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The Chief Executive, Mr Edmund Ho Hau Wah, congratulated Mr Chui Sai On today for his election as the Third-term Chief Executive-elect, according to a press release published by the Macao SAR Government. Mr Ho said that the Macao SAR Government would collaborate with Mr Chui in forming the new government and guarantee a smooth transition. The current government would also create the best environment and conditions for the new government, Mr Ho said. The election demonstrated the successful implementation of the principles of “One country, two systems”, “Macao people governing Macao” and “a high degree of autonomy”. He also expressed his gratitude for the Electoral Affairs Committee for the Election of the Chief Executive for the successful organisation of the election.
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The Third-term Chief Executive Election of the Macao SAR will be held at the Macao East Asian Games Dome at 10:00, 26th July. Members of the 300-member Election Committee will cast their votes and elect the Third-term Chief Executive. In accordance with the Chief Executive Election Law, the candidate should obtain more than 150 votes to be elected as the Third-term Chief Executive. The election will be broadcast live on the website of the Chief Executive Election (http://www.ece.gov.mo) and Government Portal Website (http://www.gov.mo). Teledifusão de Macao and Radio Macau will also carry live broadcasts of the election.
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In the business world, sales of products can be directly influenced by pricing. Therefore, a correct pricing strategy is very important to increase revenue efficiency. Institute For Tourism Studies, Macao (IFT) and Cornell-Nanyang Institute of Hospitality Management (CNI) co-organised an Executive Development Programme in “Strategic Pricing for Hotels: Leveraging Consumer and Marketing Knowledge to Enhance Revenue” on 23 and 24 July to probe into the subject. The course format involved class discussion, case studies, lecture and simple mathematical analysis. The following topics were discussed: · What is price and how to change prices
· Components of value and how to improve the perceptions of value in order to earn higher prices
· How to use consumer research to determine consumers’ willingness to pay
· Consumer psychology and decision making and how firms can use this knowledge to make better pricing decisions
· How to understand market positioning and the competitive framework within which the firm operates Dr. Shoemaker is the Donald Hubbs Distinguished Professor and Associate Dean of Research of the University of Houston’s Conrad Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management. He holds a PhD from Cornell University in the School of Hotel Administration. Dr. Shoemaker teaches Strategic Pricing for Hotels: Leveraging Consumer and Marketing Knowledge to Enhance Revenue, Customer Relationship Management and Frequency Marketing, Strategic Marketing for Hotels and Restaurants, and Customer Attitudes and Behaviours. His research interests include the antecedents and consequences of consumer loyalty, loyalty programs, and strategic pricing and revenue management. Prior to moving to the University of Houston, Dr. Shoemaker taught at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Courses taught include strategy, basic statistics, consumer behaviour, research methods, multivariate statistics, and services marketing. His research has won numerous awards, and has appeared in the Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, Journal of Travel Research, Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administrative Quarterly, International Journal of Hospitality Management, International Gaming and Wagering Business, Journal of Restaurant and Foodservice Marketing, and Harvard Business School Case Study. He has also published two textbooks on hospitality marketing and is currently working on a third textbook for Prentice Hall with a working title of Pricing and Revenue Management in Service Industry. This is the third Executive Development Programme (EDP) co-hosted by the IFT and CNI. In March 2008, IFT and CNI co-organised a two-day EDP on “Revenue Management”. These programmes have received great support from the industry. Senior executives from over 20 establishments from the hotel, tourism, finance and education sectors participated in the programmes. To provide more diversified training to the industry, IFT and CNI co-organised the EDP to allow the participants to learn techniques in increasing revenue by better understanding customers’ consumption behaviour and how to incorporate pricing decisions into the overall strategy of the firm.
