News

The number of crimes recorded in the first quarter of 2016 fell by 7.1 percent year-on-year, to 3,333 cases. Instances of the most serious forms of crime were either non-existent, or extremely low in number. The Secretary for Security, Mr Wong Sio Chak, said the latest crime figures showed Macao to be a secure and safe city; nonetheless, the police would remain vigilant regarding any perceived trend in types of crime, and would update their crime-fighting strategies when deemed necessary. Mr Wong made the comments on Monday (30 May) at a press briefing disclosing the crime figures for the first three months of 2016. The police transferred a total of 1,615 people to the Public Prosecutions Office for further investigation in the first quarter of 2016. The tally was up 15.9 percent from the same period last year. Cases of usury and false imprisonment saw an increase of 55.9 percent and 32.8 percent respectively. An increase in gaming-related crimes showed scant connection to the adjustment occurring in the city’s gaming industry and the notion that such an adjustment might be a negative thing. The police are nonetheless paying close attention to the development of the sector and adjusting their enforcement strategies as necessary. The number of violent crimes reported in the period showed a rise of 24 percent to 181 cases. The rise was mainly due to an increase in cases of false imprisonment and of drug trafficking. Crimes against the person went up by 2.8 percent to 626 cases in the first quarter of 2016. No case of murder or kidnap had been reported to the police during the period. Cases of grievous assault remained at a low level. There was a total of 186 cases of crimes against society in the first quarter of 2016, representing a drop of 27.9 percent. Cases of arson showed a significant decrease of 80 percent. The Secretary said cases of robbery, arson and telephone fraud recorded a significant decrease. This was attributable to the police’s efforts in crime prevention and their sharing of intelligence with the community. The number of illegal immigrants caught during the period totalled 7,431, a decrease from the 8,781 people detained in the first quarter last year. The reduction in the number was a result of closer cooperation with the mainland authorities under anti-smuggling arrangements, Mr Wong said. There were 1,277 infractions relating to taxi services, a 25.9 percent decline year-on-year. The police would step up enforcement efforts against such types of infraction, in order to promote a positive image of Macao as a tourism city. The Secretary also commented on some publicly expressed opinion that the police are overstaffed. Mr Wong said he did not agree with such comment, saying there were many methods by which to evaluate the appropriate ratio of police officers to inhabitants in a city. Factors determining that ratio included a city’s population density; its openness as a society; the pace of development of a city; its complexity; its legal system; and its mode of law enforcement. The police were committed to implementing a new vision for law enforcement that involved enhancing the services provided to the community rather than increasing police manpower. This could be achieved by more promotion of “community policing”; by updating police equipment; and by outsourcing some security functions, Mr Wong said.
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The Macao Orchestra (OM, from the Portuguese acronym) under the auspices of the Cultural Affairs Bureau and under the baton of conductor Jean-Philippe Tremblay, joins hands with French pianist Alexandre Tharaud in the concert The Great Pianist: Alexandre Tharaud and the Macao Orchestra, to be held on Sunday, 5 June, at 8pm, at the Macao Cultural Centre Grand Auditorium. Tickets are on sale at the Macau Ticketing Network. Alexandre Tharaud, acclaimed as a modern “poet of the piano”, was a student of Carmen Taccon-Devenat, who was a student of the great French pianist Marguerite Long. Tharaud won a series of prizes including the First Prize at the International Maria Canals Competition in Barcelona and the Second Prize at the ARD International Competition in Munich, as well as the “Palme d’Ór” at the 65th Cannes Film Festival, and his role as an outstanding pianist in the French film “Amour”, which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, made him reach a new level as a performer. With a unique music style and remarkable performance skills, Tharaud has been receiving great critical acclaim from music critics. In this concert, he performs Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor, a piece that fuses German and Austrian musical languages from the Romantic era with Norwegian folk music elements. The programme of this concert also features Ludwig van Beethoven’s delicate Symphony No. 8, which will certainly offer a pleasant evening to the audience. Tickets for the concert The Great Pianist: Alexandre Tharaud and the Macao Orchestra are priced at MOP350, MOP300, MOP200 and MOP100, with several discount packages available. Ticketing hotline: 2855 5555. For more details on OM’s concert season, please visit the Orchestra’s webpage at www.icm.gov.mo/om.
