series of strict laws concerning national security and frequently exercised “extraterritorial jurisdiction” in an arbitrary way. The SAR considered this a “demonstration of typical double standards and hypocrisy.”
