News

Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO) hosted the "Macau Tourism Seminar" in Wuhan and Changsha to increase visitations to Macau from the neighboring regions and cities along the high-speed railway line between Beijing and Guangzhou. Following the seminars, the office attended "China (Guangdong) International Tourism Industry Expo 2013" to promote Macau's attractions and positioning as a World Centre of Tourism and Leisure. Co-organized by MGTO and China International Travel Service (Macau) Ltd., "Macau Tourism Seminar" was held in Wuhan and Changsha on August 28 and 29 respectively. Head of Destination Marketing Department of MGTO, Betty Fok attended the seminars together with MGTO's team members and Macau industry delegates. Head of Marketing Division of Hunan Provincial Tourism Bureau, Gong Tie Jun, Deputy Director-General of Changsha Municipal Tourism Administration, Chen Wei and Head of Market Development Division of Tourism Administration of Wuhan Municipality, Xu Tie Zhu joined the tourism seminars in Wuhan and Changsha respectively. During the seminars in Wuhan and Changsha, MGTO promoted Macau tourism resources and high-speed rail tours to local trade partners, hoping to ride on the convenience of Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed rail line and enchant more visitors to Macau from the neighboring regions and cities along the rail route. After the seminars, the office hosted banquets to facilitate business networking between the tourism trade partners from Macau and the Mainland. On the other hand, "China (Guangdong) International Tourism Industry Expo 2013" will be held in China Import and Export Fair Complex in Guangzhou as a three-day event from August 30 to September 1. Betty Fok and the MGTO team will participate in the expo along with 10 business representatives ranging from various hotels, travel agencies, travel exhibition companies to ferry operators in Macau. The office will run a 90-square-meter booth under the theme "Touching Moments．Experience Macau" to showcase two spectacular highlights this year, namely the 25th Macau International Fireworks Display Contest and the 60th Macau Grand Prix. Macau travel tips and promotional materials will be offered at the booth, whereas Macau trade delegates will discuss business opportunities with local industry partners. Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau will also set up a joint booth in the event to promote the three destinations' tourism resources and multi-destination tours among domestic and overseas buyers. MGTO hopes that their participation in the expo can facilitate Macau travel trade's connection with their Mainland and international counterparts, while it will be an occasion to promote Macau's attractions and positioning as a World Centre of Tourism and Leisure among local trade and citizens, drawing visitors to come and experience Macau's unique gems of the East and West cultures as well as her festive ambience.
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Consumer Council conducted its specific price survey on instant drinks on 27th August for the implementation of Section 2b), Article 10, Law 4/95/M of 12th 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. For inquiry, please call the Council's hotline: 8988 9315.
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To meet the increased demand in air transport resulting from the travelling peak at summer time, the Civil Aviation Authority (AACM) approved a total of 47 extra and charter flight services to 7 cities in mainland China, Japan, Republic of Korea and Vietnam in this summer, which were applied by Air Macau. The approval of these flights has allowed the air operator to provide more seats during this peak season to meet the great market demand. Apart from the public air transport, the private and business aviation movement has also gone up by a two-digit rise in this summer. July and August mark the long vacation in a year. Family travelling reaches its annual peak in these two months. Like people elsewhere, the residents in Macao also take the opportunity to enjoy their outbound travels in this period, the number of which increases year on year. To meet the high demand in both inbound and outbound travels, AACM approved the application for 47 extra and charter flights submitted by Air Macau for this summer allowing them to operate 28 services to Hanoi, 5 to Muan, 5 to Pusan, 3 to Okinawa, 2 to Matsuyam and 2 to Guiyang. "The SAR Government has always adopted the liberal air transport policies to make it easy for both local and foreign carriers to do business here," said AACM. Provided that safety operation is guaranteed, AACM will put public interest first in assessing and approving the flight applications. Therefore, during the travelling peak times in a year, AACM always attends to the application for extra and charter flights by local and foreign airlines and grants them the required capacity, in order that the travelling public will not be bothered by the difficulty in arranging air tickets during the high demand periods. In addition to public air transport, the promising development of the gaming industry in Macao has continued to attract high end tourists to visit our city. As a result, the private and business jet flights have continued to grow. The first seven months of 2013 reported a total of 774 movements, an increase of 13% compared to last year; the summer traffic was encouraging with the July movement reported to be 115, a rise of 24% compared to the same month last year.
