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A total of 6,850 cases were received by Consumer Council in 2011, 1,689 were complaints, 4,987 were inquiries and the rest of 147 cases were suggestions from consumers. Telecommunication services marked the top category among the almost 1,700 complaints received by the Council, and over half of the 261 complaints under this category involved mobile phone services. Among those complaints, 60% involved price issues such as roaming charges and data fees, as consumers were not aware of new charges levied by telecommunication service operators after the discounted price offered in their contracts expired. Telecommunication service operators have been informed regarding this phenomenon and requested to state clearly their service plans details as well as their terms and conditions, reminders about contract expiration are also needed to be sent to consumers. Telecommunication equipment and supplies marked the second top category with 158 complaints, 98 cases of which involved quality, price, and after-sales service of mobile phones; the number of cases had increased by 7% compared to last year's statistics. Number of complaints regarding photographic equipment supplies had also increased by 7% in 2011. Another category with the most complaints was food and beverage. In comparison with last year's figures, the number of complaints received (149 cases) in 2011 has increased by 45% due to the salt incident and insufficient supply of infant formula happened in 2011. Other categories with notable increase in the number of complaints were tourism, personal hygienic services and products, entertainment, medicine and Chinese herbal medicine, and food and beverage. The number of complaints of all the above categories have increased by 70% to 100% compared to last year's figures. For group buying, the Council only received 9 complaint cases in 2011 and all were about the cessation of business of Macao Dragon. Consumer Council indicated that the number of complaints in public transport category boomed to around 1,400 cases in 2010 due to Viva Macau's shut down, and Viva Macau alone accounted for almost 1,200 cases in 2010. Aside from Viva Macau, the number of complaints and inquiries during these two years has changed just lightly. Tourist cases accounted for around 22% of total complaints. Among the 380 cases received from tourists, 206 involved telecommunication equipment and supplies, watches and clocks, food and beverage, photographic equipment and clothing and apparel.
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To celebrate the Year of the Dragon with Hong Kong travel trade, business partners and media friends, Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO) hosted a spring luncheon in Conrad Hong Kong Hotel today (3 Feb) to thank them for their continuous support to the tourism industry of Macau. João Manuel Costa Antunes, Director of MGTO, led the delegation to join the Spring Luncheon. Over 200 guests from local travel trade, business partners and media were present, including Commissioner for Tourism of the Hong Kong SAR Government, Philip Yung, Director of Asia Tourism Exchange Centre, Xu Hui Fang, Deputy Executive Director of Hong Kong Tourism Board, Daisy Lam and Chairman of Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong, Michael Wu. In his welcome remarks, Director Costa Antunes expressed his New Year blessings and gratitude to local trade partners and media for their efforts in making 2011 a satisfying year for the tourism industry of Macau. The number of visitor arrivals to Macau in 2011 reached 28 million, representing an increase of 12.2% over 2010. Hong Kong constituted the second largest visitor generating market of Macau. Over 7.5 million Hong Kong visitors traveled to Macau last year. In the Year of the Dragon, MGTO aims to build Macau the World Center of Tourism and Leisure with efforts in various areas: promotion of the diversified tourism products in Macau under the theme "Touching Moments Experience Macau", improvement on tourism legislation and industry management to establish a quality tourism image, and consolidation of tourism product mix to create the atmosphere for leisure tourism. In line with the promotion strategies of MGTO, the Representative in Hong Kong will carry out promotional activities targeting different market segments, in addition to product presentations, luncheons, thematic familiarization tours, seminars, roadshows and trade visits etc, to enhance the communication and collaboration with trade partners and the media.
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Consumer Council released its January's specific price survey on cooking oil. In comparison with data from the previous survey conducted two months earlier, most surveyed products recorded different levels of increase or slight decrease in price, only 5 of the surveyed items recorded no change in price. In the current survey, 'Vecorn 100% Pure Corn Oil (3.5L)' recorded the most significant price rise while 'Lion & Globe Pure Olive Oil (500ml)' had a drastic price discrepancy. The Council conducted the latest survey on 31st January, surveying 23 samples of cooking oil from 22 local retail outlets. Over half of the surveyed items recorded increase in price, significant price increase was observed in 'Vecorn 100% Pure Corn Oil (3.5L)', which showed a price increase of 6% to over 45% in 4 retail outlets. Price of 'Mazola Corn Oil (3.5L)' had also increased by around 10% in 5 outlets while all 3 products of 'Lion & Globe' brand recorded a price increase of around 1% to 10%. For those which had decreased in price, the percentage ranged from 1% to 15%. In the current survey, a general price difference of 10% to 30 % was observed for the same product sold in different outlets. The highest difference recorded this time was found in 'Lion & Globe Pure Olive Oil (500ml)' in which the lowest and highest selling price differed for over 100%; 'Tripod Brand Top Quality Corn Oil (2L)', however, recorded only a price gap of less than 5%, 3 other items also had a price gap of less than 10%. Consumers are advised to check with the price survey prior to making consumption. The specific price survey on cooking oil is now available online on the Council's official website (www.consumer.gov.mo).
