About Macau Chinese Chamber of Commerce

Macau Chinese Chamber of Commerce

The Macau Chinese Chamber of Commerce, abbreviated ACM and also known in English as the Macao Chamber of Commerce, is Macau's principal Chinese business association and one of the most influential civic institutions in the territory. Founded on 8 January 1913 as the Macao Chamber of Commerce and renamed the Macao Chinese General Chamber of Commerce in 1916, it has represented the interests of Macau's Chinese merchants for more than a century — through the late Portuguese colonial period, the turbulence of the 1960s, and the transition to the Macau Special Administrative Region of China in 1999. Its Chinese name is 澳門中華總商會 and its Portuguese name Associação Comercial de Macau; its official website is acm.org.mo.

The Chamber today has some 180 member organisations and maintains links with around 3,000 enterprises. Since the 1999 handover it has been counted one of Macau's three major pro-Beijing organisations, alongside the Macau Federation of Trade Unions and the General Union of Neighbourhood Associations of Macau, and its members sit in the Legislative Assembly — including through the commercial functional constituency — and across Macau's public bodies. For most of the twentieth century its presidency was held by two dominant figures of Macau public life, Ho Yin and Ma Man-kei, whose long tenures made the Chamber the central intermediary between Macau's Chinese community and the Portuguese administration.

Origins before 1913

Until the early twentieth century Macau had no commercial association organised for its businessmen. When accidents or collective problems arose, Chinese merchants discussed their resolution informally at Kiang Wu Hospital, the Chinese charitable hospital that served as a gathering point for the community's elites. A first chamber initiative at the encouragement of the Qing government obtained Portuguese approval, but its founding charter was revoked in 1911 by the Portuguese colonial administration, leaving Chinese businessmen — a growing population in Macau — dissatisfied at their lack of representation.

In 1911 the merchant Shiu Ying-chau, jointly with other businessmen, initiated a renewed project for a chamber of commerce and presented it to the Macau government of the time. On 14 December 1912 the government in Lisbon approved the chamber's registration under the name "Macao Chamber of Commerce". The Chamber was officially established on 8 January 1913 under the first directorship of Shiu Ying-chau, with the Tong Sin Tong charitable hall as its provisional office, later moving to premises owned by the Hong Kung Temple Council at No. 4, Rua do Pagode. It was also approved for registration by the Chinese government's Department of Industry and Commerce under the name "Macao Overseas Chinese General Chamber of Commerce", and in 1916 it was officially designated the "Macao Chinese General Chamber of Commerce", also known as the Macao Chamber of Commerce.

Early decades and premises

The young Chamber built its institutional presence step by step. In 1930 Lo Chak Sun was elected Director, with Wong Yee Chiu as Vice-Director, and because the office at Rua do Pagode had become old and small, the Chamber raised funds to purchase premises at No. 18, Largo do Leal Senado — Macau's central square — where its presence anchored it in the civic heart of the city. From 1932 Fan Kit Pan directed the Chamber; in 1935 the system of directorship was changed to a chairmanship, and Fan served as chairman for seven consecutive terms. Commodity exhibitions were regularly held inside the Chamber to promote commercial development.

The Chamber also invested early in commercial education and services. In 1941, under chairman Ko Hor Ning, a Commercial Inquiry Office and a Commercial School were established, each lasting a year. Lau Pak Ying chaired the Chamber in 1946 and 1947; a Mandarin Research Class was established in the spring of 1947, and in 1948 the Chamber adopted a system of Boards of Directors and Supervisors, with Lau as first chairman of the new structure and Ho Yin and Wong Wai Lam as vice-chairmen. In 1948 Ho Yin donated a whole building at Praia Grande for a Reading Room commemorating his late mothers, opened on 1 November 1948, and in the spring of 1949 a Commercial Training Class began, teaching book-keeping, abacus calculation and letter writing.

The Ho Yin era, 1950–1983

In 1950 Ho Yin was elected chairman, with Chau Chi Tat and Ma Man-kei as vice-chairmen, beginning an era of more than three decades in which Ho directed the Chamber's affairs. From 1950 to 1983 Ho Yin was consecutively elected chairman of the Board of Directors, Council and General Committee for eighteen terms and president for two terms, assisted over the years by Ma Man-kei from 1950, Chui Tak-kei from 1953 and Cheng Kung from 1968. The Chamber's own history records that for more than thirty years he directed its affairs, devoting effort and donations and making great contributions to the Chamber; structurally, the term of directors was extended to two years in 1956, and the board system gave way to a Council system in 1968 and then to a General Committee system in 1980.

