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The Blood Donor Award Ceremony 2010 was successfully held on 29th October at 4/F Grand Hall of Macau Tower Convention and Entertainment Centre. Dr. Cheong U, Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Dr. Lei Chin Ion, Director of Health Bureau, Dr. Cheang Seng Ip and Dr. Chan Wai Sin, Deputy Directors of Health Bureau, and Mr. Leong Weng Pan, Acting Deputy Director of Health Bureau attended the ceremony and presented awards to blood donors and supporting organizations. Other attending guests included: Senior-Colonel Li Huizhong, Director of Logistics Department of the Macao Garrison of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army; Mr. Li Zhengqiao, Vice Director of the Department of Culture and Education, Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Macao SAR; Mr. Cheong Iok Kuan, Acting Principal of Academy of Public Security Forces; Mr. José Tavares, Deputy Director of Macao Sports Development Board; Ms. Isabel Celeste Jorge, member of the Administration Committee of the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau; Ms. Van Iat Kio, Director of Kiang Wu Nursing College; Mr. Chan Kam Meng, President of Macau Federation of Trade Unions; and Mr. Pang Chap Chong, Coordinator of Academic Affairs Office, University of Macau. A total of 1,299 blood donors who have accumulated five donations or multiples of five donations throughout the year of 2009 were invited to the ceremony. Aside from the blood donors, representatives from 43 supporting organizations were also invited, the number of participants totaled 624. The blood donors who have accumulated the highest number of donations this year are Mr. Paulo Rosa Rodrigues with 104 donations and Ms. Wan Wai Wun with 65 donations. In 2009, a number of governmental entities, schools, organizations and associations have organized blood drives; to thank and commend them for their enthusiasm and support towards blood donation activities, the Blood Transfusion Service of the Health Bureau presented awards to the supporting organizations: PLA Macao Garrison with “Special Donation Award”; Macau University of Science and Technology and Institute for Tourism Studies with “Tertiary Institution Blood Donation Motivation Award”; University of Macau with “Tertiary Institution with the Highest Number of Blood Donors Award”; Chan Sui Ki Perpetual Help College with champion, Pui Ching Middle School with second place and Kao Ip Middle School with third place of “Secondary School with the Greatest Percentage of Blood Donors Award”; Hou Kong Middle School with “Secondary School with the Highest Number of Blood Donors Award”; The Workers’ Children High School, Ling Nam Secondary School, Yuet Wah College, Instituto Salesaino, Macau Baptist College and Kwong Tai Middle School with “School Blood Motivation Award”; Academy of Public Security Forces with champion, Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau with second place and Macao Customs with third place of “Government Department with the Highest Number of Blood Donors Award”; MGM Macau with champion, Kiang Wu Hospital with second place and Macao SLOT Co. Ltd with third place of “Organization with the Highest Number of Blood Donors Award”; PLA Macao Garrison and Pui Ching Middle School were awarded with “10 Year of Collaboration Award” and “20 Years of Collaboration Award” respectively. During the ceremony, “Excellent Volunteer Service Award” and “Best Volunteer Service Award” were also presented to volunteers of the Blood Donor Volunteer Corps who have contributed more than 100 and 150 service hours respectively to commend them for their effort dedicated to the Blood Transfusion Service and their assistance in promoting blood drives.
