News

Macao Polytechnic Institute and the University of Porto in Portugal jointly present Orientes do Português, the first Portuguese international academic journal in Asia, published by the Centre for Portuguese Studies of Macao Polytechnic Institute and the Faculty of Arts of the University of Porto. The journal is co-founded as a means to manifest the advantages of Macao as a “Sino-Portuguese platform”, to stimulate the development of Macao’s role as the “International Portuguese Training Centre” and “Training Centre for Chinese-Portuguese Bilingual Professionals”, to strengthen the cooperation between Macao and Portuguese-speaking countries, enhance Macao’s influence in the global academia, and to promote Portuguese language teaching and research in Macao, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, mainland China, and other Asian regions.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that, under the tightened quarantine measures for arrivals in Macao in late March 2020, number of visitor arrivals in April tumbled by 99.7% year-on-year to 11,041; the figure also represented a month-to-month decline of 94.8%. Both overnight visitors (6,383) and same-day visitors (4,658) showed year-on-year decreases of over 99.0%. Under medical observation measures, overnight visitors stayed significantly longer (+18.9 days), at 21.1 days on average, which led to a surge of 6.2 days in the overall average length of stay of visitors to 7.3 days. Meanwhile, the duration for same-day visitors (0.1 day) shortened by 0.1 day.
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The University of Macau (UM) recently joined 15 other universities and research institutions around the world to conduct an international study of the psychosocial effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study aims to provide key policy guidance and to strengthen existing health services in order to better address public mental health issues.
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The Global and Community Mental Health Research Group of the University of Macau (UM) recently collaborated with the Fuhong Society of Macau, a nonprofit social service organisation, on a study on the caregiving burden and mental health condition of Chinese caregivers of people with intellectual and mental disabilities in Macao.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that total spending (excluding gaming expenses) of visitors declined by 70.4% year-on-year to a mere MOP5.01 billion in the first quarter of 2020, resulting from a 68.9% decrease in number of visitor arrivals (3,219,170). Total spending of overnight visitors (MOP3.78 billion) and same-day visitors (MOP1.23 billion) fell by 70.8% and 69.3% respectively.
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The last COVID-19 patient in Macao was discharged from medical care on Tuesday afternoon (19 May) following successful treatment at Macao public health facilities.
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The Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC, from the Portuguese acronym) is accepting applications for the “8^th Subsidy Programme for Fashion Design on Sample Making” from today until 5pm on 27 August 2020 (Thursday). A maximum of eight eligible applicants (groups) will be granted subsidies of up to MOP170,000 for sample production and promotional materials of selected entries.
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The 2019 Annual Report of the Commission Against Corruption of Macao was published in the Official Gazette of the Macao Special Administrative Region today (20^th May). The report reviews the anti-corruption work carried out in 2019, including the crackdown on the corruption case where some leaders and chiefs of the Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute allegedly abused their powers for illicit gain and received bribes to perform illicit acts in the process of vetting and approving the applications for “major investment immigration” and “technical immigration” as well as many cases involving fraud over various kinds of government subsidies. The CCAC found that there was a decrease in the types of crime recorded last year. Document forgery cases took up a large portion of the investigated cases, while there was a decrease in the number of cases involving active and passive bribery. However, with regard to disciplinary offences and illegal acts committed by civil servants, there was a slight increase in the number of cases committed by police, mainly including their unauthorised entry into casinos and frauds.
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The Tourism Development Committee (CDT, on its Portuguese acronym) convened the first Plenary Meeting of 2020 today (19 May). Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture and Committee Chairperson, Ao Ieong U, presided over the meeting and listened to various members’ perspectives on Macao’s tourism situation and the tourism recovery plan.
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Dr Andrian Liem, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, recruited under the UM Macao Talent Programme, has published an article on the mental health of migrant workers in Lancet Psychiatry, a renowned international medical journal (Q1, 2/142; JIF 18.369).
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