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The distribution under 2009 Wealth Partaking Scheme of Macao Special Administrative Region was launched in the middle of May this year and it proceeded smoothly after 10 weeks of implementation. Holders of valid or renewable Macao SAR identity cards as at 31st December 2008 are beneficiaries of the Wealth Partaking Scheme, i.e., every Macao SAR permanent and non-permanent resident can be granted 6,000 patacas and 3,600 patacas respectively. During the months of May and June, the SAR government paid the cash premium by bank transfer to 82,063 people, among which 18,592 are beneficiaries of financial assistance from the Social Welfare Bureau, teaching staffs receiving direct subsidy as well as students in tertiary education receiving student aid from the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau (Student Benefits Fund), 39,009 persons receiving subsidy for senior citizens, 24,462 civil servants, retired civil servants receiving retirement pension and other persons receiving survivor pension. The remaining others received their crossed cheques by post during ten weeks from 18th May to 24th July, according to the age group. Ever since the implementation of the Scheme for 2009 until 20th July, the SAR government posted 464,742 cheques. Among which, a total of 8,106 cheques were recalled after delivery due to various reasons. Until now, 4,701 cheques remained undelivered and are kept in the Identification Affairs Bureau of which 3,874 of them have been claimed. Citizens can claim their cheques from the Bureau within the three-year cash period. 297,342 number of cheques were cashed, representing 64% of the total. To assist the implementation of this Scheme, a Support Centre for Wealth Partaking Disbursement was set up. Since its establishment in May, a total of 29,342 enquiries were entertained, of which 15,113 were handled by telephone, while personal visits accounted for 13,788 and 441 people used email. Notwithstanding the disbursement of 2009 Wealth Partaking Scheme came to an end, the Support Centre will remain in service until 30th August 2009. Any assistance and enquiries related to the Scheme can be put through by calling the hotline no. 2822 5000. The opening hours of the Centre are 7 days a week (except public holiday), 09:00 am to 18:00 pm (no lunch break). The success of the cash disbursement relied on the support, help and coordination of different sectors. In view of this, the SAR government expressed sincere gratitude to various associations, banks and different sectors of the community for their efforts made.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that the total number of visitor and non-resident arrivals was 2,030,708 in June 2009. Continuously affected by the adverse impact of the human swine influenza pandemic, visitor arrivals for June 2009 decreased by 15.9% year-on-year to 1,458,105. Analysed by place of residence, visitors from Mainland China were 680,894 (46.7% of total visitor arrivals), a year-on-year decrease of 21.7%, with 232,161 travelling to Macao under the Individual Visit Scheme, down drastically by 51.0% from June 2008 (473,734). Visitors from Hong Kong (492,000); Taiwan, China (89,374); Malaysia (24,937) and Singapore (24,323) also decreased by 4.2%, 19.9%, 29.4% and 2.7% respectively. Same-day visitors (779,004) accounted for 53.4% of the total visitor arrivals, with 392,698 coming from Mainland China. The cumulative visitor arrivals totalled 10,370,979 in the first half year of 2009, down by 11.4% year-on-year. Visitors from Mainland China (5,127,933); Hong Kong (3,326,335), Taiwan, China (617,545) and Malaysia (161,079) decreased by 17.3%, 0.3%, 8.1% and 30.1% respectively, while those from Japan (169,127) registered slight increase of 1.4%. Cumulative number of same-day visitors accounted for 53.7% of the total visitor arrivals, at 5,570,981. Analysed by mode of transport, visitor arrivals by sea totalled 4,185,160 in the first semester of 2009, down by 5.0% year-on-year. Visitors arriving at the Outer Harbour decreased by 26.8% to 2,874,213, but those arriving at the Provisional Ferry Terminal in Taipa surged by 332.0% to 1,169,283. Visitor arrivals by land dropped by 16.0% year-on-year to 5,429,028 in the first six months of 2009; those arriving through the Border Gate totalled 5,046,318 and the majority were visitors from Mainland China (76.1%) and Hong Kong (15.5%). Visitor arrivals by air went down by 9.2% year-on-year to 756,791 in the first half year of 2009. Visitors arriving at the Macao International Airport decreased by 9.1% to 742,676, with the majority coming from Taiwan, China (38.4%) and Mainland China (23.6%).