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The 47th Conference of Directors General of Civil Aviation, Asia and Pacific Regions (47th DGCA), hosted by the Civil Aviation Authority of Macao SAR (AACM), was concluded on 29 October 2010. The theme topic for the Conference was “Through the Turbulence, Working Together for the Recovery and Enhanced Development of Aviation”. In order to hold a productive discussion in face of the unprecedented growth of air transportation in the Asia and Pacific Regions, and aviation safety and sustainability, the States/Administrations held the Multilateral Meeting for Enhanced Cooperation and concluded the five-day discussions with the joint issuance of the Macao Statement in which they agreed to further enhance cooperation in aviation safety, aviation security, efficiency and sustainability. In addition, the Conference has increased the awareness of the overseas delegates on Macao’s aviation and tourism development. AACM also held informal side meetings with some of the States for the enhanced development of the air transport markets with these States. The world economy has started to recover. It is expected that the Asia Pacific Regions will grow at a rate above the world average. In view of the emerging powers of the Asian economy, the Asian aviation will see unprecedented growth. The States/Administrations, having reaffirmed that safety and security must remain the highest priorities of the aviation industry and while efficiency and sustainability will be essential elements in the course of development, agreed to conclude the discussions by jointly issuing the Macao Statement with the main content as follows: in aviation safety, the States/Administrations recognize the importance of establishing a coordination mechanism to enhance the regional safety performance based on the Global Aviation Safety Plan of International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO); in aviation security, in order to counter threats against civil aviation, the States/Administrations are committed to continue to strictly monitor the implementation of aviation security measures to assure compliance with international standards; in aviation efficiency, the States/Administrations, recognizing the development of modern technologies have resulted in saving flight time and fuel and thus contributing to the global environmental protection by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, will facilitate the global construction of a seamless air navigation environment and further render support to ICAO’s environmental activities. Apart from the Macao Statement, with the objective of enhancing the interconnection among States/Administrations, the 46th DGCA which was held last year in Osaka conducted the first “Multilateral Meeting for Enhanced Cooperation (MMEC)” to discuss how cooperation among themselves and communication with ICAO can further be enhanced. The discussions of last year concluded that the DGCA will be the cooperation platform for such desire; that the host State or Administration will be the coordinator on a one-year term to coordinate with the other member States and Administrations, ICAO Asia and Pacific Regional Office and the Montreal Group (composed by Asia and Pacific member States) on facilitation of technical and operational matters of mutual concern and interests relating to the Region with the aim of seeking inputs from States for ICAO Council discussions. In the 47th DGCA, the Conference agreed that Macao SAR, being the host administration of this year’s Conference, will act as the coordinator of MMEC in the coming year. In the 47th DGCA, AACM presented 6 papers with themes on air passenger traffic rights, implementation of voluntary incident reporting system, experience of Macao in participating in Universal Security Audit Programme, implementation of enhanced airfield markings in Macau International Airport, technical cooperation arrangement between the aeronautical authorities of mainland China and Macao, modernization of communication/navigation/surveillance, air traffic management and aerodrome facilities in Macao. The presentation of these papers have reinforced the awareness of the States/Administrations on the aviation development in Macao. AACM also took the opportunity of hosting this Conference to hold informal side meetings with Japan and India for further expanding the air transport markets with these countries. India has agreed to hold talks with Macao in the coming year to renew the bilateral Air Services Agreement. A cultural tour was organized as part of the programme of the 47th DGCA. The delegates were impressed with the East-Meet-West cultural characteristics, the hospitability of the Macao residents and the local food. More than 260 attendees from 33 states/administrations and 7 international organizations participated in the 47th DGCA.
