News

The opening ceremony for the exhibition of photographs to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Dr Sun Yat Sen – originally scheduled for tomorrow morning (21 October) – is cancelled due to the proximity of a typhoon. The exhibition will be held, as planned, from Saturday (22 October) to 13 November at Macau Forum, a venue on the city’s peninsula. The exhibition is being hosted by the Government, and is organised by the Chief Executive’s Office and the Government Information Bureau. It has the cooperation of the Museum of the Former Residence of Dr Sun Yat Sen, in Zhongshang Prefecture, Guangdong Province, and of a committee in Macao comprising members from different sectors of the community.
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The University of Macau’s (UM) Department of Portuguese and Research Centre for Luso-Asian Studies (CIELA) will hold the International Conference on ‘Memorialist Discourses and the Building of History (Africa and Macau)’ from 25 October to 28 October. The conference will be focused on theoretical and epistemological questions related to memoirs, perceived as ‘sites of nation building’, of the political actors taking part in historical processes in Macao and in African Portuguese-speaking countries (during the colonial era and post-independence period). Conference participants will discuss methodologies involved in the analysis of written memoirs (biographies, autobiographies, interviews, and notes) of political, social, and cultural actors, and examine how such memoirs work as (different) ‘sites of memory’. Particular relevance will be given to the ‘unusual place’ Macao occupies on the borders of the Portuguese-speaking countries, as well as to its political actors and memorialist writings, in order to map the production of ‘memory locations’. The conference will also cover postcolonial topics related to cultural and literary interconnections within the Portuguese-speaking world, namely in Macao andAfrica, such as memory and identity issues, historiographic discourse and official history, public and collective memoirs, and national ideology and writing the self. Lectures to be delivered at the conference include‘Memory, History and Fiction: The Meaning of Autobiographies’, by Prof LourençoRosário from the Polytechnic University of Mozambique; ‘Africa and the Africans: Paths of Brazilian Identity’, by Prof ValdemirZamparoni from the Federal University of Bahia; ‘Representing Macau in Portuguese Literature’, by ProfMárioLugarinhofrom the University of São Paulo; and ‘The Pioneer Role of Macau in the Cultural Sino-Western Relations: the First Museum (1829-34) and the English Library in China (1806-1834)’, by ProfRogérioPugafrom Nova University of Lisbon. All the sessions will take place in Room G035, Building E22. The opening ceremony will be held on 26 October (Wednesday), at 9:00am. For more information about the event, please visit https://fah.umac.mo/portuguese/activities-portuguese/fah-dport-conferencia-discursos-memorialistas/, or contact ProfInocência Mata at inocenciamata@umac.mo, or Prof GonçaloCordeiro at gcordeiro@umac.mo.
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Further initiatives for complementary cooperation between Beijing and Macao were launched today, with the aim of deepening and broadening exchanges and creating fresh opportunities for mutual beneficial development. The Beijing municipal government and the SAR Government jointly launched this afternoon in Macao the Beijing-Macao Cooperation Partnership 2016, initiating a series of cooperation initiatives covering the economy and trade, youth exchanges, cultural affairs, and education. Speaking at the launch ceremony, the Chief Executive, Mr Chui Sai On, said further ties with Beijing would allow Macao to learn from Beijing’s successes, as a step to boosting Macao’s efforts in achieving adequate economic diversification. The Chief Executive and the Mayor of the People's Government of Beijing Municipality, Mr Wang Anshun, witnessed the signing of a total of six agreements during the ceremony. They are: - the memorandum of understanding on friendly cooperation between the Beijing Municipal Commission of Education and the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau of the Macao Special Administrative Region; - the agreement between the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security and the Public Administration and Civil Service Bureau of the Macao Special Administrative Region, regarding exchanges and learning activities for civil servants from the two places; - the agreement of strategic cooperation between the Beijing Municipal Commission of Commerce and the Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute; - the memorandum of cooperation between the Administrative Committee of Zhongguancun National Innovation Demonstration Zone and the Tertiary Education Services Office of the Macao Special Administrative Region, regarding development of science and technology between enterprises in the Demonstration Zone and Macao’s higher education institutions; - the letter of intent between the Bureau of Beijing International Horticultural Exhibition Coordination and the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau of the Macao Special Administrative Region, regarding Macao’s participation in the International Horticultural Exhibition 2019; and - the letter of intent between the international department of the organising committee for the Beijing 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games and the Sports Bureau of the Macao Special Administration Region, regarding the promotion of the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. Guests officiating at today’s ceremony included: the Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), Mr Ho Hau Wah; the Deputy Director of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Macao SAR, Mr Yao Jian; and the Deputy Commissioner of the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China in the Macao SAR, Mr Pan Yundong. Macao officials at the event included: the Secretary for Economy and Finance, Mr Leong Vai Tac; and the Chief-of-Office of the Chief Executive’s Office, Ms O Lam. Officials from Beijing present in the ceremony included: the Secretary-General of the People’s Government of Beijing Municipality, Mr Li Wei; the Secretary-General of the People’s Government of Beijing Municipality and Head of the Research Department, Mr Liu Zhanxing; and the Director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the People’s Government of Beijing Municipality, Mr Zhao Huimin.
