News

According to statistics released today by the Monetary Authority of Macao, the total number of personal credit cards in circulation continued to grow in the third quarter of 2016. The credit card turnover and repayments increased from a quarter ago. Circulation The total number of personal credit cards in circulation was 1,031,218 at the end of September 2016, equivalent to an increase of 2.1% over a quarter earlier. The numbers of Pataca (MOP) cards, Hong Kong Dollar (HKD) cards and Renminbi (RMB) cards were 730,162, 87,607 and 213,449 respectively. MOP cards, HKD cards and RMB cards witnessed respective growth of 2.1%, 1.9% and 2.4% quarter-to-quarter. Compared with a year ago, MOP cards and HKD cards rose 12.5% and 9.8% respectively, while RMB cards, the majority of which were MOP/RMB dual-currency cards, rose even faster by 25.0%. Credit limit granted and delinquency As at end-September 2016, credit card credit limit granted by banks in Macao reached MOP24.0 billion, up 1.6% from end-June 2016. Credit card receivables amounted to MOP2.3 billion while the rollover amount totalled MOP718.5 million, accounting for 31.5% of credit card receivables. The delinquency ratio, i.e. the ratio of delinquent amount overdue for more than three months to credit card receivables, edged up from 1.46% at end-June 2016 to 1.51% at end-September 2016. Turnover and repayment For the third quarter of 2016, the credit card turnover grew 3.1% quarter-to-quarter to MOP4.7 billion. The cash advance turnover was MOP220.7 million, accounting for 4.7% of total credit card turnover. Credit card repayments, in which payments for interest and fees are included, grew 8.0% from the previous quarter to MOP4.8 billion.
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The Chief Executive, Mr Chui Sai On, today had a meeting in Beijing with the Minister of the General Administration of Customs, Mr Yu Guangzhou, to exchange views on the management of Macao’s waters, and to discuss how to prevent and combat smuggling activities. The Macao SAR Government has been paying great attention to planning regarding the use of its waters. This follows the State Council’s decree in December 2015 outlining Macao’s administrative role regarding a maritime area of 85 square kilometres adjacent to the city, said Mr Chui. The meeting held this afternoon aimed to provide the General Administration of Customswith further updates concerning the SAR Government’s plans for economic development relating those waters; and to receive further feedback and suggestions from the General Administration of Customs. Mr Chui said he was grateful for the long-term support of the General Administration of Customs, in particular during the process leading up to the announcement specifying the city’s administrative role in relation to its surrounding waters. Mr Yu noted the two sides signed in May two documents titled, respectively, “Cooperation Arrangement between the General Administration of Customs and the Macao SAR Government on the Prevention and Fight against Smuggling in Waters Managed by the Macao SAR and within Macao’s Land Boundaries”; and the “Cooperation Memorandum between the General Administration of Customs and the Macao SAR Government on Origin of Transshipment Cargo in the Macao SAR under Free Trade Agreements”. As part of the process of implementing the aims set out in the two documents, a system for facilitating transshipment of cargo between the mainland and Macao had been created and had begun operation. The system effectively streamlined costs on transshipment of cargoes to the mainland via Macao, namely cargoes included in trade facilitated under free-trade agreements. Such a policy had been widely praised by the transport sector, Mr Yu said. Mr Yu added that an extensive mechanism for bilateral communication had also been initiated, in order to prevent or if necessary combat the smuggling of goods, drugs and firearms. This was of significant importance to efforts aimed at limiting such illegal activities, he stated. Today Mr Chui completed a three-day visit to Beijing and returned to Macao in the evening. Officials of the General Administration of Customs attending today’s meeting included: Vice Minister, Mr Sun Yibiao; the Director of the Department of Customs Control and Inspection, Mr Wang Wei; and the Director of the Department of Processing Trade and Customs Bonded Operation, Mr Zheng Hanglong. Macao officials present included: the Director-General of the Macao Customs Service, Mr Vong Iao Lek; the Chief-of-Office of the Chief Executive’s Office, Ms O Lam; the Director of the Government Information Bureau, Mr Chan Chi Ping; the Director of the Representative Office of the Macao SAR in Beijing, Ms Hong Wai; the Director of the Protocol, Public Relations and External Affairs Office, Mr Fung Sio Weng; the Director of the Marine and Water Bureau, Ms Wong Soi Man; the Director of the Land, Public Works and Transport Bureau, Mr Li Canfeng; Consultant to the Chief Executive’s Office, Mr Kou Chin Hong; and Chief Advisor of the Policy Research Office, Mr Mi Jian.