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In the last 3 centuries humanity has evolved throughout time based in 3 Industrial Revolutions, each one of them powered by a key motor, the 1st initiated with the Steam Engine (James Watt-1763), followed by the 2nd started with the inventions of Electrical Power Generation (Michael Faraday-1831) and the Combustion Engine (Siegfried Marcus-1864), until the 3rd kicked-off with the discovery of the Transistor (John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley-1947) that really marked the commencement of what is now known as the Information Technology Revolution, led by continuous and fast developments in Electronics, Computing and Telecommunications. Current state-of-the-art and most well-known information technology platforms and gadgets are, the internet, the mobile phone, the personal computer, the video game console, the media player, the global positioning system (GPS), all of which having at their core electronic microchips. Every year in February the world-showcase for electronic microchips happens in San Francisco, and it is designated as the International Solid-State Circuits Conference – ISSCC, where the most advanced state-of-the-art circuits are presented by the top companies, in particular Intel, Sun Microsystems, Analog Devices, NEC, IBM, Texas Instruments, Samsung Electronics, Qualcomm, ST-Ericsson, Toshiba, Broadcom, Nokia, TSMC, and top universities, like MIT, Stanford U, University of Tokyo, National Taiwan University, UCLA, UC Berkeley, ETH Zurich, among others. ISSCC is co-organized by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and its Solid-State Circuits Society (SSCS). The conference applies a strict standard in selecting papers that must contain forcibly prototype chip results, taking half from industries and the other half from universities, with merely 30 percent acceptance rate from among the most advanced chips designed in the front-line of CMOS nanotechnology. Recently, it was known that UM through the research results of its Analog and Mixed-Signal VLSI Laboratory - AVLSI Lab had 2 of its state-of-the-art chips accepted for presentation in ISSCC 2011, in February, in San Francisco. These chips, described in 2 technical papers, contained a Receiver Front-End for a Full-Band Mobile TV and a 400MS/s Analog-to-Digital Converter for Radar and Satellite Communication Systems, both designed in advanced 65nm CMOS technology, with this one receiving additionally the Silk-Road Award for a Ph.D. student in an emerging country, from Asia, Australia and the Pacific. With this result when benchmarked with top universities in the world UM will be placed in the top 15 that comprises the National Taiwan University, KAIST (from South Korea), University of Tokyo, CMU, MIT, University of Twente (The Netherlands), etc. And, among the top 5 universities in China that ever presented their chips results at ISSCC, namely, together with HKUST, Fudan University, Tsinghua University and Chinese University of Hong Kong. This important achievement by the AVLSI Lab of UM comes at a crucial moment of its life when a proposal for the elevation to the National status of State-Key Lab Partner Lab, submitted through the Macao Science and Technology Development Fund (FDCT) is under top-level scrutiny in the country by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST), from the Chinese Government. Within this scope, UM and AVLSI Lab were visited in October 25 by Vice-Minister Dr. Jianlin Cao that witnessed in loco the above mentioned results through the observation of the chips designed, by the laboratory researchers, under a testing environment. Vice-Minister Dr. Jianlin Cao has also attended a presentation by UM Rector, Prof. Wei Zhao, that exhibited the latest developments in the university, in particular the fast development of research through the growing number of publications and citations in top journals and conferences, as indexed by the world-top ISI – Web of Science, as well as the New Campus Project, in Hengqin Island. Furthermore, the Vice-Minister visited also the Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences (ICMS) that is also under evaluation for the elevation to State Key Lab Partner Lab in the Chinese Medical Sciences area in a local partnership with MUST. In the end, Vice-Minister Jianlin Cao mentioned that his visit was quite positive allowing him to know better the current level of development of both laboratories, being also very useful for the final decision that will be taken soon.