News

Participating in regular exercises is part of the training programme for the personnel in Macau International Airport. Through organizing different types of exercise, the airport aims to enhance the capacity in dealing with emergencies of the government entities and the operators involved in the airport search and rescue. The yearly full-scale emergency exercise was carried out this morning (31 October 2013) in Macau International Airport with the scenario of an unknown gas attacking the airport personnel during the x-ray security screening of checked baggage. The airport emergency plan was immediately activated to deal with the accident. The scenario of this exercise was different from those that have been adopted in previous years which mainly focused on the handling of emergencies associated with aircraft accident. In the simulation of today, the ground handling personnel were suddenly attacked by a pungent smell while loading the checked baggage of an arrival flight on to the x-ray machine in the make-up area for security screening. The personnel in the vicinities felt suffocating and their throat was severely affected with burning symptoms. Some of the personnel fainted. When the accident was reported to the airport authorities, the airport emergency operations centre was immediately activated to take charge of the accident. When the airport fire services arrived at the make-up area, an explosion occurred on scene and led to a fire, causing a number of injuries. With the assistance provided by and the cooperation between the participating entities involved in search and rescue, the dangerous goods in the cargo consignment were eventually handled in a proper manner. The injured were sent to hospital for medical treatment. The exercise was carried out from 07:00 to 09:00 this morning. The Administration of Airports Ltd. was the coordinator of this drill. Other participating entities were Unitary Police Force, Macao Customs Services, Public Security Police Force, Judiciary Police, Fire Services Bureau, Security Coordination Office, Health Bureau, Marine and Water Bureau, Civil Aviation Authority, CAM-Macau International Airport Company Ltd., Air Macau Co. Ltd., Macau Jet International Co. Ltd., Macau Security Company Ltd. (airport security) and Menzies Macau Airport Services Ltd. About 100 people participated in this exercise. The whole exercise was deemed smooth and met the target result. Two other exercises were carried out in Macau International Airport earlier this year, the fuel farm exercise in March and the unlawful seizure of aircraft exercise in July.
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The Chief Executive, Mr Chui Sai On, will deliver his Policy Address for the Fiscal Year 2014 on 12 November (Tuesday) at 3 pm in the Legislative Assembly. This will be followed a press conference at the Government Headquarters at 5 pm where Mr Chui will answer questions from the press. The following day, from 3 pm to 6 pm, Mr Chui will attend the plenary meeting of the Legislative Assmbly to explain his policy blueprint to legislators and to answer their questions. The Address will be broadcast live on the Portal Website of the Macao SAR (http://www.gov.mo), the website of the Office of the Chief Executive (http://www.gce.gov.mo), the website of the Government Information Bureau (http://www.gcs.gov.mo) and the website of the Legislative Assembly (http://www.al.gov.mo). Teledifusão de Macau (TV and radio) will broadcast live the Policy Address, the press conference and the plenary session.
Chinese and Portuguese versions of the Policy Address for download will be available on these websites. The Chief Executive has met with representatives of different associations and groups to hear their views in preparation for Policy Address for the financial year 2014.
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The Chief Executive, Mr Chui Sai On, today visited several old districts and services centres for the mentally-challenged to hear more opinions of members of the community. In the morning, Mr Chui strolled through Rua de Cinco de Outubro where the Hong Kung Temple is located, as well as San Kio and other old districts. On the way, he chatted with residents and representatives of local organisations and listened to their concerns and views about policies on different subjects, as well as learning more about the current development of the districts, especially about transportation, cultural preservation and urban reconstruction. Mr Chui took some refreshments at a Cantonese-style restaurant and chatted with its customers and owners. Afterwards he attended a seminar to learn more about the views of organisations, business owners and residents. During a seminar, members of the community voiced their opinions about their livelihood, public hygiene, business environment, transport, parking, flooding, elderly services, wet market and revitalisation of the old districts, and urged the government for support. Mr Chui responded that he had learned that residents were concerned with issues about the infrastructure and revitalisation of old districts, and he pledged that the government would pay attention to these issues in the next policy address. He also said that he had taken note of the business environment of the commercial zone of Rua da Emenda and the government would make necessary adjustment to its renovation and management, after studies and communications with the residents. In the afternoon, the Chief Executive visited two rehabilitation centres to learn more about their daily operation. He said the government has the responsibility to take care of the needy and pledged to provide better services for the physically-challenged when he met with the staff from the centres after the visit. The people in charge and staff of the centres told Mr Chui that it was difficult to expand services due to the lack of human resources, places, and the increased rent. Mr Chui thanked the staff who have provided professional services to their clients. He stressed that the government would create good conditions for the service centres. Meanwhile the Social Welfare Bureau will implement a three-year plan to enhance rehabilitation facilities for the mentally-challenged, he said.