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The Chief Executive, Mr Chui Sai On, today had a meeting in Beijing with the Minister of the General Administration of Customs, Mr Yu Guangzhou, to exchange views on the management of Macao’s waters, and to discuss how to prevent and combat smuggling activities.
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The awards ceremony for the “Precious Moments in Macao” 2016 Photography Competition was held at the Government Information Bureau today; awards were given to 62 winning entries. The competition’s organiser announced that a new format for inviting submissions will be used in next year’s event. Speaking at the ceremony, Acting Director of the Government Information Bureau, Mr Louie Wong Lok I, pointed out that the “Precious Moments in Macao” Photography Competition, which was known as the “New Faces of Macao” Photography Competition from 2004 to 2009, has coincided with the rapid development of Macao over the past years. He also thanked local photography and media associations as well as photography aficionados for their support and participation in the competition, which has collected many outstanding works that have captured the precious moments of Macao through the camera lens and provided invaluable visual materials for the Macao Yearbook. This year’s competition has attracted 270 contestants with a total of 1,144 submissions of various themes. Mr Wong added that in order to facilitate the submissions of works of different themes relating to Macao, the Government Information Bureau would introduce a new format to solicit outstanding submissions from photography aficionados starting from next year. According to the initial plan, the current online submissions portal will be retained but submissions will be open all year round instead; more details will be announced in due course. The competition was organised by the Government information Bureau, and co-organised with the Photographic Society of Macao; Photography Salon Society of Macao; Macao Association for the Promotion of Photographic Art; Macao Association of Photographers; Macao Multimedia Photographic Art Association; Macao Association of Photographic Art; Macau Camera Lens Art Association; Macao Digital Photography Association; Macao Media Workers Association; Macao Journalists’ Club; Macao Journalists’ Association; Macao Media Club; and the Macau Sports Press Association. A total of 1,144 entries were submitted this year and 62 winning entries were selected after three rounds of professional evaluations. The first, second and third prizes were: First Prize: Ku Soi Lan; Title of Work: Passing the baton Second Prize: Wu Yisheng; Title of Work: Colourful clouds over the peninsula Third Prize: Lam Sao Wa; Title of Work: NAPE in the evening Winners of the first, second and third prizes each received a trophy in addition to a cash prize of 8,000, 5,000 and 3,000 patacas respectively, A further 12 entries were selected for the Special Feature Prize “Our Waters” by the editorial committee of the Macao Yearbook and winners each received a cash prize of 1,000 patacas.
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Consumer Council conducted its specific price survey on diapers, over-the-counter drugs, and milk powder on 4 November for the implementation of Section 2b), Article 10, Law 4/95/M of 12 June. Result of the mentioned survey has been uploaded to the Council’s website (www.consumer.gov.mo) and is available in the Council’s ‘Supermarket Price Information Platform’ iPhone and Android apps, and on the Council’s WeChat account page. For inquiry, please call the Council’s hotline: 8988 9315.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that a total of 1,087 new companies were incorporated in the third quarter of 2016, a decrease of 139 year-on-year. Total value of registered capital dropped by 67.1% to MOP124 million, of which registered capital of Business Services (MOP18 million) down significantly by 93.9%. Analysed by industry, there were 364 new incorporations operating in Wholesale & Retail and 257 in Business Services. In the third quarter of 2016, companies in dissolution totalled 163, and the value of registered capital of companies in dissolution amounted to MOP30 million. Analysed by size of registered capital, there were 783 new companies (72.0% of total) registered with capital under MOP50,000, and the total value of capital was MOP20 million. On the other hand, there were 23 new companies registered with capital of MOP1,000,000 or over, and the total value of capital amounted to MOP63 million (50.4% of total). As regards origin of capital, the majority of the capital came from Macao (MOP84 million) and Mainland China (MOP20 million) in the third quarter of 2016. Capital from the 9 Provinces of the Pan-Pearl River Delta Region totalled MOP15 million, of which 12 million were from Guangdong province. Analysed by combination of shareholders, there were 730 new companies established solely by Macao shareholders, and 101 joint ventures between shareholders from Macao and other countries or regions. In the first three quarters of 2016, a total of 3,345 new companies were incorporated, down by 630 year-on-year; total value of registered capital decreased by 57.1% to MOP387 million. Number of companies in dissolution totalled 587, and the value of registered capital of companies in dissolution amounted to MOP140 million. At the end of the third quarter of 2016, number of registered companies totalled 55,816, an increase of 3,637 from a year earlier.