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the average daily wage of construction workers increased by 2.5% quarter-to-quarter to MOP583 in the fourth quarter of 2011. The average daily wage of skilled & semi-skilled workers (MOP593) rose by 2.1%, and that of unskilled workers (MOP366) went up by 0.8%. Analyzed by occupations, average daily wages of electricians & electrical workers (MOP627) and carpenters (MOP526) increased by 11.4% and 2.1% respectively over the previous quarter; however, wage of structural iron erectors (MOP617) decreased by 8.0%. After discounting the effect of inflation, wage index of construction workers was 90.5 in real terms, down by 1.6% quarter-to-quarter. For the whole year of 2011, the average wage index of construction workers (92.6) decreased by 4.0% over 2010 in real terms. As regards construction materials, price increase tapered off in the fourth quarter of 2011. The increment of the average price of concrete dropped from 16.1% in the third quarter to 0.5% in the fourth quarter, at MOP406 per cubic metre; that of spiral & round reinforcing steel bars also fell from 3.8% to 1.5%, at MOP6,141 per tonne. The price index of construction materials for residential buildings rose slightly by 0.3% quarter-to-quarter to 119.6 in the fourth quarter of 2011; in particular, price indices of steel and ceramic paving & wall tiles both increased by 1.6%, while price indice of electric wire went down by 3.0%. Compared with the same quarter of 2010, price index of construction materials for residential buildings registered an increase of 15.3%. In 2011, the average price index of construction materials for residential buildings (116.0) increased by 16.0% year-on-year.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that total merchandise export for December 2011 amounted to MOP734 million, up by 35.9% year-on-year; value of re-exports (MOP509 million) and domestic exports (MOP225 million) increased by 50.7% and 11.1% respectively. Total merchandise import amounted to MOP6.44 billion, up by 41.6% year-on-year, of which imports of Mobile phones and Gold jewellery soared by 109.1% and 106.0% respectively. Merchandise trade deficit amounted to MOP5.70 billion in December 2011. In the fourth quarter of 2011, total value of merchandise export (MOP1.92 billion) increased by 14.6% year-on-year, and that of merchandise import (MOP17.88 billion) rose by 44.7%, resulting in a trade deficit of MOP15.97 billion. For the whole year of 2011, total value of merchandise export increased slightly by 0.2% year-on-year to MOP6.97 billion, the first rebound since 2006; meanwhile, total value of merchandise import grew by 41.2% to MOP62.29 billion. Merchandise trade deficit widened by 48.9% year-on-year to MOP55.32 billion in 2011; the exports/imports ratio dropped by 4.6 percentage points year-on-year to 11.2%. Merchandise export to Hong Kong (MOP3.11 billion) in 2011 increased by 3.5%, but that to Mainland China (MOP1.10 billion) and the USA (MOP556 million) decreased by 0.4% and 28.9% respectively year-on-year. Exports of Textile & garment declined by 17.7% to MOP1.34 billion; exports of Non-textile (MOP5.63 billion) increased by 5.6%, of which exports of Tobacco & wine (MOP670 million) and Machines & apparatus, parts & accessories thereof (MOP628 million) grew by 42.4% and 39.8% respectively. In 2011, merchandise import from Mainland China (MOP19.12 billion) and the EU (MOP15.51 billion) expanded by 39.4% and 55.7% respectively year-on-year. Imports of Consumer goods rose by 46.6% to MOP38.48 billion, with imports of Food & beverages (MOP8.58 billion), Gold jewellery (MOP6.66 billion) and Handbags & wallets (MOP3.50 billion) increasing by 33.7%, 99.7% and 114.8% respectively. Moreover, imports of Capital goods (MOP10.92 billion) registered year-on-year increase of 57.1%. For the whole year of 2011, total value of external merchandise trade amounted to MOP69.26 billion, up by 35.6% compared with MOP51.08 billion in 2010.