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Delegates of Office of the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture and Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO) attended the latest session of the UNWTO General Assembly launched in Africa this week and participated in the panel discussion of the Sustainable Tourism – Eliminating Poverty Forum ("ST-EP Forum") as part of the program. The 20th Session of the UNWTO General Assembly is held at Victoria Falls on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe during 24 and 29 August. Advisor of Office of the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Lam Wan Nei, Head of Organizational Planning and Development Department of MGTO, Cheng Wai Tong and Head of Communication and External Relations Department, Kathy Iong, etc. attended a series of highlighted events during the assembly. During the ST-EP Forum on 27 August, Advisor of Office of the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Lam Wan Nei, on behalf of the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, delivered a speech on the topic – "10 Years of ST-EP Initiative: Turning Tourism into an Engine for Socio-Economic Growth". The Macau delegates also attended the Ministerial Roundtable, the Commission for East Asia and the Pacific, among other activities in the program. Having become an associate member of UNWTO since 1981, Macau has actively participated in the related conferences. In 2004, MGTO joined the UNWTO ST-EP Program as one of the pioneer members. The program serves to create development and employment opportunities for poor countries through boosting sustainable tourism development.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that more people were looking for work during the Summer Holiday, causing the unemployment rate for May-July 2013 to increase slightly by 0.1 percentage point from April-June, at 1.9%; the underemployment rate held stable at 0.7%. Total labour force was 366,000 in May-July 2013 and the labour force participation rate stood at 72.6%. Total employment reached 359,000, up by 1,900 from the previous period. Analysed by industry, employment in the Construction sector posed a marked increase of 1,500. Number of the unemployed was 7,000, up by 500 from April-June; fresh labour force entrants searching for their first job accounted for 10.2% of the total unemployed, an increase of 4.9 percentage points. In comparison with May-July 2012, the labour force participation rate rose by 0.4 percentage points, while the unemployment rate and the underemployment rate dropped by 0.1 and 0.2 percentage points respectively.
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The Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) released survey results of Manpower Needs and Wages for the second quarter of 2013. Survey coverage comprised Wholesale & Retail Trade; Transport, Storage & Communications; Security Activities and Public Sewage & Refuse Disposal Activities, excluding own-account workers. At the end of the second quarter of 2013, Wholesale & Retail Trade had 42,643 persons engaged, up by 13.8% year-on-year, with 26,840 working in Retail trade. In June 2013, average earnings (excluding bonuses and allowances) of full-time employees rose by 6.4% year-on-year to MOP11,060, with Sales representatives and Salespersons earning MOP12,570 and MOP10,080 respectively in average. Transport, Storage & Communications had 9,119 persons engaged, up by 7.9% year-on-year. In June, average earnings of full-time employees increased by 4.6% year-on-year to MOP17,210. Drivers of passenger/cargo transport by land earned an average of MOP18,200. Security Activities had 5,329 persons engaged, up by 6.3% year-on-year. The average earnings of full-time employees in June rose by 4.3% year-on-year to MOP8,740, with Security guards earning MOP8,250 in average. Public Sewage & Refuse Disposal Activities had 732 persons engaged, up by 4.9% year-on-year. The average earnings of full-time employees in June increased by 16.5% year-on-year to MOP14,120. At the end of the second quarter of 2013, Wholesale & Retail Trade reported 3,809 vacancies, down by 1,017 year-on-year, of which 2,656 were in Retail trade. Security Activities had 665 vacancies, down by 127, while Transport, Storage & Communications offered 770 vacant posts. In terms of recruitment prerequisites, 69.2% of the vacancies in Public Sewage & Refuse Disposal Activities required work experience. 88.0% of the vacancies in Security activities required junior secondary education or lower respectively, while 41.8% of those in Retail Trade required senior secondary or higher education. Besides Cantonese, knowledge of Mandarin and English was respectively required in 88.9% and 55.8% of the vacancies in Retail Trade. In the second quarter of 2013, the employee turnover rate (6.6%) and the employee recruitment rate (9.1%) of Retail trade fell by 2.4 and 0.7 percentage points year-on-year respectively; in addition, the vacancy rate (10.8%) also fell by 4.8 percentage points, indicating that the outflow of human resources showed improvement but vacancies were still not filled. Moreover, the vacancy rate in Security activities remained high at 11.5%.