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Prof Philip Chen, dean and chair professor of the Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Macau, recently was recognised as one of the 2016 Outstanding Electrical and Computer Engineers (OECE) by the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at his alma mater, Purdue University. OECE honorees are engineers who represent the finest in their fields; and who embody the spirit of Purdue Engineering, applying a world view to work that has a universal impact. The award aims to recognise the achievements of Purdue alumni. Prof Chen is the editor-in-chief of the IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Systems. He is the first scholar from Macao to be appointed editor-in-chief of an IEEE journal. Former editors-in-chief of this journal include Andrew Sage, a member of the United States National Academy of Engineering (who received the Purdue OECE Award in 2010); Madan Singh, a late chair professor at the University of Manchester, United Kingdom; Donald Brown, William Stansfield Calcott Professor at the University of Virginia, United States; and Witold Pedrycz, professor at the University of Alberta, Canada. Prof Chen is also an associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics, and IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems, a steering committee member of IEEE Transactions on Big Data, and vice editor-in-chief of the Communications of Chinese Association of Automation (published by the Chinese Association of Automation under the Chinese Academy of Sciences). He was the president of IEEE’s Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society (IEEE SMC) for the 2012-2013 period, and now serves as its Senior Past President in charge of Fellow and Awards. He was a Distinguished Lecturer of IEEE SMC from 2010 to 2015.
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The Commission Against Corruption (hereinafter referred to as the “CCAC”) releases the “Investigation report on the granting of public car park management service by the Transport Bureau”. It is pointed out that in the course of the outsourcing of public car park management services, the Transport Bureau (hereinafter referred to as the “DSAT”) often replaced the statutory “operation contract” by the “short-term management services contract” and “split” the management service, so that the amount of grant was under MOP750,000 and the contract execution period was less than six months to avoid the statutory stipulation of open tendering and signing of notarial contracts. In addition, there was a lack of proper supervision of the DSAT regarding the parking income to be turned over by the management companies, which was a serious violation of the fiscal disciplines of the public departments. The CCAC considers that the problems revealed in the report reflected the defects and loopholes in the internal monitoring mechanism and the financial operation of the DSAT. The leadership of the DSAT should review comprehensively the problems in the granting of public car park management services and rectify them as soon as possible. In April last year, the CCAC cracked down a case in which the chief and his subordinates of the Transportation Management Division of the DSAT colluded with the management companies and took advantages of their positions to manipulate the granting of service contracts of public car park management and from which illicit advantages were received. The sum involved totaling nearly MOP67 million and the illicit profit was about MOP19 million. During the process of the criminal investigation of the case, the CCAC found that in addition to the subjective criminal intent of the persons involved to achieve the purpose of the crime through various means, the DSAT had serious defects in the outsourcing process and internal supervision mechanism of public car park management services, resulting in the failure of timely detection and curbing of the illegal acts, thus objectively served a pampering and facilitating effect on the occurrence of the case. Thus, investigation on the relevant issues is commenced. According to the Regulations of Public Car Park Services, the Public Administration shall, through open tendering for the “operation contract”, outsource the management of a public car park to a private entity. Under an “operation contract”, the management company that operates the car park shall be self-financing and bear all the costs for running the car park, including the expenses on purchasing equipment. All the revenue shall go to the management company after an amount of it is paid to the Public Administration as “pecuniary returns”. However, the CCAC found that the DSAT that played the supervisory role did not adopt the “operation contract” without providing sufficient justifications. Instead, it repeatedly signed the “short-term management services contracts” with management companies according to Decree Law no. 122/84/M, where the management services of the car parks were outsourced to the management companies, which in return received a certain amount of service fee. The DSAT was also found to have constantly split the orders of the management services. Since 