The Asia-Pacific Academy of Economics and Management (APAEM) of the University of Macau aims to promote interdisciplinary research that is impactful and relevant to the socio-economic development of Macao and the Greater Bay Area.
Specifically, APAEM’s research focus will be concentrated in four major areas:
The economy of Asia consists of more than 4.5 billion people (about 60% of the world population) living in 49 different countries and regions. Asia is one of the fastest growing economic regions, as well as the largest continental economy by both nominal GDP ($31.58 trillion in 2019) and PPP-adjusted GDP ($65.44 trillion in 2019) in the world. Moreover, Asia is the site of some of the world’s longest modern economic booms, starting from the Japanese economic miracle, Miracle on the Han River in South Korea, and economic boom in China. Therefore, the study of Asian Economics is of essential importance in understanding regional economics, economic growth, and industrialization.
The Asia-Pacific Academy of Economics and Management (APAEM) is particularly interested in the economies of Macao and China. Given that tourism is the backbone of Macao’s economy, tourism economics will be one of the major focuses of APAEM. Additionally, the focuses of APEAM include Macao’s economic relation to other Asian regions and the role of Macao in cooperation in innovation and technology with other Greater Bay Area (GBA) cities.
Financial Innovation, broadly speaking, is the process of creating new financial products and services, often including the use of new financial technologies (FinTech), such as AI, Blockchain and Security, Big Data, Cloud Computing, and even Internet of Things (IoT) .
A core research area of APAEM, financial innovation is one of the crucial elements in diversifying Macao’s economy and in strengthening Macao’s ability to assume the role of One Platform in support of trade and investment between China and the Portuguese-speaking countries. In view of the expanded cooperation, there is considerable need for innovative financial mechanisms and platforms to facilitate inbound and outbound capital flows, such as investment and funding as well as other related initiatives.
Furthermore, the advent of financial and trade integration of the Greater Bay Area (GBA) calls for greater innovation in financial services and even policies, especially in supporting the creation of a second Macao in Hengqin. Macao will play an important role in the cross-border financial collaboration and in the construction of a green financial system. Also, Macao is planning a RMB-denominated Stock Exchange, in which it will be a very important milestone in showing such determination. To meet these challenges, Macao and the GBA must embrace innovative thinking and new technologies to be able to forge new paths in financial connectivity and wealth management.
Smart Tourism is a buzzword that people often hear or read about these days. How is it relevant to Macao? Macao has successfully positioned itself over the last two decades as a popular tourist destination at an international level, contributing to the robust economic growth of the city itself. To maintain this momentum, the adoption of smart tourism can form the basis for innovating the tourism industry, improving service quality, and providing memorable experiences for tourists.
Smart tourism technologies can enhance effectiveness and efficiency on three levels: the destination level where the government sets the overall tourism strategy; the firm level where the tourism and related industries provide services; and the individual level where the tourists experience what the destination has to offer.
Financial Econometrics is about developing quantitative methodologies and applying them to advance understanding of phenomina in dynamic and complex financial and economic systems. Macao’s unique social-economic position, particularly its strengths in tourism, gaming and finance sectors, provides access to timely large-scale dynamic datasets, and stimulates opportunities for novel quantitative research, which offers crucial new insights into key issues in finance and economics such as risk management, investments, forecasting and policy evaluation.