The registration for government-issued smartcards will end next Wednesday and all work related to the collection of the smartcards has been completed, the Macau Monetary Authority (AMCM) and Economic Services Bureau (DSE) jointly announced in a statement yesterday.

According to the statement, 633,000 residents had registered by 5 p.m. yesterday.

The government reminded residents to register prior to the deadline, so that they can select the time and venue to pick up their cards, the statement said.

The Macau Monetary Authority has organised multiple workshops and trained over 1,000 “frontline” personnel, in order to ensure the smartcards are dispatched orderly, the statement noted.

The smartcards can be collected from April 14 to 30, the statement said.

According to a previous government statement, each successfully registered resident will receive an SMS informing them of their registration number.

The 3,000-pataca consumption smartcards need to be spent between May 1 and July 31, with the maximum spending per day set at 300 patacas.

The government has said the scheme aims to give a much-needed boost to Macau’s economy which has been hit hard by the novel coronavirus epidemic. The government has budgeted 2.19 billion patacas for the smartcards.

The cards cannot be used for spending on gambling or betting. 

This undated photo from the Economic Services Bureau (DSE) shows a trainee activating a smartcard with a “local ID card printout” scanned by a terminal at an undisclosed location.