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that the total number of licensed vehicles reached 193,966 at the end of September 2010, a year-on-year increase of 4%, of which 54% (104,857) were motorcycles and 39% (75,386) were light private cars. New registration of motor vehicles decreased slightly by 0.1% year-on-year to 12,005 in the first nine months of 2010, with motorcycles and light private cars accounting for 58% and 38% respectively. From January to September 2010, total number of traffic accidents rose by 6% year-on-year to 9,831 cases, resulting in 3,953 victims and 6 of them were killed. Cross-border vehicle traffic by land between Macao and Mainland China increased by 8% year-on-year to 2,809,194 vehicle trips in the first three quarters of 2010, with vehicle traffic through the Border Gate taking up 83% of the total. Commercial flight movements at the Macao International Airport dropped by 6% year-on-year to 26,010 in the first nine months of 2010. The major routes were Taiwan, China (38% of total commercial flights); Mainland China (28%); Thailand (9%); and Malaysia (8%). Helicopter flights between Macao and Hong Kong decreased by 5% year-on-year to 11,116 while those between Macao and Mainland China had an increase of 12 flights to 2,466. Passenger transport by sea between Macao and Hong Kong totalled 90,081 ferry trips in the first nine moths of 2010, up by 9% year-on-year, with that of the Outer Harbour (65,596) and the Provisional Ferry Terminal in Taipa (24,485) sharing 73% and 27% of the total respectively. Ferry trips between Macao and Mainland China totalled 19,537, up by 23% year-on-year. From January to September 2010, seaborne container throughput increased by 2% year-on-year to 66,780 TEU, corresponding to 47,964 containers handled, similar to that of a year earlier. Gross weight of seaborne containerized cargo rose by 2% year-on-year to 133,485 tonnes, with 10,014 tonnes of transshipment goods. Gross weight of containerized cargo by land dropped by 18% to 34,701 tonnes, including 13,521 tonnes of transit goods. Outward air cargo grew by 28% year-on-year to 23,425 tonnes in the first three quarters of 2010. The main destination was Taiwan, China that accounted for 72% of the total. Concurrently, inward air cargo increased by 21% to 10,605 tonnes, with those from Taiwan, China taking a predominant share of 84%. However, transit air cargo fell significantly by 46% year-on-year to 4,738 tonnes. At the end of September 2010, number of mobile telephone users rose by 10% from a year earlier to 1,107,066 whereas fixed-line telephone users decreased by 2% to 169,054. As regards internet services, number of subscribers reached 163,830 and the cumulative duration of usage totalled 308 million hours in the first nine months of 2010, up by 19% and 24% respectively.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the value of total merchandise export for September 2010 decreased by 28.7% year-on-year to MOP496 million, with value of domestic exports falling by 21.2% to MOP181 million and that of re-exports dropping by 32.4% to MOP314 million. The value of total merchandise import amounted to MOP3.87 billion, up by 15.0% year-on-year. A trade deficit of MOP3.38 billion was recorded for September 2010. In the third quarter of 2010, total value of merchandise export (MOP1.66 billion) dropped by 11.6% year-on-year, but that of merchandise import (MOP11.50 billion) rose by 18.5%, resulting in a trade deficit of MOP9.84 billion. In the first nine months of 2010, total value of merchandise export fell by 8.4% year-on-year to MOP5.29 billion, of which the value of domestic exports declined by 26.5%, but that of re-exports expanded by 4.4%; meanwhile, total value of merchandise import grew by 19.7% to MOP31.89 billion. The trade deficit from January to September 2010 widened by 27.5% year-on-year to MOP26.61 billion; the exports/imports ratio went down by 5.1 percentage points year-on-year to 16.6%. Analyzed by destination of exported goods, in the first nine months of 2010, value of merchandise export to Hong Kong (MOP2.26 billion) rose by 5.0% year-on-year and that to Mainland China (MOP844 million) remained unchanged; value of exports to the USA (MOP626 million) and the EU (MOP306 million) decreased substantially by 43.5% and 40.7% respectively. Exports of Textile & garment amounted to MOP1.24 billion, down by 39.6% year-on-year to account for 23.5% of the total merchandise export; however, value of Non-textile exports (MOP4.04 billion) grew by 8.9%, with that of Copper & articles thereof and Clocks & watches rising notably by 60.9% and 51.3% respectively. Regarding the country of origin of imported goods, in the first nine months of 2010, value of merchandise import from Mainland China (MOP9.91 billion) and the EU (MOP7.02 billion) expanded by 17.2% and 26.8% respectively year-on-year. The value of imports of Consumer goods rose by 36.4% year-on-year, with that of Motor cars & motorcycles growing significantly by 94.1%; nevertheless, the value of imports of Capital goods and Raw materials & semi-manufactures fell by 4.3% and 0.8% respectively. From January to September 2010, total value of merchandise import and export amounted to MOP37.18 billion, up by 14.7% compared with MOP32.41 billion in the first nine months of 2009.
