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One of the most important set of events in the calendar of the insurance industry – the Worldwide Chinese Life Insurance Congress and International Dragon Awards (IDA) – returned to Macao after a decade. This year’s gathering – the 11th Worldwide Chinese Life Insurance Congress and 2016 International Dragon Awards – was held successfully in August, at the Convention and Exhibition Centre of the Venetian Macao-Resort-Hotel. It welcomed more than 7,000 professionals from the international insurance industry. During the existence of the annual International Dragon Awards, Macao’s own Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions (MICE) industry has developed at a rapid pace in the past ten years. The return to Macao of this event is meaningful for both sides. Macao honoured by IDA’s return after a decade The Worldwide Chinese Life Insurance Congress and International Dragon Awards are a set of events founded to foster the professionalism and business acumen of Chinese insurance specialists worldwide. Such workers have a far-reaching impact on the global insurance sector. To date, 17 countries and regions, including the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao, have hosted each of these annual events. The International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) accredits the Worldwide Chinese Life Insurance Congress and International Dragon Awards. The International Dragon Awards are likened to “Oscars” for the worldwide Chinese insurance industry. They feature eye-catching themes, and are attended by professionals from the insurance sector and the financial community. Seven cities bid for this year’s set of events. Aside from Macao, the applicants were: Nanjing (China); Kaohsiung (Taiwan); Hawaii (United States); Melbourne (Australia); Fukuoka (Japan); Jeju Island (South Korea); and Singapore. In addition to the full co-operation provided by the Macao community and the city’s relevant public departments and organisations, Macao’s renowned infrastructure – in terms of hardware and software – was one of the main factors that made the city stand out among the bidders for the set of events. According to Richard Wu, Vice President of the 11th Worldwide Chinese Life Insurance Congress and 2016 International Dragon Awards, Macao has in the past decade transformed itself as a destination city. Macao’s self-improvement resonates with the theme of this year’s set of events, and was one of the reasons why Macao was selected to host the Congress and Awards, said Mr Wu. Large-scale activities create snowball effect The Venetian Macao hosted the Congress and Awards and has hosted other large events in the city. The Vice President of Convention & Exhibition Operations at the Venetian Macao, Gene Capuano, expressed his views about the future of the local MICE industry. “Mega conventions drive the development of the local sector and propel the economy. These activities also encourage young people to cultivate an interest in the MICE industry, and to serve as talented professionals in order to replenish the industry,” said Mr Capuano. He added: “Taking IDA as an example, around 100 students were hired as part-time associates to provide catering and crowd management services to more than 7,000 participants. By working for these kinds of large-scale conventions on a part-time basis, young professionals are able to learn through practise, as well as to gain valuable knowledge from senior colleagues. It is a crucial part of the training of professionals in this industry.” Mr Capuano additionally said the contribution to the local economy made by large-scale conventions should not be overlooked. He noted: “Lots of meeting participants don’t want to remain inside the hotel for a whole day, and commonly ask us to recommend the best places to visit.” Mr Capuano said he had now compiled a list that included tourism attractions and restaurants to be found in various parts of Macao. He stressed that the local business community could also play its part in this co-operation by providing MICE venues and MICE promoters with information on off-site activities and destinations. This would enhance the benefits to the local economy that were generated by the territory’s MICE industry – and thus the sustainability of that MICE industry. Providing such information would also win favour with MICE customers, he added. Mr Capuano said he expected Macao young people would show an increased interest in joining the MICE industry, as the number of large-scale events organised in Macao kept growing. That would guarantee the industry an ample supply of qualified professionals, complementing the well-developed hardware and other supporting infrastructure. This, in turn, would help strengthen and develop further the competitiveness of Macao’s MICE industry, he added. Number of major MICE activities grows Macao is to host a number of large-scale events in the second half of 2016, including the 9th ACM SIGGRAPH Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques in Asia (with more than 5,000 participants expected). Several other events are each expected to attract more than 7,000 participants. For more information, please visit the official website of IPIM: http://www.ipim.gov.mo