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that the total number of licensed motor vehicles reached 206,349 at the end of 2011, a year-on-year increase of 5%, of which motorcycles (111,198) and light private cars (81,014) accounted for 54% and 39% of the total respectively. New registration of motor vehicles went up by 11% year-on-year to 17,702 in 2011, with motorcycles and light private cars sharing 53% and 40% respectively. For the whole year of 2011, number of traffic accidents rose by 7% year-on-year to 14,102 cases, resulting in 5,517 victims and 12 of them were killed. Cross-border vehicle traffic by land between Macao and Mainland China increased by 8% year-on-year to 4,135,910 vehicle trips in 2011, of which vehicle traffic through the Border Gate accounted for 82%. Commercial flight movements at the Macao International Airport increased by 2% year-on-year to 35,404 in 2011, with Mainland China (34% of total); Taiwan, China (32%) and Thailand (9%) being the major routes. Helicopter flights between Macao and Hong Kong (16,299) and between Macao and Mainland China (3,671) recorded increases of 7% and 6% respectively. Passenger transport by sea between Macao and Hong Kong totalled 120,854 ferry trips in 2011, down by 445 year-on-year. Concurrently, ferry trips between Macao and Mainland China decreased by 3% year-on-year to 25,206. For the whole year of 2011, seaborne container throughput totalled 101,989 TEU or 75,129 containers handled, up by 12% and 14% respectively year-on-year. Gross weight of seaborne containerized cargo increased by 3% year-on-year to 182,959 tonnes, with 4,667 tonnes of transshipment goods. Gross weight of containerized cargo by land decreased by 23% to 35,093 tonnes, including 10,534 tonnes of transit goods. In 2011, outward air cargo (24,950 tonnes) and inward air cargo (9,826 tonnes) fell by 23% and 28% respectively, with that to and from Taiwan, China sharing 78% each. Meanwhile, transit air cargo decreased by 24% year-on-year to 4,748 tonnes. At the end of 2011, number of mobile telephone users increased by 21% from a year earlier to 1,353,194, whereas fixed-line telephone users decreased by 1% to 166,310. As regards internet services, number of subscribers reached 209,223 and the cumulative duration of usage totalled 528 million hours in 2011, up by 23% and 25% respectively.
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Owing to the strike action taken by the air transport workers in Italy, Macao Post announced that mail delivery services (including Correspondence, Printed Matters, Small Packet and Parcel) from Macao to Italy are subject to delay until further notice. Thank you for your kind attention.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the unemployment rate for October-December 2011 was 2.1%, down by 0.2 percentage point over the previous period (September-November 2011); the underemployment rate also decreased by 0.2 percentage point to 0.9%. Total labour force was 347,000 in October-December 2011 and the labour force participation rate stood at 72.9%, up by 0.4 percentage point from the previous period. Total employment was 340,000, up notably by 3,300 over the previous period. Analyzed by industry, employment of the Gaming Sector and the Hotel Sector saw increase, while that of Restaurants & Similar Activities and Retail Trade registered decrease. Number of the unemployed decreased by 600 from the previous period to 7,400, with 12.4% being fresh labour force entrants searching for their first job, down by 2.9 percentage points over the previous period. In the fourth quarter of 2011, total labour force increased by 2,900 quarter-to-quarter, with total employment registering an increase of 4,400; meanwhile, number of the underemployed and the unemployed decreased by 600 and 1,500 respectively quarter-to-quarter. The unemployment rate for the fourth quarter of 2011 dropped by 0.5 percentage point from 2.6% in the third quarter, and the unemployment rate of local residents decreased by 0.6 percentage point to 2.7%. Median monthly employment earnings of the employed held stable as the third quarter, at MOP10,000; median earnings of local residents amounted to MOP12,000 in the fourth quarter, up by MOP1,000 quarter-to-quarter. For the whole year of 2011, the unemployment rate was 2.5% and the unemployment rate of local residents was 3.2%, both down by 0.3 percentage point over 2010.