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The Macao Orchestra (OM, from the Portuguese acronym), under the auspices of the Cultural Affairs Bureau, will present “Henning Plays Mozart” on Saturday, 12 November, at the Macao Cultural Centre Grand Auditorium. Under the baton of the Music Director of Macao Orchestra Lü Jia, the outstanding Norwegian violinist Henning Kraggerud will present his solo performance. Tickets are available for sale through the Macau Ticketing Network. As one of the most outstanding musicians in Northern Europe, the Norwegian violinist Henning Kraggerud is reputed for his precise and keen performance. The Arts Desk hailed that “Kraggerud’s playing is consistently marvellous”. Henning has been invited in collaboration with many of the world’s most significant orchestras, including the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra. His interpretation of Mozart’s works has been highly acclaimed in music sector, and his performance was hailed by one critic as “the high point of the night. It was Mozart as, one suspects, Mozart himself would have wanted it played.” He is bringing with him two of his favourite classics of Mozart, namely Adagio in E Major for Violin and Orchestra and Violin Concerto No. 5, “Turkish”, offering music fans a rare concert not to be missed. In tandem with the theme of this concert season “My Time with Music”, the activity “Music Hour with Henning Kraggerud” will be held exclusively for Friends of the Macao Orchestra, which will allow the audience to understand the perseverance and devotion behind musicians. The sharing session will be held on Friday, 11 November, at 7pm, at the Macao Cultural Centre Conference Room. Admission is free. All interested parties can register from today through tel. no. 2853 0782 during office hours or through the WeChat official account of “Macao Orchestra”. Tickets for the concert “Henning Plays Mozart” are available for sale through the Macau Ticketing Network, with various discount packages available. Ticketing hotline: 2855 5555. The electronic version and complete concert season programme can be downloaded at the OM’s webpage www.icm.gov.mo/om.
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The 21st Macao International Trade and Investment Fair (21st MIF) will be held at the Venetian Macao-Resort-Hotel from 20 to 22 October. Yesterday (19h October) the 2nd Young Entrepreneurs Forum of China and Portuguese-speaking Countries was held before the fair opens today and attracted more than 250 academics, entrepreneurs and representatives from institutions within the Mainland, Portuguese-speaking Countries and Macao. Many associations and institutions signed letters of co-operation intent. Jackson Chang, President of Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institution, mentioned in his remarks that during the “5th Ministerial Conference of the Forum for Economic and Trade Co-operation between China and Portuguese-Speaking Countries”, the central government had issued “18 new measures” which include supporting Macao in establishing “the Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries” and is believed to be in favour of the establishment of “the commercial and trade co-operation service platform between China and the Portuguese-speaking Countries” in Macao. He encouraged today’s youths who intend to start their own businesses to grasp the advantages of the platform and explore the development opportunities, so as to promote the joint development of the Mainland, Portuguese-speaking Countries and Macao. Xu Yingzhen, Secretary-General of the Permanent Secretariat to the Forum for Economic and Trade Co-operation between China and Portuguese-Speaking Countries (Macao) mentioned in her remarks that, last year value of trade between China and Portuguese-Speaking Countries nearly reached US$100 billion, China had become one of the most important trade partners of Portuguese-Speaking Countries and the fastest growing main export market for Portuguese-Speaking Countries. At present, Portuguese-Speaking Countries have set up nearly one thousand enterprises in China and China’s overall investment in Portuguese-Speaking Countries is almost US$50 billion. She thought that, this year’s Forum would not only provide a platform for young entrepreneurs to look for business opportunities, but also provide conditions for exchanging advanced management and operation ideas, which would have positive significance on the communication between young entrepreneurs from Macao and Portuguese-Speaking Countries. The Forum set up two special topics which were “the role of Macao in the creation of one platform and three centres for co-operation between China and Portuguese-Speaking Countries” and “Presentation of Linking Projects between China and Portuguese-Speaking Countries – information/internationalisation”. Association representatives, young entrepreneur leaders, academics and experts from Macao and Portuguese-speaking Countries shared their respective development situations, ongoing difficulties and challenges and expressed their insights on the joint search for business opportunities. In addition, during the Forum, Macau Youth Entrepreneur Association, SINO Portuguese and Spanish Speaking Countries Federation, FIJE – Federação Iberoamericana de Jovens Empresários, CONAJE – Confederação Nacional dos Jovens Empresários, Bloque Mercosur, Câmara de Comércio de Moçambique, China Europe International Business Association, Association of Sino Portuguese Youth Entrepreneur signed letters of co-operation, in order to better promote the collaboration and development between all the parties. This Forum was jointly organised by Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute, Association of Sino Portuguese Youth Entrepreneur, Macau Youth Entrepreneur Association, China Europe International Business Association, SINO Portuguese and Spanish Speaking Countries Federation. Leong Vai Tac, Secretary for Economy and Finance of Macao SAR, Jackson Chang, President of Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institution, Xu Yingzhen, Secretary-General of the Permanent Secretariat to the Forum for Economic and Trade Co-operation between China and Portuguese-Speaking Countries (Macao), Vicente Manuel and Cristina Morais, Deputy Secretary-Generals of the Permanent Secretariat of the Forum for Economic and Trade Co-operation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries, Glória Batalha Ung, Executive Director of the Macau Trade and Investment Promotion Institute, Sofia Pegado da Silva, the Consul General of Angola in Macao, Rafael Custodio Margues, the Consul General of Mozambique in Macao, Maria João Bonifácio, the Macao head of Portugal’s trade and investment agency, AICEP Portugal Global/Trade Advisor in the Consulate-General of Portugal in Macao and Hong Kong all attended the Forum.