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Macao is engaging further with the Kingdom of Cambodia, including via training and education on tourism. Macao is also exploring potential cooperation opportunities with Cambodia in other areas. The Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Mr Tam Chon Weng, met in Cambodia on Monday (30 May) the Secretary of State of the Ministry of Tourism of the Kingdom of Cambodia, Mr Tith Chantha. At the meeting a cooperation memorandum on tourism training was signed between the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) and the Kingdom of Cambodia. Monday’s signing ceremony was witnessed by the Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and former chief executive of the Macao SAR, Mr Ho Hau Wah; and by the Minister of Tourism of the Kingdom of Cambodia, Dr Thong Khon. Mr Ho and Mr Tam had arrived in the country on Sunday (29 May) leading a Government delegation for a three-day business visit to the capital Phnom Penh. More than 50 business representatives from Macao’s tourism, banking, trade and other sectors joined the group. On Monday, the “Macao – Cambodia Investment & Tourism Development Seminar” was held in Phnom Penh, to give businesses in Cambodia a better picture of Macao’s business environment, its efforts and strategies to promote the tourism industry, its development path and the role Macao plays in regional cooperation. During the visit to Cambodia, the delegation held meetings with the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia, Mr Hun Sen; and the President of the Senate of Cambodia, Mr Say Chhum, to share views on how to strengthen Cambodia-Macao exchanges. The Macao delegation will return to Macao today.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that visitors on package tours totalled 575,000 in April 2016, down by 31.7% year-on-year but up by 2.2% month-to-month. Package tour visitors from Mainland China (451,000) decreased by 34.1% year-on-year, and those from the Republic of Korea (29,000) and Taiwan (29,000) dropped by 13.2% and 39.8% respectively; meanwhile, package tour visitors from Thailand (16,000) registered an increase of 34.3%. In the first four months of 2016, visitors on package tours totalled 2,275,000, down by 34.0% year-on-year. Outbound residents using services of travel agencies totalled 89,000 in April 2016, down by 21.6% year-on-year and 16.9% month-to-month as the Easter holidays fell in April 2015 and March 2016 respectively. Residents travelling on package tours decreased by 27.6% year-on-year to 34,000; those travelling to Mainland China and Taiwan dropped by 36.4% and 37.6% respectively, while those to the Republic of Korea soared by 138.8%. In the first four months of 2016, outbound residents using services of travel agencies totalled 402,000, down by 16.7% year-on-year. There were 106 hotels & guesthouses operating at the end of April 2016, an increase of 7 year-on-year. Number of guest rooms totalled 32,000, up by 3,800 (+13.6%) year-on-year; those of 5-star hotels (20,000) and 4-star hotels (7,700) accounted for 63.6% and 24.0% of the total respectively. A total of 917,000 guests checked into hotels & guesthouses in April 2016, up by 11.5% year-on-year. Guests from Mainland China (610,000) increased by 16.7%, while those from Hong Kong (115,000) decreased by 8.2% following the continuous year-on-year growth since April 2015. The average length of stay of guests decreased by 0.1 night year-on-year to 1.3 nights. The average occupancy rate of hotels & guesthouses was 79.0%, down by 0.7 percentage point year-on-year and yet up by 2.5 percentage points month-on-month; the occupancy rate of 3-star hotels (83.8%) and 4-star hotels (83.7%) was relatively high, up by 2.9 and 1.7 percentage points respectively. In the first four months of 2016, guests of hotels & guesthouses totalled 3,578,000, up by 12.9% year-on-year. The average occupancy rate of hotels & guesthouses stood at 77.6% and the average length of stay of guests was 1.4 nights, down by 1.7 percentage points and 0.1 night respectively. Visitor-guests accounted for 71.2% of the total overnight visitors, up notably by 3.5 percentage points year-on-year.