2003, 39 of the 46 public car parks in total have signed 341 “short-term management services contracts”. The CCAC considered that such practice by the DSAT obviously evaded the signing of “operation contract” and the stipulations that open tendering shall be called for the contract involving more than MOP750,000 and that a notarial contract shall be signed for a service to be run for more than six months. Such practice has violated the “principle of legality” and impaired the dignity and authoritativeness of the law. Moreover, the existing statutory systems and procedures were totally ignored and finally they were made used by criminals as means of manipulating the grant of car park management service contracts for the purpose of gaining illicit advantages. The CCAC also found that when the DSAT purchased the equipment or repair services of car parks, it always “passed the buck” to the management companies to submit quotations from other professional companies. The DSAT exempted the procedure of price inquiries without stating the reasons and directly granted the projects to the management companies which did not have the conditions of providing relevant equipment or works. Moreover, the DSAT failed to effectively supervise the parking income that the car park management companies should pay to the government and the truthfulness and accuracy of the amounts of the payments it had received. For some of the companies which always delayed the payments of parking income, the DSAT did not take effective measures to dun for the payments. It even paid those companies the management service fees promptly and suggested granting the new contracts to them. Such practices have seriously contradicted the fiscal disciplines of public departments, causing a huge risk to public funds. The DSAT’s failure to supervise the management companies was firstly caused by the defects of the internal supervision mechanism. In fact, there is a complete and strict procedure to monitor the accounts of public departments. It is impossible for a division to manipulate the accounts. The DSAT’s negligence to the defaulted payments reflected that there were serious loopholes existing in its internal financial operation. The CCAC pointed out that in the case involving the chief of the DSAT, the evasion of the use of open tendering procedures and the use of “written price inquiries” and even “direct grant” to particular companies to manipulate the management services of some of the public car parks had become the tools of obtaining illicit benefits. Although criminal sanctions were imposed on the person involved in the case due to his illicit acts, the chief of the Transportation Management Division only possessed the right of suggestion while the superiors and leaders of the division had the responsibilities and competence to review and approve the work. It is worth the DSAT and its supervisory body to seriously study whether the case involved the default and defect of supervision of the concerned leaders and superiors. The CCAC believed that the although the problems found in the investigation was about the procedure of outsourcing public car park management service and the internal supervision mechanism of the DSAT, the issues that they reflected, including not following the law strictly and even deliberately evaded the law or statutory procedures, lax or formalistic internal supervision, were not unique in the procedures of procurement or service outsourcing run by public departments. A large part of the problems existing in the procedures of procurement or service outsourcing run by public departments do not constitute administrative illegality or misfeasance and even crimes such as corruption. Therefore, it is difficult for the supervisory entities including the Commission of Audit and the CCAC to stage a direct intervention. However, if these issues are not redressed promptly, they will give rise to corruption crimes. The CCAC pointed out that evasion of statutory systems or procedures with unreasonable excuse not only exists in the DSAT but also in other public departments. In particular, the practice of “splitting” an order of purchasing a complex or constant service into several contracts in order to evade the statutory requirements for open tendering or signing of notarial contract is not rarely seen. The reason for most of the cases that the public departments choose to evade the requirements for open tendering or signing notarial contracts in procurement procedures is to simplify the procedure and save time. However, violation of the “principle of legality” shall not be the cost for boosting administrative efficiency. Weakening the openness and transparency of procurement procedure not only makes it difficult for the Public Administration to choose the service of the best quality at reasonable price but also increases the risk of occurrence of corruption and power abuse. The public departments shall strictly follow the provisions about open tendering or signing of notarial contracts under the prerequisite that there is no revision of the current law, while the Public Administration shall make adjustments to Decree Law no. 122/84/M and other related regulations