News

Due to the impact of the novel coronavirus pneumonia, part of the members of the jury of the 39^th Macao Young Musicians Competition, organized by the Cultural Affairs Bureau, are unable to visit Macao. In order to ensure a smooth progress of the Competition, this edition of the Competition will adopt an “online assessment of recorded performances and announcement of competition results”.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that licensed motor vehicles in Macao totalled 244,420 as at end-May 2021, up by 2.0% year-on-year. Light automobiles (111,889) and heavy motorcycles (103,537) went up by 2.3% and 3.6% year-on-year respectively. New registration of motor vehicles in May dropped by 16.6% year-on-year to 915, with that of heavy motorcycles (472) falling by 29.6% whereas that of light automobiles (426) lifting by 10.1%. From January to May 2021, new registration of motor vehicles increased by 26.0% year-on-year to 5,392. Number of traffic accidents in May totalled 1,107, with 393 persons injured. In the first five months of 2021, there were 5,204 traffic accidents, which caused 1,787 injuries.
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In the first half of 2021, the final year students from the Macao Institute for Tourism Studies engaged in an industrial project to support a local serial entrepreneur Mr. Pak-Ho Chau who recently started a company called Moti with a focus on immersive storytelling (e.g. producing video, short-film, animation series, music) that reaches multi-industries such as entertainment, event, education, innovation, research and development. This industry project is part of the course Entrepreneurship and the purpose is for students to help the company to research, develop and propose an original content programme for online platform such as Netflix and Amazon Prime to inspire audiences towards their future vision.
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In order to facilitate formalities for updating the contact address in the resident identity record, the Identification Services Bureau (DSI) launched an online contact information modification service on 30 June 2021. Besides updating contact address, this new service offers citizens an option to provide their email. Citizens can now update the contact address and email for themselves and their underage children, and also make a one-time update on the relevant information for other public departments simultaneously without leaving home.
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Health quarantine requirements and measures for inbound travellers of different identities.
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As of 4pm on Tuesday (29 June), a total of 335,125 COVID-19 vaccine jabs had been administered in Macao, according to statistics provided by the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre.
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Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) held the 2021 “Quality Tourism Services Accreditation Scheme” (QTSAS) Assessment Seminar for Food and Beverage Sector today (29 June), to brief industry operators on the judging criteria of the Scheme. In line with the SAR Government’s work of control and prevention against the COVID-19 pandemic, after weighing the QTSAS Assessment Committee’s opinions and assessing the recovery progress of different sectors, the Office will again suspend QTSAS’s application program for the catering sector in 2021, but will resume its process of supervision and appraisal on the QTSAS-accredited catering businesses this year. The "Mystery Shopping Assessment" will be carried out twice upon each business in accord with pertinent regulations of the assessment mechanism specified in the guideline on applications for QTSAS.
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The takeaway market in Macao has been booming in recent years. To further improve the food safety supervision system and respond to requests for strengthened supervision in the society, the Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM) plans to establish a registration system for establishments of takeaway activities. Mandatory registration will be imposed on the establishments which engage in takeaway activities and are not regulated by licenses at present. The focus will be on monitoring and control of food production source and processing procedures to step up supervision of food safety. It is proposed that the new registration system requires takeaway establishments to make a registration before commencement of business, to operate in a physical store and to show the registration certificate for public information. Third-party online food ordering platforms are also required to ensure that the takeaway establishments using the platforms have completed the registration before the food is available for sale on them. This serves to further clarify the responsibilities of the sector and safeguard public consumption safety.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that a total of 115 hotels & guesthouses were open for business in May 2021, an increase of 7 year-on-year; number of available guest rooms rose by 10.1% to 37,000. Data on hotels & guesthouses designated for medical observation were excluded in the compilation of the results. The average occupancy rate of guest rooms surged by 50.2 percentage points year-on-year to 62.0%, with both 3-star and 4-star hotels outperforming the sector’s average, at 70.7% and 67.5% respectively.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that total merchandise export amounted to MOP990 million in May 2021, up by 59.6% year-on-year. Value of re-exports (MOP820 million) rose by 64.2%, with that of Diamond & diamond jewellery, Wine and Watches surging by 843.0%, 663.9% and 248.0% respectively. Moreover, value of domestic exports (MOP171 million) grew by 40.8%, with that of Garments and Copper & articles thereof rising by 101.8% and 52.8% respectively. Total merchandise import swelled by 267.6% year-on-year to MOP15.69 billion, of which imports of Mobile phones, Gold jewellery, Watches and Beauty, cosmetic & skincare products rocketed by 2,616.0%, 2,362.4%, 1,145.1% and 846.5% respectively; in contrast, imports of Other textile made-up articles declined by 56.1%. Merchandise trade deficit in May 2021 totalled MOP14.70 billion.
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