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In order to enrich people’s cultural life and to broaden their cultural horizons, the Cultural Affairs Bureau organizes the “Lectures by Masters of Culture” programme. This year’s lecture “Macao: A Culture of Ambition and Creativity as Catalysts for a Sustainable City” will be held on Sunday, 30 October at 3pm at the Macao Science Centre Convention Hall, hosted by the British keynote speaker Charles Landry, an international authority on the use of imagination and creativity in urban change and known as the “innovator of the creative city concept”. ,.Reservation can be made online or by telephone starting from 22 September. Charles Landry is an international authority in the use of imagination and creativity in urban change. In the late 1980s, he renewed the concept of “creative city”, focusing on how cities can create conditions for people and organizations to think, plan and act with imagination in solving of problems and in the development of opportunities. The notion, which became a global movement, changed the way cities think about their capabilities and resources. Charles Landry has worked and given talks in over sixty countries and helped change the way to assess and harness the possibilities of reinventing cities. His “Creative City Index” is a powerful tool to measure the creative eco-system of places. His works such as The Creative City: A Toolkit for Urban Innovators and The Digitized City have met great public demand. In this lecture, Charles Landry will share successful cases in famous cultural cities across the world, and will prove that ambition and creativity are the keys to establish a creative city, in addition to cultural events, imagination and creativity he advocates for urban change. He will lead you to think from a new perspective on how to establish a creative, energetic and liveable city. The Cultural Affairs Bureau launched the “Lectures by Masters of Culture” in 2013, inviting world famous scholars, artists and individuals from cultural circles to come to Macao and, through the exchange of experiences and the sharing of knowledge, stimulate thoughts with an international outlook and deepen Macao’s culture, thereby creatively and vigorously contributing for Macao’s cultural development. The lecture will be conducted in English, with simultaneous translation to Mandarin and Portuguese. Admission is free with limited seats. Starting from 22 September reservation can be made online on the webpage www.icm.gov.mo/eform/event, or by telephone at 8399 6699 during office hours. For more information, please visit www.icm.gov.mo/deippub/masters/2016.
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Consumer Council conducted its latest ‘Supermarket price survey’ in September on 21 September for the implementation of Section 2b), Article 10, Law 4/95/M of 12 June. Surveyed locations included 14 supermarkets in Toi San, Ilha Verde and Fai Chi Kei areas in N. Sra. de Fátima Parish. The latest ‘Supermarket Price Survey’ is now available on Consumer Council’s website (www.consumer.gov.mo), ‘Supermarket Price Information Platform’ iPhone and Android apps, and on the Council’s WeChat account page. 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. With reference to the local seven 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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The State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine (QRCM Lab), Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences (ICMS), University of Macau (UM), and the National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institutes of Health in the United States, have made significant progress in a collaborative research project on safer and more effective treatment for cancer and autoimmune diseases. The related findings have been published in scientific journals under Nature magazine. Researchers from UM and the NCI established that TNFR2 (tumor necrosis factor receptor 2) plays an important role in the proper functioning and proliferation of T cells, especially regulatory T (Treg) cells. This finding not only corrects a theoretical misconception in immunology, but also paves the way for developing safer and more effective drugs for tumour and autoimmune diseases. Earlier this month, two papers about the research findings, namely ‘Paradoxical Effects of Targeting TNF Signalling in the Treatment of Autoimmunity’, and ‘TNFR2 Expression by CD4 Effector T Cells Is Required to Induce Full-fledged Experimental Colitis’, were published in Nature Reviews Rheumatology, and Scientific Reports, respectively. UM professor Chen Xin is the first author of both papers. Since its founding, the QRCM Lab has been committed to nurturing collaboration with internationally renowned institutions in scientific research and personnel training. The lab and the NCI have signed a collaboration agreement aimed to promote collaboration in studying the mechanism of action of traditional Chinese medicines in regulating the immune system, which has produced many impactful results. So far scientists from UM and the NCI have co-published seven research papers, in Nature Medicine, Nature Reviews Rheumatology, FASEB Journal, Journal of Immunology, Frontiers in Immunology, Scientific Reports, and Cellular and Molecular Immunology, respectively. More research findings are expected to be published soon.