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Judite Nascimento, rector of the University of Cape Verde, recently visited the University of Macau (UM) and was warmly received by UM Rector Wei Zhao and Vice Rector Rui Martins. Both parties had an in-depth discussion on how to increase collaboration between the two universities. Nascimento said that UM is the bridge between UM and Portuguese-speaking countries in the training of professionals in various fields, adding that he hopes the two universities will continue to increase collaboration in education in Chinese and Portuguese languages and cultures. During the meeting, Martins told the guests about UM’s educational philosophy, latest developments, and plans for the future. He said that UM vigorously promotes collaboration and exchange with overseas universities in order to broaden students’ horizons. Nascimento said that in recent years the University of Cape Verde has actively initiated research on Chinese culture. For example, the university recently launched a Confucius Institute to promote courses in the Chinese language and culture. Nascimento added that as an important bridge for collaboration between universities in Macao and Portuguese-speaking countries, UM has a rich cultural heritage and provides a very good language learning environment. Therefore, he hopes the two universities will further increase collaboration in summer exchange programmes, in particular in the Chinese language and culture, as well as exchange visits for faculty members and students. After the meeting, Nascimento toured UM’s campus and met with students from Cape Verde to learn more their language and cultural courses at UM. Nascimento also thanked Rector Zhao for donating 93 UM-published books to the University of Cape Verde. In 2015, UM signed a collaboration agreement with the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Innovation of Cape Verde at the 25th annual meeting of the Association of Portuguese Speaking Universities (Associação das Universidades de Lingua Portuguesa, AULP), with the aim of promoting academic collaboration between the two universities, particularly in the training of bilingual professionals.
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The Monetary Authority of Macao announced today that the preliminary estimate of Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves amounted to MOP155.0 billion (USD19.40 billion) at the end of September 2016. The reserves decreased by 0.5% from the revised value of MOP155.8 billion (USD19.50 billion) for the previous month. Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves at end-September 2016 represented 12 times the currency in circulation or 100.8% of Pataca M2 at end-August 2016. The trade-weighted effective exchange rate index for the pataca rose 0.21 points month-to-month but fell 0.03 points year-on-year to 105.76 in September 2016, implying that overall speaking, the exchange rate of pataca grew against the currencies of Macao’s major trading partners on a monthly basis but dropped on an annual basis.
