News

The 20^th Macao City Fringe Festival, organized by the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC, from the Portuguese acronym), will be held in January next year, aiming to spread the creative and adventurous spirit and encourage artists to create works that show the city’s characteristics and cultural connotations from multiple perspectives. The call for proposals of programmes and performance venues is now open; the deadline for applications is 5pm on 31 July 2020.
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The Identification Services Bureau (DSI) held the inauguration ceremony for a department head and a division head on 1 July 2020. Under the witness of heads of department and division, Ms. Van Kit Lam and Mr. Wong Chi Lon took an oath administered by Director Ms. Wong Pou Ieng to respectively assume the position of Head of Department of General Affairs and Head of Division of Identity Card.
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July is a contribution month of the Social Security Fund. In this month, employers are required to pay obligatory system contributions for their local long-term employees for the second quarter of 2020. If a non-resident worker is hired, the employer is required to pay the employment fee as well. In addition, arbitrary system beneficiaries are also required to pay contributions in July. To reduce queuing time, the FSS advises employers to make their payments as early as possible and use the appointment service. Employers and arbitrary system beneficiaries already applied for the use of electronic filing service should try to make their payments by electronic means.
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The Government of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) firmly supports new legislation passed by the central authorities to safeguard national security and maintain stability in Hong Kong.
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The Consumer Council published the latest Consumer Report, featuring a comparison report on baby wet wipes, a coverage on the price survey work on disinfection products, and a Consumer Alert regarding online shopping. Consumers may access the magazine online on the Council’s official website and WeChat official account.
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The University of Macau (UM) has made new progress in breast cancer study. A team in the university’s Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) has discovered that NOTCH1 activation can promote the growth of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Titled ‘NOTCH1 Activation Compensates BRCA1 Deficiency and Promotes Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Formation’, the study has been published in the internationally renowned journal Nature Communications.
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In order to respond to environmental protection and promote the electronization of public services, starting July, beneficiaries can pay contributions through the existing payment channels (except JETCO network ATMs) using their Macao SAR Resident ID Card number. At the same time, the Social Security Fund (abbreviated to FSS in Macao) will stop mailing out arbitrary system contribution advices to beneficiaries.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that total merchandise import fell by 39.1% year-on-year to MOP4.35 billion in May 2020, of which imports of Gold jewellery, Watches and Mobile phones declined by 87.8%, 82.8% and 55.1% respectively. Total merchandise export amounted to MOP687 million, down by 24.2% year-on-year. Value of re-exports (MOP566 million) went down by 27.9%, with that of Diamond & diamond jewellery falling by 76.5%. Value of domestic exports (MOP121 million) dropped by 0.6%, with that of Copper & articles thereof reducing by 18.0%. Merchandise trade deficit in May totalled MOP3.66 billion.
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Macao’s work to control COVID-19 and prevent it spreading in the community should not be relaxed as no vaccine against the disease had been developed so far, said a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Mr Zhong Nanshan.
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