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As a leading international group in the exhibition and convention field, UFI, the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry, brings together renowned trade show organisers and exhibition centre operators from around the world. Its main aims are to promote the development of the exhibition industry regionally and globally. Each year, UFI commissions a group of professional consultants to conduct a survey on Asia’s trade fair industry, and publishes an annual report on the sector. This material is an important reference point for international exhibition organisers/exhibition management teams. According to the 2015 report recently released, Macao was one of the smallest trade fair markets in Asia that year, but also has had the shortest development history. Despite the city’s overall economy having been negatively affected in 2015 by the external economic environment, the local trade fair market recorded an increase of 5.9 percent in total net space sold at trade fairs. The rate of growth was higher than the region’s average, which stood at 5.6 percent for the same period. Macao’s 2015 performance came on top of a 2014 rise in the amount of net space leased in the city for such events. In 2015, total trade fair space sold in Macao jumped to 209,250 square metres, an increase of 147.6 percent compared with the 84,500 square metres sold in 2011. This made Macao the Asian trade fair market with the fastest growth during that five-year period, according to the report. UFI’s report highlighted the strong support for the local exhibition industry given by the Macao SAR Government. It also mentioned the importance of ancillary facilities to promote the development of the city’s trade fair industry. For instance, the future Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge will improve regional connectivity; while the number of air connections between Macao International Airport and other Asian cities had steadily increased. Therefore, growth of Macao’s trade fair industry in the coming few years was expected to exceed the regional average, noted the report. The Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM) officially became a member of UFI in October 2005. IPIM has since then actively participated in UFI’s activities, with a view to enhancing exchanges with relevant international bodies in the exhibition field. IPIM has also launched a “One-stop Service” for MICE Bidding and Support in Macao: it provides comprehensive services to assist convention and exhibition organisers interested in running events in the city, aiming to attract and introduce renowned overseas events to Macao.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the Composite CPI rose by 1.65% year-on-year to 108.10 in August 2016, a further decrease of 0.43 percentage points from the 2.08% growth in July. The increment was attributable to dearer rentals for parking spaces, higher charges for eating out, as well as increases in property management fees and motor car prices. Among the various sections of goods and services, price index of Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages that accounted for the largest share of household expenditure showed continued slowdown in growth, rising by 2.09% year-on-year; price index of Clothing & Footwear decreased by 3.37%; meanwhile, lower rentals for dwellings drove down the price index of Housing & fuels by 0.43%, the first decline recorded since April 2010. On the other hand, price index of Education, Transport and Alcoholic Beverages & Tobacco rose by 8.89%, 7.32% and 5.32% respectively. The CPI-A (108.18) and CPI-B (107.44) increased by 1.53% and 2.75% respectively year-on-year. The Composite CPI for August 2016 decreased by 0.23% month-to-month. Seasonal sale of clothing & footwear, lower rentals for dwellings and receding prices of Liquefied Petroleum Gas pushed down the price index of Clothing & Footwear and Housing & Fuels by 2.63% and 0.34% respectively. On the contrary, higher charges for package tours and airfares during summer holidays drove up the price index of Recreation & Culture and Transport by 0.35% and 0.15% respectively. Moreover, price index of Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages rose slightly by 0.02% due to higher prices of vegetables & fruits and dearer charges for eating out; meanwhile, receding prices of fresh fish, seafood and pork offset part of the increase. The CPI-A and CPI-B dropped by 0.24% and 0.16% respectively month-to-month. For the 12 months ended August 2016, the average Composite CPI increased by 3.20% from the previous period. Price index of Alcoholic Beverages & Tobacco (+32.75%) and Education (+8.94%) showed marked increase. The average CPI-A and CPI-B went up by 3.22% and 3.10% respectively over the previous period. The average Composite CPI for the first eight months of 2016 increased by 2.83% year-on-year, and the average CPI-A and CPI-B rose by 2.79% and 3.16% respectively. The Composite CPI reflects the impact of price changes on the general households in Macao. The CPI-A relates to about 50% of the households, which have an average monthly expenditure of MOP10,000 to MOP29,999. The CPI-B relates to about 30% of the households, which have an average monthly expenditure of MOP30,000 to MOP54,999.
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Following a request by some of the tourists injured in the Rua da Entena accident and their families, the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) and the Tourism Crisis Management Office (GGCT) coordinated today a meeting between 6 affected tourists and their families and the travel agency. During the meeting, the families spoke about their requests as well as other related issues. At the moment, 4 tourists remain hospitalized and 4 family members remain in Macao to accompany them while 36 affected tourists have already left Macao. Additionally, 4 other family members travelled to Macao and have received accommodation provided by the ground operator. If necessary, affected tourists and their families can contact the 24-hour Tourism Hotline: (853) 2833 3000.