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Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO) organized the event "Macau Night" jointly with InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG) in Guangzhou yesterday (29 October) to showcase Macau as a fascinating travel destination to local media and enterprises. The event is expected not only to extend Macau's promotion network but also to enhance regional cooperation in tourism and attract high-end visitors from Southern China and across the country. MGTO always highly values the Mainland market. In particular, Guangdong province prevails as Macau's largest tourism market in Mainland China. Since January to September 2013, Macau has welcomed over 6.1 million visitors from Guangdong Province, which amounts to 44% of total visitor arrivals from the Mainland and ranks the first among other provinces and autonomous regions. MGTO has long been actively promoting Macau together with the tourism sector while striving to consolidate Macau's image as a travel destination. By organizing the Macau Night, the Office can extend its local network through IHG's connections with various enterprises in Guangzhou. MGTO also presented Macau's latest tourism trends as well as the upcoming events and festivals, entertainment shows and business tourism products to the local press and enterprises during the press conference and evening banquet for this event. MGTO Director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes and Head of Destination Marketing Department, Betty Fok joined this event in Guangzhou together with travel industry partners from Macau. Director Senna Fernandes and Area General Manager of IHG in Guangzhou, Foshan and Huizhou, Samuel Tsang officiated the aforementioned event. Senna Fernandes remarked that Macau and Guangzhou are both widely popular destinations for leisure and business travel. Considering that both cities overflow with diverse tourism resources in close geographic proximity, MGTO will continue to promote multi-destination tours through cooperation schemes which encourage Mainland citizens and foreigners to visit both destinations in one trip to the region in order to facilitate their mutual tourism development. Representatives of the consulate of different countries in Guangzhou and the chambers of commerce were invited to join the event of Macau Night. Aside from tourism-related businesses including travel agencies, airlines and exhibition companies, the invited guests represent a range of enterprises from over 20 different sectors. The event night welcomed 400 participants in total. MGTO took part in China (Guangdong) International Tourism Industry Expo 2013 which was held in Guangzhou from late August to early September. During the Expo, the Office promoted Macau to industry partners and Guangzhou citizens. Through the Macau Night, different sectors were again updated on the latest trends of Macau tourism, which helped to promote Macau's attractions and positioning as a World Centre of Tourism and Leisure. In early November, MGTO will visit Qingyuan for Guangdong International Tourism Culture Festival 2013, dedicated to carrying out promotion through a variety of ways, angles and channels. Upon the invitation of Zhongshan Municipal Tourism Bureau, MGTO visited the latest tourism attractions and facilities in Zhongshan together with 21 travel agencies and 5 media agencies today (30 October). Director Senna Fernandes met with Deputy Director of Zhongshan Municipal Tourism Bureau, Dong Zuwen in the morning. During the meeting, both parties exchanged their perspectives on marketing strategies and discussed future opportunities to promote regional tourism in collaboration. The tourism offices of Zhongshan, Zhuhai and Macau signed the "Cooperation Memorandum in Tourism among Zhongshan, Zhuhai and Macau" in 2006 and since then joined hands to encourage visitations to the three cities in one trip. The three tourism offices jointly promoted multi-destination tours in Wuhan, Nanjing, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Taiwan, Portugal, Spain, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and so on in different occasions to further extend the tourism market together.
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Consumer Council conducted its 'Supermarket price survey' for October on 28th October for the implementation of Section 2b), Article 10, Law 4/95/M of 12th June. Surveyed locations included 12 supermarkets in Sé Parish. The latest 'Supermarket Price Survey' is now available on Consumer Council's website (www.consumer.gov.mo), and the 'Supermarket Price Information Platform' iPhone and Android apps. The survey is also available free of charge at the offices of Consumer Council, IACM's Iao Hon and S. Domingos Markets, bookstores and libraries. Consumers may also access the resources through WAP channels on their mobile phones. With reference to the local six parishes and the number of supermarkets in each parish, the Council has divided around 100 supermarkets into 8 areas for price collection. The Council collects prices from these supermarkets for the provision of a more comprehensive database for consumers to check price discrepancies and make price comparisons according to their desired locations. For inquiry, please call 8988 9315.