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A price check on canned foods and beverage items has been conducted by Consumer Council earlier (27th October). Stability in prices of canned food items is shown in this survey as six of the surveyed items record price drop and canned fish from mainland China and Portugal record a price decrease of about 10 per cent. Significant price drop is also observed in ‘Narcissus Brand Spiced Pork Cubes (142g)’, where prices are decreased by 15 per cent and 10 per cent respectively in two retail outlets. No price increase has been observed in the current survey on canned foods. For beverages, average prices of most products have dropped in the past three months. Only three items in the current survey record an increase in price, ‘Carlsberg All Malt Premium Beer (can)’ record a price rise of almost 10 per cent in two retail spots. Consumers are advised to check with the reports for the most updated prices in different retail stores to save time and money, for selling prices differ in various outlets. Prices of ‘Vita Lemon Tea (250ml x6)’, for example, vary significantly for over 90 per cent in the 22 surveyed retail spots. The Council will continue to monitor local price trend of both beverages and canned foods. The above-mentioned reports are now available online at the Council’s official website (http://www.consumer.gov.mo). For enquiries, please call 8988 9315.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the slow economic recovery and sluggish external demand caused the Value of Industrial Production & Other Receipts of Macao to post a protracted decline of 26.5% year-on-year to MOP10.69 billion in 2009. Gross Value Added that measures the sectoral contribution to the economy amounted to MOP3.18 billion, down by 11.4% year-on-year; besides, Intermediate Consumption decreased by 31.5% to MOP7.51 billion, and Gross Fixed Capital Formation fell by 32.3% to MOP993 million. In 2009, there were 1,008 establishments operating in industrial production, a decrease of 44 over 2008; total number of persons engaged dropped by 23.1% to 19,289. Value of Industrial Production of the Manufacturing sector amounted to MOP7.62 billion in 2009, down by 33.0% year-on-year. Manufacture of Wearing Apparel and Textiles, the two major traditional export-oriented industries slackened off, with Value of Production decreasing by 42.4% and 37.1% from 2008 to MOP3.53 billion and MOP1.03 billion respectively. On the contrary, Value of Production of some new emerging industries saw year-on-year increase, of which that of Manufacture of Food Products & Beverages rose by 5.9% to MOP672 million, and Publishing & Printing went up by 2.6% to MOP562 million. In addition, Gross Value Added of the Manufacturing sector dropped by 22.2% year-on-year to MOP1.67 billion, and Intermediate Consumption registered a decrease of 34.2%. Meanwhile, Value of Industrial Production of Electricity, Gas & Water Supply totalled MOP2.89 billion in 2009, down by 6.7% year-on-year; Intermediate Consumption dropped by 16.7% to MOP1.39 billion; while Gross Value Added rose by 4.9% to MOP1.50 billion.
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The Blood Donor Award Ceremony 2010 will be held on 29th October, at 7:30 p.m. at 4/F Grand Hall of Macau Tower Convention and Entertainment Centre. To express the MSAR Government’s respect and gratitude to blood donors and organizations, the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Cheong U and officials from the Health Bureau will attend the ceremony and present awards to them. A total of 1,299 blood donors who have accumulated five donations or multiples of five donations throughout the year of 2009 have been invited to the ceremony. 22 organizations and individuals who have made more than 30 donations will receive their awards on stage at the ceremony. Blood donors who have been invited to the ceremony are advised to attend the ceremony as scheduled with the invitation letter.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the unemployment rate for July-September 2010 remained unchanged from the previous period (June-August 2010) at 2.9%; the underemployment rate rose by 0.1 percentage point to 1.6%. Total labour force was 329,600 in July-September 2010 and the labour force participation rate stood at 71.8%, up by 0.4 percentage point from the previous period. The employed population increased by about 2,700 over the previous period to 320,200, in which employment of the Gaming Sector and Wholesale & Retail Trade saw increase, while that of Restaurants & Similar Activities registered a decrease. Number of the unemployed held stable at 9,400, with 19.0% being fresh labour force entrants searching for their first job, up by 1.8 percentage points over the previous period. In comparison with July-September 2009, the labour force participation rate, the unemployment rate and the underemployment rate decreased by 0.2, 0.8 and 0.4 percentage point respectively. In the third quarter of 2010, the unemployment rate of local residents stood at 3.5%, up by 0.1 percentage point quarter-to-quarter; meanwhile, the labour force participation rate of local residents rose by 0.2 percentage point to 67.3%.