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Consumer Council released its 'Supermarket Price Survey' of August. When comparing the data collected in July, 32 percent of 341 on-shelf products recorded a price decrease, 27.5 percent of the products remained no change in price; while 40.5 percent of the products had recorded an increase in price. The overall price increases were from below 1 to 2 percent. Consumer Council conducted the latest 'Supermarket Price Survey' dated 20th August. In comparison with the 341 products surveyed in July, prices of 109 on-shelf products had been decreased and these items included seasonings and bottled water. Many surveyed cooking oil brands recorded price decreases from 1 to 5 percent. 138 on-shelf products which recorded price increases of around 1 to 5 percent were items such as canned foods, snacks, dairy products and toothpastes. 94 on-shelf products in the recent survey had remained no change in price, and when compared to the previous survey, 14 more items had recorded no price change this time. The current survey reviewed that prices of most staple foods remained stable. The Council also analyzed the numbers of lowest price products available in the 15 supermarkets surveyed. Tai Fung supermarket Taipa branch recorded the most numbers of lowest price items in which 101 items at that branch recorded the lowest price among all surveyed supermarkets. Tai Fung supermarket at R. Chiu Chau ranked the second, with 92 of its on-shelf items having the lowest price, and the third place went to Cidade San Miu supermarket with 55 of its on-shelf items being recorded with the lowest price. Starting from June, consumers can make price comparison in a more convenient way by accessing to the function of 'Lowest Price in Town' of the 'Supermarket Price Information Platform' iPhone and Android apps where they can browse the latest numbers of lowest price products found in the 15 surveyed supermarkets Among the 4 supermarket chains surveyed, selling prices were found to vary in different branches in different regions and price discrepancies were observed again in branches of San Miu and Tai Fung supermarkets. Around the 220 on-shelf items sold in both Tai Fung supermarket Taipa branch and R. Chiu Chau branch, 55 percent of the products were found to have a price discrepancy of over 10 percent, and the items were mainly canned foods and dairy products. Over half of the 250 on-shelf items sold in both San Miu supermarket R. dos Mercadores branch and Cidade branch were found to have price discrepancies, with percentage differences of 5 percent to over 15 percent. From around the 260 on-shelf products sold in both Royal supermarket S. Lourenco branch and Sun Star Plaza branch, 23 products were found to have price discrepancies of over 5 to 10 percent. 10 percent of the on-shelf products sold in Park'n Shop branches located at R. Areia Preta and Sun Star Plaza were found to have price discrepancies and the items were mainly beverages and snacks. Consumers are advised to check with the information available on the Council's website (www.consumer.gov.mo), especially the function of 'Top Ten Price Differences'. Consumers can also download the 'Supermarket Price Information Platform' iPhone and Android apps to make price comparisons. 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. Consumers may also access the resources through WAP channels on their mobile phones. For enquiry, please call 8988 9315.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that value of retail sales for the second quarter of 2013 totalled MOP 15.77 billion, a slight increase compared with the revised figure (MOP 15.71 billion) of the first quarter of 2013. Retail sales of Watches, Clocks & Jewellery amounted to MOP 5.48 billion (35% of total), which was followed by retail sales of Goods in Department Stores (13%), Leather Goods (10%), Adults' Clothing (9%) and Goods in Supermarkets (6%). Value of retail sales for the second quarter of 2013 increased by 23% year-on-year, with marked increase being observed in sales of Cosmetics & Sanitary Articles (+44%), Watches, Clocks & Jewellery (+33%), Adults' Clothing (+28%) and Leather Goods (+27%). Value of retail sales for the first half year of 2013 reached MOP 31.48 billion, up by 21% year-on-year; sales of Watches, Clocks & Jewellery amounted to MOP 10.14 billion, accounting for 32% of the total. After removing the effect of price changes, volume of retail sales for the second quarter of 2013 increased by 23% year-on-year, with notable increase in sales of Watches, Clocks & Jewellery (+41%), Cosmetics & Sanitary Articles (+40%) and Leather Goods (+30%). Meanwhile, volume of retail sales increased by 1% quarter-to-quarter, of which sales of Watches, Clocks & Jewellery (+27%) saw significant increase; on the contrary, sales of Footwear; Motorcycles, Parts & Accessories; and Motor Vehicles decreased by 21%, 19% and 17% respectively. Volume of retail sales for the first half year of 2013 increased by 20% year-on-year. In respect of the comments of the retailers, about 58% stated that sales volume in the second quarter of 2013 increased or held stable over the previous quarter, up by 2 percentage points compared with those holding the same sentiment in the first quarter of 2013, while 42% reported decrease in sales volume. In terms of the retail prices, about 62% reported stable prices, 20% stated an increase and 18% noted a decrease. In comparison with the same quarter of 2012, about 74% expressed that the stock level was normal in the second quarter of 2013, while 12% indicated that the stock level was low. As regards business outlook for the third quarter of 2013, about 18% anticipate that sales volume will increase from the second quarter, 58% expect sales volume to remain stable, while 24% expect a decrease. Concurrently, about 69% predict stable retail prices, 22% expect an increase, while 9% predict a decrease in retail prices.