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The Macao Cultural Centre, under the auspices of the Cultural Affairs Bureau, presents the world-renowned cellist Mischa Maisky in recital, to be staged on December 2, 2016, at the Grand Auditorium. Regarded as a true heir of Russia’s delicate poetry and technical brilliance, Mischa Maisky was the sole disciple of master cellists Mstislav Rostropovich and Gregor Piatigorsky. Born in Latvia and repatriated to Israel, Maisky embarked on a long, prolific, international career which led him to become an exclusive artist for Deutsche Gramophon. Frequently collaborating with renowned pianists such as Martha Argerich, Boris Berman or Radu Lupu, amongst many others, his recordings won numerous awards, such as the Record Academy Prize in Tokyo. Besides his prizes and studio work, Maisky has been playing with many of the best orchestras in the world, such as the Vienna and Berlin philharmonics. Accompanied by his daughter Lily Maisky on the piano, at CCM’s recital the virtuoso will be performing Gabriel Fauré’s well-known cello work Elégie, César Franck’s Sonata in A major and Astor Piazzolla’s everlasting Le Grand Tango, as well as other arranged compositions by Camille Saint-Saëns and Francis Poulenc. For those who wish to find more about Maisky, there will be a free admission pre-show talk. Presented in Cantonese, the session takes place at CCM’s Conference Room one hour prior to the concert with the speaker sharing insightful views on Mischa Maisky’s background and on the recital’s repertoire. CCM is presenting Mischa Maisky’s Cello Recital on December 2, 2016 (Friday). Tickets will be available from October 23 at CCM’s box office and Macao Ticketing Network outlets at various prices and discounts. For further information on promotional offers and ticketing, please visit www.ccm.gov.mo or call (853) 2870 0699. Credit card ticketing hotline (853) 2840 0555.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that 20% of the interviewed restaurants & similar establishments reported a year-on-year increase in receipts in August 2016, down by 14 percentage points from July. Chinese restaurants achieved comparatively better performance, with 30% of the interviewed Restaurants recording a year-on-year rise in receipts. On the other hand, 61% of the interviewed restaurants & similar establishments reported a year-on-year decrease in receipts, with 94% of the interviewed Japanese & Korean Restaurants and 79% of the Western Restaurants recording decrease. As regards retail trade, 26% of the interviewed retailers reported a year-on-year growth in sales in August, similar to the proportion in July. Analysed by industry, all of the interviewed Leather Goods Retailers recorded a year-on-year sales increase; however, 89% of the Department Stores, 79% of the Watches, Clocks & Jewellery Retailers and 78% of the Motor Vehicle Retailers registered year-on-year declines. With respect to business prospects, 15% of the interviewed restaurants & similar establishments anticipated a year-on-year growth in receipts in September, similar to the proportion in the previous month, with 22% of the Chinese Restaurants expecting an increase. Meanwhile, 47% of the interviewed restaurants & similar establishments anticipated a year-on-year decrease in receipts in September, up by 6 percentage points from the previous month. Retailers were cautious about their business prospects. The proportion of interviewed retailers that anticipated a year-on-year increase in sales in September rose by 2 percentage points from the previous month to 17%, with 60% of the interviewed Leather Goods Retailers expecting a growth in business. On the other hand, 57% of the interviewed retailers anticipated a year-on-year drop in sales in September, remaining unchanged from the previous month; 74% of the Clocks, Watches & Jewellery Retailers and 70% of the Cosmetics & Sanitary Articles Retailers predicted a sales decline, and all of the Motor Vehicle Retailers expected a decline of more than 20%. The sample of the Business Climate Survey on Restaurants & Similar Establishments and Retail Trade was selected based on the receipts of the establishments, comprising 167 restaurants & similar establishments (accounting for 53% of the industry’s receipts) and 135 retailers (accounting for 70% of the industry’s receipts). The Survey results reflect only the business performance and the expectations of the sample restaurants and retailers, where no extrapolation of results has been conducted.
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The Chief Executive, Mr Chui Sai On, said today that a comprehensive judicial system is indispensable to, and a foundation of, law-based governance. Safeguarding judicial independence and fairness is one of the core values of the community, added Mr Chui. Mr Chui made the remarks this afternoon during the ceremony – held at the Macao Cultural Centre – to mark the start of the 2016/2017 Judicial Year. Since the establishment of the Macao Special Administrative Region, judicial bodies have fully adhered to the Basic Law in exercising their powers, ensuring fairness and impartiality in the dispensation of justice. Firmly adhering to the rule of law is a fundamental principle of the Government, said Mr Chui. The Government would spare no effort to produce legislation in a scientific manner; to strengthen law enforcement activity; to abide by the rule of law; and to join hands with the sector and the public to foster better and more efficient governance; thus ensuring Macao is a society based on adherence to law. In his speech, Mr Chui stated the Government continued to provide support for development of local judicial bodies, such as the training of a greater number of legal professionals, and the construction of buildings to house judicial premises. The Government was pushing ahead with plans in Zone B – a land reclamation area – for buildings to house administrative and legal bodies. The President of the Court of Final Appeal, Mr Sam Hou Fai; the Public Prosecutor-General, Mr Ip Son Sang; and the President of the Macau Lawyers Association, Mr Jorge Neto Valente, each gave a speech during today’s ceremony. Approximately 400 officials attended the event, including: the President of the Legislative Assembly, Mr Ho Iat Seng; the Secretary for Administration and Justice, Ms Chan Hoi Fan; the President of the Independent Committee for the Nomination of Judges, Mr Lau Cheok Va; representatives respectively of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Macao SAR, and the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China in the Macao SAR; principal officials of the Macao SAR; members of the Executive Council; officials of judicial authorities; members of the Legislative Assembly; and other officials of the Macao SAR.
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