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Coverage of the 2009 Service Sector Survey included Real Estate Management; Security Services; Cleaning Services; Advertising; and Conference & Exhibition Organizing Services. In 2009, there were 171 Real Estate Management establishments, an increase of 6 over 2008; number of persons engaged decreased by 8.2% to 4,525. Total Receipts amounted to MOP 844.75 million, down slightly by 0.9% year-on-year; Total Expenditure rose by 3.1% to MOP 659.72 million. Gross Value Added that measures the sectoral contribution to the economy was MOP 504.53 million, a year-on-year decrease of 8.2%; however, Gross Fixed Capital Formation surged by 9.8 times to MOP 40.65 million. Establishments of Security Services increased by 4 over 2008 to 15; number of persons engaged was 4,630, up by 20.4%, with 4,529 working in the 11 establishments with 100 or more workers. Total Receipts (MOP 603.08 million) and Total Expenditure (MOP 532.70 million) grew by 10.1% and 19.4% respectively year-on-year; in addition, Gross Value Added (MOP 489.00 million) increased by 2.6%, while Gross Fixed Capital Formation (MOP 3.40 million) decreased by 64.0%. Meanwhile, there were 96 establishments providing Cleaning Services, a decrease of 4 over 2008; number of persons engaged rose by 18.1% to 3,336. Analyzed by number of persons engaged, the 11 large-scale establishments (with 50 persons or more) had 2,403 workers (72.0% of total). Total Receipts and Total Expenditure stood at MOP 302.59 million and MOP 264.79 million, up by 9.5% and 10.2% respectively year-on-year. Gross Value Added increased by 9.1% year-on-year to MOP 244.96 million; Gross Fixed Capital Formation dropped by 8.4% to MOP 3.97 million. Number of Advertising agencies registered a year-on-year increase of 26 to 348 in 2009, engaging a total of 950 persons, down by 2.7%, with the percentage share of paid employees just accounted for 62.1% of the total persons engaged. Number of small establishments engaging with 5 or less workers totalled 312 (89.7% of total). Total Receipts rose by 8.8% year-on-year to MOP 333.84 million, of which receipts from advertising services amounted to MOP 199.46 million and receipts from conference & exhibition organizing services totalled MOP 120.46 million, up by 7.3% and 6.3% over 2008 respectively. Total Expenditure increased by 8.2% year-on-year to MOP 301.14 million. Gross Value Added totalled MOP 100.22 million, down by 2.6% year-on-year, while Gross Fixed Capital Formation rose by 25.9% to MOP 10.62 million. Establishments of Conference & Exhibition Organizing Services increased by 4 over 2008 to 20, engaging a total of 85 persons. Total Receipts grew by 45.7% year-on-year to MOP 76.79 million, with receipts from provision of conference & exhibition organizing services amounted to MOP 64.77 million, an increase of 30.2% over 2008; receipts from advertising services soared by 3.3 times to MOP 8.60 million. Total Expenditure increased by 53.5% year-on-year to MOP 74.76 million, with Compensation of Employees (MOP 12.93 million) rising notably by 102.4%. Gross Value Added stood at MOP 14.96 million, up by 44.0%; Gross Fixed Capital Formation decreased by 24.0% to MOP 273,000.
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