according to the reality and social development in order to strengthen the relevant monitoring and rectification systems as well as simplify public procurement procedures. The CCAC deemed that when a public department procures goods or services directly from a supplier, it must state the reasons why the procedure of “written price inquiries” cannot be carried out or why the exemption of the inquiry process of price comparison among the suppliers can be more beneficial to the public interests of the Macao SAR. It could not give some dubious reasons or simply cite a certain paragraph or article from the law, otherwise, it is in violation of the provisions of the law. During the procurement procedures, the public departments must be cautious with the adoption of such special, exceptional regime of “direct grant”, sufficient reasons must be stated so that it would not be used as a means of seeking unlawful advantages. The CCAC finally pointed out in the report that the leadership of public department shall strictly examine whether the suggestions made by their subordinates accord with the law instead of accepting all of them without any evaluation. They shall always be clearly aware of their responsibilities for the operation of the personnel, finance and administration of the whole department. For the irregular and even illegal acts existing in the department, they shall not turn a blind eye to them without any worries for the reason that they do not seek any illicit advantages from them, because lack of effective management and supervision will objectively give rise to crimes including corruption. The full text of the report is downloadable from the CCAC’s website.
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In order to strengthen the understanding of the convention and exhibition industry regarding the “Regulation on Prohibition of Illegal Work”, and to effectively assist local and international event planners to organize activities in Macao, the Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM) and the Labour Affairs Bureau jointly organized a “Seminar on Rights and Obligations in Labour Relation – Session for Convention and Exhibition Industry”, on 28 October (Friday), at the Macau Business Support Centre. The seminar was aimed to enhance awareness of convention and exhibition industry regarding the provisions and clauses of the “Regulation on Prohibition of Illegal Work”, which will help alleviate challenges faced by the industry in regard to labour relations and human resources management. During the seminar, representatives from the Labour Affairs Bureau provided detailed explanations on labour laws and regulations regarding the employment of non-resident workers responsible for instructing, technical or monitoring tasks during the events organized in Macao. The Labour Affairs Bureau officials also shared relevant examples with more than 80 participants from the local convention and exhibition industry, strengthening their understanding on relevant labour laws and regulations. Lots of participants raised questions enthusiastically. Both the Government representatives and members of the convention and exhibition industry benefited from the interaction during the seminar. The participants included the Executive Director of IPIM, Mrs. Irene V. K. Lau and the Deputy Director of the Labours Affairs Bureau, Mr. Chan Un Tong. More than 80 people from the local convention and exhibition industry attended the seminar, including representatives from Macao M.I.C.E. industry associations, hotels, venue providers, local and overseas professional conference and fair organisers and destination management companies.
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University of Macau (UM) student Leong Kin Man won the championship at the 14th Portuguese Speech Contest held today (1 November). The theme of this year’s competition was ‘the art of life’. In his speech, Leong discussed the joy and challenges of learning Portuguese, how his study trip in Portugal improved his spoken Portuguese, and interesting anecdotes about local culture. Leong is from the Faculty of Law, enrolled in the 5-Year Bachelor of Law Programme (conducted in Chinese and Portuguese). He is grateful to the professors from the Department of Portuguese for their guidance, which helped him overcome the various difficulties in learning the Portuguese language. ‘During my first year at UM, I went to Portugal to study as an exchange student, which gave me a good grounding in the language,’ he says. ‘The good language learning environment at UM not only stimulates my interest in the Portuguese language and culture, but also allows me to put what I’ve learned into practice.’ Organised by UM’s Department of Portuguese, the Portuguese Speech Contest is an annual event that aims to provide a platform for local college students enrolled in Portuguese programmes to showcase their language skills. The second, third, and fourth prizes of this year’s competition went to Peng Ying Ying from Macau University of Science and Technology, Marcelino Luis Do Rosario Sousa from Macao Polytechnic Institute (IPM), and Tu An from IPM, respectively.
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