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Consumer Council published its issue no. 220 of Consumer Report. A survey on the deductible of private vehicle legal liabilities insurance, and test result of the test on quality of bottled water are both included in this issue. Consumer Council endeavours to provide comprehensive information to consumers for making daily consumption. There are currently over 200,000 motor vehicles in Macao and information about car insurance is important to more than hundreds of thousands of consumers. A survey was conducted by the Council on the policies taken by insurance companies and their amount of deductible for private vehicle legal liabilities insurance, and the survey is divided into two parts: private car and motorbike. According to responses from various insurance companies, deductible is determined by insurance companies based on the following criteria: background information of the insured party, such as age and record of car accidents, brand, model, and age of the insured vehicle. The survey revealed that the deductible under general circumstances is about MOP1,000, however, there is a wide difference between the minimum and maximum deductible. Insurance companies were also asked if they refuse to offer coverage for certain consumers. According to the responses, some insurance companies do not accept those cars which are considered as sports cars, other criteria such as age, profession, driving experiences, record of car accidents, record of accidental claims, age of the insured vehicle, and car model are all factors affecting the approval of coverage of the insured person. Consumers may refer to the latest issue no. 220 Consumer Report for the mentioned third party legal liability insurance survey and related information about choosing car insurance. Consumer Council and Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau (IACM) have agreed to spot-check the quality of bottled water as an annual collaboration project. The two departments recently spot-checked 12 samples of mineral water and distilled water for their hygienic condition, all samples tested were satisfactory and complied with the Health Bureau's regulations. Test result is published in the new Consumer Report.
Consumer Report is now available free of charge at the office of Consumer Council (Rua Inácio Baptista, Nº 6-6A Edficio Seaview Garden R/C), and the service counter of Consumer Council at Macao SAR Government Service Centre (Rua Nova da Areia Preta, Nº52), Public Information Centre at Vicky Plaza and libraries. Consumers may also access the resources online at the Council's official website (http://www.consumer.gov.mo). For enquiries, please call 8988 9315.
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As a new year comes around and everything looks fresh and cheerful, Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO) wishes all residents and visitors good health and prosperity in the Year of the Dragon, and that the tourism industry of Macau would continue to develop and diversify, building the city into a world center of tourism and leisure. Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO) and the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau (IACM) jointly organize celebratory activities on the first day of Lunar New Year (Jan 23) at the Ruins of St. Paul's and Senado Square to mark the spring festival. Visitor arrivals to Macau surpassed 28 million last year, registering an increase of 12.2% over 2010. Close to 25 million visitors were from the Greater China region, with a growth of 13.5% while the number of international visitors rose by 2.2%. As Lunar New Year is a peak season for visitors from the Mainland and nearby region to celebrate this important festival in Macau and many international visitors also choose to experience traditional celebrations here, MGTO and IACM take this opportunity to express New Year greetings to residents and hospitality to visitors. On the first morning of Lunar New Year, joined by representatives of the travel trade, Director of MGTO João Manuel Costa Antunes, President of IACM, Raymond Tam, Deputy Directors of MGTO Helena Fernandes and Manuel Pires hosted the eye-dotting ceremony of the golden dragon and lions at the Ruins of St. Paul's and lit firecrackers at Senado Square to mark the celebrations. Guests then teamed up with the God of Fortune to greet the public and distribute "Lai Si" and souvenirs to residents and visitors. "Lai Si" distributed by the God of Fortune bestowed good luck and fortune for the Year of the Dragon. Performance by dance troupe from the Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region also added colors to the joy. A 238-meter long golden dragon lead a parade through major tourist spots. The vibrant dragon and lion dances signal Macau to be as energetic and spirited as these noble creatures in the Year of the Dragon. Dragon symbolizes dignity and success and these characteristics encourage Macau's residents to strive for accomplishment and work hand in hand for the betterment of Macau. In keeping with tradition, lucky "Lai Si" containing phrase of blessing will be distributed at MGTO counters during Lunar New Year while stock lasts. A splendid fireworks display organized by MGTO will light up the sky of Macau to usher in the Year of the Dragon. From 9pm on the first day of the Lunar New Year, about 20,000 pyrotechnic shells will be fired from 4 barges at the sea area in front of the Macau Tower and the Kun Iam Ecumenical Centre for around 30 minutes. The display, with the theme "Blessing", will comprise eight different scenes: Prosperity, Happiness, Harmony, Hope, Bright Future, Solidarity and Happy Reunion. Crowds of residents and visitors are expected to gather along the waterfront to enjoy the dazzling fireworks display which marks a good beginning for the Year of the Dragon. The Lunar New Year celebrations are held on the first and second day of the Lunar New Year. Details of the activities are available on the website of MGTO http://www.macautourism.gov.mo During Lunar New Year, MGTO's "Tourism Hotline 2833 3000" maintains its 24-hour operator service to answer tourists' enquiries.
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