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September marks the beginning of a new academic year. The Education and Youth Affairs Bureau (DSEJ) lays stress on the preparatory work of the new academic year. It has communicated with relevant governmental departments and urges school leaders and parents to keep an eye on the traffic arrangements, so that everything can go smoothly on the first day of the new academic year. At the same time, as Teachers' Day is approaching, the DSEJ expresses its best wishes to all teaching staff. To ensure a smooth start to the new academic year, the DSEJ has been working closely with relevant governmental departments and education associations. It has also asked school leaders to handle students' late arrivals due to traffic congestion in a proper and flexible manner. As the traffic is expected to be busier at the beginning of the new academic year, the DSEJ urges parents and students to leave home earlier and get familiar with the road conditions in advance, as well as to pay close attention to the announcements by the authorities related to road use situations and public transport arrangements. It is advised that parents and students decide the route to school in advance. If students are going to go to school by school bus, they are advised to ask the school or school bus driver for the bus route of the first day of school. Given that September is still the rainy and typhoon season, the DSEJ urges parents to follow closely the news by the Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau. If classes need to be suspended on the first day of school due to rainstorm or tropical cyclone, parents should ask their children to stay at home. In addition, the DSEJ and the Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau will pay close attention to the weather conditions at the beginning of the new school year. It will also release related news on radio, television, the DSEJ website (http://www.dsej.gov.mo) and the DSEJ website for smartphones (m.dsej.gov.mo). On the other hand, the DSEJ urges students, parents and schools to take all necessary preventive measures against influenza and to pay attention to personal hygiene. If students have fallen sick, they should not go to school, but should go to see the doctor at once and rest at home. The DSEJ has given instructions on preventive measures against infectious disease to schools through the School Operation Guidelines, so that schools can know how to prevent disease by taking necessary measures, such as cleaning the campus thoroughly, etc. The DSEJ also encourages schools to take part in the School Infectious Diseases Sentinel Surveillance Programme implemented by the Health Bureau, so that they can identity and control any collective infections as early as possible. If there are any cases found, schools should immediately contact the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention of the Health Bureau at 28700800. To enable residents to receive the most updated news of the DSEJ on their mobile phones, the DSEJ will launch a mobile application in the new academic year so that students, parents and schools can know about the news and other important information through the application, such as information about school admissions, tertiary grants and class arrangements due to rainstorm or tropical cyclone, etc. In the academic year 2013/2014, there will be 77 schools in total in Macao, one less than the number of the previous year. The total number of students continues to decrease, with it expected to be around 71,797, down by 2.7% year-on-year. Among the total number of students, there are 69,895 formal education students and 1,902 recurrent education students. Contrary to the declining number of students, there is an increase in the total number of teachers. The number is expected to be around 6,529, up by 4% compared to that of the previous year. The teacher-student ratio and class-teacher ratio of formal education are 1:11.2 and 1:2.5 respectively. Compared to the ratios of the previous year, the teacher-student ratio has dropped by 6.4% and the class-teacher ratio has risen by 2%. With the implementation of small class teaching in recent years, the average number of students per class of formal education has dropped to 28.6, down by 3.3% year-on-year. Adhering to the principle of "letting Macao thrive through education", the DSEJ will continue to work closely with schools and parents in the new academic year and create a better environment in which students can grow and develop healthily.
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Two projects have been selected for the 14th Cultural Affairs Bureau Academic Research Grants supported by the Macao Special Administrative Region. The Cultural Affairs Bureau Academic Research Grants are aimed at supporting academic research projects in the field of Humanities that make a significant and original contribution to the understanding of Macao and of Macao's role in the cultural exchange between East and West. The following projects were chosen out of the applications received between December 1, 2012 and May 31, 2013: 1. A Study on Macao's Chinese Affairs Office during the late Qing Dynasty, by Zhang Tingmao, Ph.D in History from Jinan University, China, where he is currently professor and Ph.D advisor. 2. A Study on the Portuguese-Chinese and Chinese-Portuguese Bilingual Dictionaries Elaborated in Macao by Sinologist Joaquim Afonso Gonçalves in the 19th Century, by Wang Mingyu, Ph.D in Literature from the University of Ritsumeikan, Japan and currently assistant professor at the Department of Chinese of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Macao. For more information on the Cultural Affairs Bureau Academic Research Grants, please visit the Cultural Affairs Bureau's website at www.icm.gov.mo.
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