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that total merchandise export for April 2016 amounted to MOP755 million, down by 20.9% year-on-year; value of re-exports (MOP601 million) dropped by 27.1%, with that of Clocks & watches (MOP49 million) falling by 77.1%; value of domestic exports (MOP155 million) expanded by 18.0%, with that of Tobacco (MOP39 million) rising by 50.3%. Total merchandise import declined by 18.6% year-on-year to MOP5.57 billion, of which imports of Mobile phones and Motor cars decreased by 63.9% and 61.2% respectively. Merchandise trade deficit amounted to MOP4.82 billion. In the first four months of 2016, total value of merchandise export fell by 5.6% year-on-year to MOP3.45 billion, of which value of re-exports (MOP2.92 billion) and domestic exports (MOP534 million) decreased by 3.4% and 16.2% respectively. Total value of merchandise import fell by 21.6% to MOP22.78 billion. Merchandise trade deficit widened to MOP19.33 billion for the first four months of 2016. Analysed by destination, merchandise export to Mainland China increased by 7.1% year-on-year to MOP565 million in the first four months of 2016, of which exports to the nine provinces of the Pan Pearl River Delta (MOP542 million) rose by 7.3%; exports to Hong Kong (MOP2.08 billion) decreased by 9.5%. Meanwhile, export to the EU (MOP58 million) and the USA (MOP49 million) reduced by 29.5% and 27.6% respectively. Exports of Non-textiles declined by 6.6% year-on-year to MOP3.17 billion, of which value of Clocks & watches (MOP433 million) dropped by 24.8% but that of Electronic components (MOP342 million) grew by 52.3%. Exports of Textiles & garments totalled MOP283 million, up by 7.5%. By place of origin, merchandise import from Mainland China (MOP8.23 billion) and the EU (MOP5.42 billion) in the first four months of 2016 decreased by 24.6% and 19.9% respectively year-on-year. Analysed by place of consignment, merchandise import from Mainland China declined by 10.6% to MOP3.53 billion, of which import from the nine provinces of the Pan Pearl River Delta (MOP3.34 billion) fell by 10.4%. Imports of Consumer goods dropped by 15.7% to MOP14.32 billion, with imports of Watches (MOP1.41 billion) and Motor cars & motorcycles (MOP434 million) decreasing by 37.1% and 52.1% respectively. Moreover, imports of Fuels & lubricants (MOP1.80 billion), Mobile phones (MOP1.61 billion) and Construction materials (MOP674 million) declined by 16.1%, 54.7% and 37.1% respectively. External merchandise trade totalled MOP26.24 billion in the first four months of 2016, down by 19.8% compared with MOP32.72 billion a year earlier.
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The 12th China (Shenzhen) International Cultural Industries Fair (ICIF) was held from 12 to 16 May at the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Centre. The Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC) set up the Macao Creative Pavilion, promoting the participation of Macao’s cultural and creative entities, in order to showcase and commercialise their cultural and creative products in the Fair. The officiating guests at the opening ceremony of the Macao Creative Pavilion included the Chief of the Department for Promoting Cultural and Creative Industries of the Cultural Affairs Bureau, Ho Ka Weng; the Acting Head of the Division for Planning and Developing Cultural and Creative Industries, Ho Hong Pan; the Deputy Inspector of the Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Chai Fengchun; the Deputy Director of the Foreign Cultural Exchange Division of the Shenzhen Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau, Yu Zhi; the delegation of the Macau Shenzhen Economic and Cultural Promotion Association and the Cultural and Creative Industries Teaching and Research Centre of the Macao Polytechnic Institute. During the Fair, the Macao Pavilion attracted many visitors, thereby promoting Macao’s cultural and creative entities and their products efficiently. This year’s Macao Creative Pavilion is themed on handicrafts and design. The design of the pavilion featured multiple hues and irregular colour patches, which symbolize the urban vitality of Macao in a distinctive way. The participating cultural and creative entities from Macao included Native Ltd., JE Handcrafts Co. Ltd., Casa de Artesanato Nam Fan Lou, Soda Panda Product Design, Mobiliário Urbano Designers Limitada, San Seng Fung, Fuhong Society of Macau, Macau Creations Limited, Leathership Creation Limited Company and Follow Design Company Limited. IC has been organising the participation of Macao’s cultural and creative sector in the ICIF since 2006, and has launched the Macao Creative Pavilion in 2010, for these companies to showcase their products adequately. Through organising the participation of local cultural and creative entities in the Fair every year, it is hoped to promote Macao’s cultural and creative industries.