The 1966–67 confrontation and the Chamber as intermediary

Ho Yin's Chamber was far more than a trade body. As the recognised leader of Macau's Chinese community, Ho acted as intermediary between that community and the Portuguese administration, and the Chamber building became the venue at which the community's relationship with the colonial government was negotiated. The defining episode came in the confrontation of 1966–67 — the "12-3 incident" — after which, on 29 January 1967, the Portuguese governor signed a statement of apology at the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, under a portrait of Mao Zedong, with Ho Yin, the Chamber's president, presiding. Two agreements were signed, committing the administration to compensate local Chinese community leaders and to prohibit Kuomintang activities in Macau, a settlement that effectively ended Portuguese administrative authority over the Chinese community decades before the formal handover. Ho Yin died of cancer on 6 December 1983, and the Chamber's history remembers him as a patriotic figure whose death was a great loss to Macau society.

Ma Man-kei and the approach to the handover

In April 1984 Ma Man-kei was elected President of the Chamber, and he was re-elected in 1986 under the restructured system of a General Committee and Board of Supervisors, serving as president in successive years thereafter. Ma, who had been Ho Yin's vice-chairman since 1950, became one of the highest-ranking Chinese citizens in Macau, serving for many years as a vice-chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and he was an outspoken proponent of China's resumption of sovereignty over Macau. Under his presidency the Chamber's role as a bridge to Beijing was institutionalised in the years before the 1999 handover.

The Chamber's commercial work continued alongside its political role. It had organised Macao business participation in the Canton Fair — the China Export Commodities Fair in Guangzhou — since the fair's inauguration in 1957, being mandated to issue invitations to Macau businessmen for every spring and autumn fair, and it sent delegations abroad over the decades, including to Africa in 1962 and to Portugal and other European countries in 1981 and 1992. After the handover it organised delegations to present Macau's post-handover economic status in Asia and Europe, and it has participated in the Macao International Trade and Investment Fair since that event's beginning.

Structure, services and public roles

The Chamber's structure was reorganised again in 2000 into three ranks: the Presidents of the Chamber, the Board of Directors and the Board of Supervisors, with Ma Man-kei again elected President. In 2010 its 78th general assembly elected the 68th leadership, with Ma Iao Lai as President, a leadership of 153 presidents and board members — up from 110 — including more than 50 younger business figures, and a new rule that the President and the presidents of the two boards may not serve more than two consecutive terms in the same office. Frederico Ma subsequently served as president of the Board of Directors and received honours on the Chamber's behalf, including the Grand Merit at the 2025 Business Awards of Macau.

Services to members and representation in public bodies

For members, the Chamber issues certificates of origin, handles overseas commercial correspondence, organises commercial seminars and symposiums — including an annual industrial and commercial seminar held after the Lunar New Year since the 1970s, whose collected opinions are delivered to government departments — and assists members with commercial visa applications. Its members serve as legislators, committee members and consultants across Macau's public organs, including the Executive Council, the Legislative Assembly, economic and social consultative committees, the Social Security Fund and numerous regulatory and advisory bodies, making the Chamber a formal channel between business and government as well as an informal one.

The Chamber since 1999

Since Macau's return to China on 20 December 1999, the Chamber has been counted, with the Macau Federation of Trade Unions and the neighbourhood associations union, as one of the three major pro-Beijing organisations that dominate Macau politics, and it holds representation in the Legislative Assembly through the commercial functional constituency. In February and March 2000 its leaders visited more than twenty industrial and commercial associations to collect opinions on the business environment, compiling them in a booklet submitted to Chief Executive Ho Hau Wah — himself a former Chamber vice-president — for reference in formulating policy.

The Chamber's national role was underlined in May 2011, when a delegation led by President Ma Iao Lai visited Beijing, was received by Vice-President Xi Jinping, and was given "Four Hopes" for the Chamber: to carry out "One Country, Two Systems" and the Basic Law, to seize development opportunities and contribute to the country's development and Macau's prosperity, to foster young talent, and to serve members and society in the cause of Macau's harmony and stability. For a directory of Chinese business organisations, the Macau Chinese Chamber of Commerce is a landmark entry: founded in 1913 out of the Chinese merchants' meeting place at Kiang Wu Hospital, led for most of a century by Ho Yin and Ma Man-kei, and still — with 180 member organisations and links to some 3,000 enterprises — the central association of Macau's Chinese business community.