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Building up regional cooperation to share resources has always been an objective that the Civil Aviation Authority of Macao SAR (AACM) aims to achieve. The aeronautical authorities of mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao have collaborated with each other on Joint Maintenance Management since 2002. The three parties met again in Beijing on 29 October 2013 to sign the "Cooperation Arrangement on Mutual Acceptance of Approval of Aircraft Maintenance Training Organizations", an arrangement which no longer requires the three aeronautical authorities to conduct redundant audits and inspections and hence reduce the operational costs of the industry resulting from the said redundancy. In accordance with the Cooperation Arrangement, the audits conducted on the approved maintenance training organizations by the aeronautical authorities of one party should also be deemed effective by the aeronautical authorities of the other two parties; the approval made by the aeronautical authorities of one party on the training system of the approved maintenance training organizations, including training courses and certificates, should also be deemed effective by the aeronautical authorities of the other two parties. From now on, the three aeronautical authorities will share resources and no longer engage themselves in redundant audits and inspections, which will help to reduce a lot of administrative work. Meanwhile, the industry will also benefit from cost efficiency resulting from the elimination of redundant audits and inspections to be carried out on them. In addition, the Cooperation Arrangement will enhance the establishment and the maintenance of a high level of audit standards among the three places. In 2007, a task force was set up by the three aeronautical authorities of whom members met on a regular basis to discuss and study on the mutual acceptance of maintenance training organizations. The task force compared the regulations of the three places, went on site inspections and improved their own procedures based on the opinions made by the other members. After five years of work, the regulations, the requirements, the practices, the procedures and the systems in what regards the approval process and the monitoring process in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao have reached the same standards. The three parties therefore agreed to go for mutual acceptance and hence signed the Cooperation Arrangement. The signing ceremony was convened in the headquarters of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). The signatories were Mr. Wan XiangDong, Director-General of Flight Standards of CAAC, Mr. Lo Shung-man, Director General of Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department, and Mr. Chan Weng Hong, President of AACM. The Deputy Administrator of CAAC, Mr. Li Jian, presided at the ceremony as guest of honour. The mutual acceptance projects between mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao cover approval of aircraft maintenance organizations, airworthiness certification, approval of aircraft repair modifications and approval of maintenance training organizations. Presently, over 100 maintenance organizations in the three places have obtained the approvals granted by the Joint Maintenance Management.
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Macao Fashion Gallery, an entity jointly established by Cultural Affairs Bureau and of Macau Productivity and Technology Transfer Center (CPTTM), will introduce its latest fashion exhibition "Lisbon to Macao … A Fashion Journey" to the public. The Opening Ceremony of this new exhibition will take place at 3:00 afternoon on 2nd November 2013. The public, especially fashion lovers, are welcome to attend. Since its establishment, Macao Fashion Gallery has introduced five fashion exhibitions to the public. Besides showcasing local designs, the Gallery also introduced organizations and designers from neighboring areas to exhibit their collections in Macao. In coordination with the "Forum on Economic and Trade Co-operation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries" Ministerial Summit, which is held by the Macao SAR Government in Macao, the Gallery has invited two Portuguese fashion designers, Clara Brito and Nuno Baltazar, to showcase their outstanding collections at this "Lisbon to Macao … A Fashion Journey" exhibition. With their presence, the Gallery will put on a new face in this glorious autumn, filling our exhibition hall with the romantic aura of southern Europe. A total of 14 pieces created by the two designers will be shown at this exhibition. Each designer has their own unique style. Clara Brito, A Portuguese designer who is currently living in Macao, uses her unique vision to integrate people and things around her into her design, creating an image from her heart to her mind, using her senses as the source of her creativity. Her straight lines and simple geometric patterns created a style that is uniquely Clara Brito. Nuno Baltaza lives in Portugal. Immersed in the ambience of continental European and Portuguese fashion industry, Nuno developed sharp fashion senses. Signature characteristics of his designs are clean lines and modern contours. He was named Best Fashion Designer of Portugal several times. The "Lisbon to Macao … A Fashion Journey" exhibition will be held from 2nd November 2013 to 5th January 2014. Opening hours of the Gallery are from 10:00 am to 8:00 pm daily except on Mondays. The Gallery remains open on public holidays. The public are welcome. For any enquiry, please contact Macao Fashion Gallery at 2835 3341.