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Consumer Council conducted its latest ‘Supermarket price survey’ in May on 30 May for the implementation of Section 2b), Article 10, Law 4/95/M of 12 June. Surveyed locations included 12 supermarkets in Taipa and Coloane area. The latest ‘Supermarket Price Survey’ is now available on Consumer Council’s website (www.consumer.gov.mo), and the ‘Supermarket Price Information Platform’ iPhone and Android apps. 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 over 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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Organized by the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC), the 34th Macao Young Musicians Competition, dedicated to the categories of Chinese and Western instruments, will be held between 27 July and 5 August at the Dom Pedro V Theatre and the Institute for Tourism Studies (main campus) concurrently, while the Competition for Special Prizes will be held on 7 August, at the Dom Pedro V Theatre. The provisional list of the Competition Schedule is available at the Macao Young Musicians Competition’s website (www.icm.gov.mo/cjmm). Applications for this edition of the Competition ended on 30 April, with over 600 applications received. The order of performance was decided through random electronic selection; all participants must perform according to the allocated order, unless exceptional circumstances are verified. In case of exceptional circumstances which require the order of the performance to be changed, participants must fill in the “Request for Change of Competition Order” and submit it between 6 and 8 June, from 10am to 7pm (including lunch hours), at the Cultural Affairs Building, located at Tap Siac Square; the change of competition order is subject to the approval of the organizer and notification of the participant. According to the Rules and Regulations of the Competition, a few categories were cancelled due to the fact of these categories having applicants less than the minimum number required. These applicants are requested to bring their Macao Identity Cards and go to the Cultural Affairs Building, located at Tap Siac Square on or before 17 June, from 10am to 1pm or 2:30pm to 5:30pm for the reimbursement of the application fees. The final list of the Competition schedule and the list of the members of the jury will be available on 17 June at the Macao Young Musicians Competition’s website. For enquiries, please contact IC through tel. no. 8399 6911 or 8399 6979 during office hours.
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The Government has requested from the Guangdong Provincial Government more information regarding the Province’s nuclear power plant facility in Taishan Prefecture, in response to public concern over nuclear safety. Protecting public safety and health is the Government’s priority. The Government pays great attention to the public’s concern over these particular nuclear facilities. The Government noted recent media reports in Macao and in neighbouring areas regarding possible safety risks related to the Taishan Nuclear Power Plant. The Government has learned that the nuclear reactors have not yet started operation and understands that a portion of the facilities are awaiting acceptance by a third party. The Government pays close attention to the issue of the construction of the plant and its safety standards. The Government will keep in close touch with the mainland authorities for the latest information on the topic, and in order to update – where necessary – Macao’s response measures. – Macao’s security authorities have also requested more information from Guangdong’s Emergency Management Office. They have also relayed to Guangdong officials the public concern regarding these nuclear facilities, which are located near to Macao. The Government has a set of emergency response measures – developed since 1995 – to cope with any possible nuclear incident in neighbouring areas. Revisions to the response mechanism were made in 2011. To learn more about Macao’s response mechanism relating to nuclear safety matters, members of the public are invited to visit the website of the Security Forces Coordination Office at http://www.gcseg.gov.mo/en/index.aspx.
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The University of Macau’s (UM) English Debating Team recently won the third prize at the 19th FLTRP Cup National English Debating Competition, which was held at Beijing Foreign Studies University. Two debaters of the UM team, namely Jenny Wong Ka Kei and David Leong Ka Wai, were ranked No 2 and No 4, respectively, among all the 248 debaters in the competition. The FLTRP Cup National English Debating Competition is the largest and most influential English debating competition in China. This year’s event attracted 120 debating teams from 500 universities in China, including Tsinghua University, Peking University, Beijing Foreign Studies University, the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, and China Foreign Affairs University. After placing first in the eight rounds of preliminaries, the UM team proceeded to the octo-final and eventually won the third prize in the grand final. Other debating teams in the final came from Beijing Foreign Studies University, the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, and China Foreign Affairs University. Members of UM team included Jenny Wong Ka Kei, a fourth-year student from the Faculty of Social Sciences and Chao Kuang Piu College, and David Leong Ka Wai, a fourth-year student from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. The team leader was Lam Pek Kei, a third-year student from the Faculty of Social Sciences.
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