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Consumer Council conducted its third ‘Supermarket price survey’ in September on 20 September for the implementation of Section 2b), Article 10, Law 4/95/M of 12 June. Surveyed locations included supermarkets near Iao Hon Market and the Border Gate area (Portas do Cerco ) in N. Sra. de Fátima Parish. The latest ‘Supermarket Price Survey’ is now available on Consumer Council’s website (www.consumer.gov.mo), ‘Supermarket Price Information Platform’ iPhone and Android apps, and on the Council’s WeChat account page. 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. With reference to the local seven 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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For the implementation of Section 2b), Article 10, Law 4/95/M of 12 June, Consumer Council collects prices of fresh pork and vegetables from wet markets and supermarkets for consumers’ reference. The mentioned data collected during 14 September to 20 September are used for comparing the selling prices of the same products from Zhuhai and Hong Kong. The relevant data has been uploaded to the Council’s website for consumers’ reference. The specific price surveys on fresh pork and vegetables are now available on the Council’s website (www.consumer.gov.mo), iPhone & Android ‘Supermarket Price Information Platform’ app, and the Council’s WeChat Account page. The relevant surveys include selling prices of local fresh pork and vegetables, and comparison on the respective selling prices rom Zhuhai, HK, and Macao. For enquiry, please call 8988 9315.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that Total Receipts of the industrial establishments in Macao decreased by 1.7% year-on-year to MOP10.50 billion in 2015; meanwhile, Intermediate Consumption (MOP5.97 billion) and Compensation of Employees (MOP1.94 billion) dropped by 8.6% and 3.5% respectively. As the decline in costs outpaced the decrease in receipts, Gross Surplus grew by 20.9% to MOP2.59 billion. Gross Value Added that measures the sectorial contribution to the economy amounted to MOP4.53 billion, up by 9.1%. A total of 898 establishments were operating in industrial production, a year-on-year increase of 35 establishments, all of which were manufacturing establishments with less than 30 persons engaged. Total number of persons engaged decreased by 420 to 11,888. Total Receipts of the Manufacturing sector (MOP7.13 billion) decreased by 5.9% year-on-year and Intermediate Consumption (MOP4.97 billion) dropped by 12.1%. With the larger decline in Intermediate Consumption, Gross Value Added (MOP2.16 billion) and Gross Surplus (MOP805 million) increased by 12.8% and 36.5% respectively. Establishments in the Manufacturing sector increased by 35 year-on-year to 892; establishments in Manufacture of Food Products & Beverages rose by 32, Publishing & Printing establishments went up by 24, and establishments in Manufacture of Textiles, Wearing Apparel, etc. decreased by a total of 19. Total number of persons engaged dropped by 407 to 10,804. Analysed by industry, Total Receipts of Manufacture of Cement & Concrete (MOP2.03 billion) decreased by 8.3% as demand for locally produced cement and related products in construction reduced; Intermediate Consumption shrank by 16.9% owing to reduction in raw materials used; Gross Value Added (MOP506 million) rose by 33.6% and Gross Surplus (MOP399 million) grew by 43.6%. Total Receipts of Manufacture of Food Products & Beverages (MOP1.73 billion) declined by 3.9% after rising for 6 consecutive years; Intermediate Consumption (MOP1.04 billion) dropped by 14.8% as expenditure on raw materials fell upon reduced production and promotion expenses shrank. Reduction in costs brought Gross Value Added (MOP684 million) and Gross Surplus (MOP171 million) up by 19.2% and 62.2%. Principal indicators of Publishing & Printing pointed upward, with Total Receipts (MOP762 million), Gross Value Added (MOP308 million) and Gross Surplus (MOP39.72 million) rising by 20.0%, 24.1% and 85.6% respectively. Meanwhile, Total Receipts of Manufacture of Wearing Apparel decreased by 15.6% year-on-year to MOP525 million, of which receipts of Manufacture of Garment (MOP413 million) dropped by 26.2% while receipts of Manufacture of Tailor Made Clothing (MOP 112 million) rose by 80.3%. Total Receipts of Manufacture of Chinese Medicine (MOP29.39 million) increased by 12.6%, representing two consecutive years of growth. With an increase in local electricity generation, Total Receipts (MOP3.36 billion) and Intermediate Consumption (MOP992 million) of the Electricity, Gas & Water Supply sector increased by 8.4% and 14.7% respectively year-on-year; Gross Value Added (MOP2.37 billion) and Gross Surplus (MOP1.78 billion) rose by 5.9% and 15.0%. Establishments in the Electricity, Gas & Water Supply sector remained at 6. Number of persons engaged totalled 1,084, similar to that in 2014. The Industrial Survey covers the Mining & Quarrying, Manufacturing and Electricity, Gas & Water Supply sectors. In 2015, there was no active establishment in the Mining & Quarrying sector.
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