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Macao Fashion Gallery, an entity jointly established by Cultural Affairs Bureau and of Macau Productivity and Technology Transfer Center (CPTTM), will host a seminar on "How to build an International Fashion Brand" at 5:00 pm, Saturday, 2nd November 2013 at Macao Science Center. Two well-known Portuguese fashion designers will be invited to share their personal experience on how they created their fashion brands with people from the local fashion design industry. Everyone from the fashion industry or has an interest in the topic is welcome to attend. In coordination with the "Forum on Economic and Trade Co-operation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries" Ministerial Summit, which is held by the Macao SAR Government in Macao, the organizer has especially invited fashion designer Clara Brito of local fashion brand LINES LAB and fashion designer Nuno Baltazar of Portuguese fashion brand NUNO BALTAZAR ATELIER to speak at this seminar. They will talk about how they established their fashion brands and illuminate on the current and future development opportunities of Macao and Portuguese fashion industry. The objective of the seminar is to strengthen communication between the Macao and Portuguese fashion communities as well as to offer professional insights and valuable experience on fashion brand building to young designers of Macao. The seminar will be held at Hall 3 and 4 of the Macao Science Center at 5:00 pm on Saturday, 2nd November 2013. The seminar will be conducted in Portuguese with simultaneous interpretation to Cantonese. Local fashion designers, students, and manufacturers are welcome to participate. As seats are limited, please enroll as early as possible. Interested parties can enroll at CPTTM House of Apparel Technology (10th Floor, Phase 2, Ocean Industrial Building, Rua dos Pescadores, Macao) or Macao Fashion Gallery (47, Rua de S. Roque, Macao). Enrollment can also be done via the CPTTM website www.cpttm.org.mo. Interested parties are welcome to call 8988 0732 or 2835 3341 for enquiry.
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Consumer Council conducted its specific price surveys on instant noodles and instant drinks on 25th October for the implementation of Section 2b), Article 10, Law 4/95/M of 12th June. Results of the mentioned surveys have been uploaded to the Council's website (www.consumer.gov.mo) and are available in the Council's 'Supermarket Price Information Platform' iPhone and Android apps. For inquiry, please call the Council's hotline: 8988 9315.
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The 27th Macao International Music Festival (MIMF) enters its fifth and final week featuring choral music, chamber music, jazz and musical theatre. On October 29, Tuesday, at 8pm, at St. Dominic's Church, Divna and Melodi (Serbia) present the concert The Soul of Orthodox Chant. Melodi was founded in 1991 in Belgrade, Serbia, by young singer Divna Ljubojević, who has since served as its conductor and soloist. The choir is composed of musicians who have dedicated many years to the preservation, practise and dissemination of a very specific tradition of sacred music native to the Byzantine cultural sphere. Divna and Melodi perform sacred, spiritual and ancient music, as well as contemporary works for choir, and closely collaborate with opera singers from Switzerland, England and Italy. Founded by four Saint Petersburg Conservatory students in 1986, the Terem-Quartet (Russia), performing on October 30 at the Macao Cultural Centre Small Auditorium, at 8pm, has since gained a worldwide reputation for its eclectic and theatrical performances. Defining their style as crossover, the Terem-Quartet's repertoire merges classical, modern and Russian folk music into captivating concerts that transcend language and cultural barriers. This ensemble of Russian folk instruments has given more than 2500 concerts in over 60 countries, with highlight events including the Edinburgh Festival and WOMAD, and has won numerous awards both at home and abroad. On October 31, Thursday, at 8pm, the Dom Pedro V Theatre welcomes jazz singer Silje Nergaard (Norway), one of Norway's most successful jazz singers and songwriters. In this concert, Nergaard presents her latest album entitled Unclouded, released in the spring of 2012, which includes nine original songs composed by the songwriter plus special contributions by American guitarist John Scofield, blues guitarist Knut Reiersrud and jazz trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær. The album's title refers to the carefree attitude of children and their spontaneity, a quality Silje had been longing for and one that she has successfully recreated with these new songs. Accompanied by only two guitarists, the singer masterfully uses all the nuances of her voice to interpret songs that are true poetry. A moving concert that won't disappoint old fans and is bound to conquer new ones! Taking to the Macao Cultural Centre Grand Auditorium's stage and closing the 27th MIMF is Miss Saigon – The Musical, by McCoy Rigby Entertainment (USA) on November 1 ~ 4/11, at 10:30am (4/11), 3pm (2-3/11) and 8pm (1-3/11). A classic love story is brought up-to-date in one of the most stunning theatrical spectacles of all time. Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg (the creators of Les Misérables), along with Richard Maltby, Jr., bring Puccini's Madame Butterfly to the modern world in a moving testament to the human spirit and a scathing indictment of the tragedies of war. In the turmoil of the Vietnam War, an American soldier and a Vietnamese girl fall in love, only to be separated during the fall of Saigon. Their struggles to find each other over the ensuing years end in a tragedy for her and a fighting chance for the child he never knew he had. Raw and uncompromising, Miss Saigon is an intensely personal story of the losses we suffer and the sacrifices we make in a world gone mad. A few tickets for Terem Quartet and Silje Nergaard's concerts are still available at Kong Seng Ticketing Network outlets; telephone bookings can be made through no. 2855 5555. Tickets for Miss Saigon are already sold out and tickets for the Divna and Melodi concert have all been distributed.
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