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Macau Government Tourist Office supports Macau Pass S.A. to launch a special edition of MACAUpass bus cards featuring Macau’s world heritage sites. The first batch of MACAUpass bus cards comes in the design of Guia Fortress and will be available for sale at the Macau Pass Customer Service Center and convenience stores within the tourism district from July 25. “The launch of bus cards featuring world heritage sites by MACAUpass helps to boost the promotion of world heritage in Macau. Being a wonderful souvenir for visitors and commemorative collection for Macau citizens, the bus card serves as a strong tool in tourism promotion and social education”, expressed Director of MGTO João Manuel Costa Antunes. As a gesture of support, MGTO will purchase a number of the world heritage edition of MACAUpass bus cards for promotional purpose. MACAUpass will launch more versions of the bus card featuring world heritage sites, packaged in limited sets of five cards, and an ordinary edition of a single card for visitors and Macau citizens, available at the Macau Pass Customer Service Center and convenience stores within the tourism district near world heritage sites. For details of MACAUpass, please visit http://www.macaupass.com.mo/
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To resolve the Lehman Brothers Mini-bond Series incident at an earlier date in the best interests of all parties concerned, this Authority has been, together with our Macao distributors, endeavouring in all respects culminating in settlements between some affected investors and distributors. The 16 Hong Kong distributor banks have now unanimously agreed to repurchase these investment instruments from eligible investors. The repurchase proceeds will be equivalent to 60% or 70%, as the case may be, of originally invested capital. In the event that the realized value of the collaterals involved differs from the proceeds arising from aforementioned calculations, investors will be entitled to additional sums according to proposal. The 4 Macao distributor banks of the Lehman Brothers Mini-bond Series have agreed to follow suit. Investors who have come to terms with the banks shall be entitled to the difference between the amounts they have received and the amounts stipulated in the proposal. The banks involved will liaise with clients shortly with a view to arranging the repurchase. This Authority welcomes the proposal and the proactive action of our Macao distributor banks and deems that it has fully taken into consideration the interests of both the banks and investors involved and looks forward to a smooth implementation of the proposal.
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Macao today reported three new Influenza A (H1N1) cases, bringing the total number of such cases to 139. One of the infected patients was a doctor who worked for the emergency room division of Hospital Conde S. Januário. Before developing flu symptoms, the doctor had meals with a friend who had flu symptoms. It was uncertain whether the doctor had contracted the virus at work or by other source, the Health Bureau announced. Due to the extensive contact with a great number of patients every day, medical staff might still contract the virus even the most stringent protective measures were adopted, the Bureau said. The two other cases were classified as imported cases. To date Macao had reported 139 Influenza A (H1N1) cases, with 25 patients receiving treatment. Six patients had recovered and were discharged from hospital today, taking the total number of discharged patients to 100. Macao’s pandemic alert remained at Level VI, Blue, which indicated that there were no fatal cases and the spread of the virus was moderate.
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Macao today reported six imported and three local Influenza A (H1N1) cases, bringing the total number of such cases to 136. The nine new cases were four male and five females aged between 6 and 33. Among the three local cases, two were Judiciary Police officers. To date the total number of infected officers was 13. The third local case was the son of one of the infected officers. To date Macao had reported 136 Influenza A (H1N1) cases, with 31 patients receiving treatment. Four patients had recovered and were discharged from hospital today, taking the total number of discharged patients to 94. Macao’s pandemic alert remained at Level VI, Blue, which indicated that there were no fatal cases and the spread of the virus was moderate.
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Three more Judiciary Police officers were infected with the Influenza A (H1N1) virus, taking the total number of infected police officers to 11. They were among six new cases reported today, taking the total number of such cases to 127. The new cases – three male and three female – were aged between eight and 42. Twenty-eight patients were receiving treatment and all of them were in fair and stable condition. Four patients had recovered and were discharged from hospital today, taking the total number of discharged patients to 90. Macao’s pandemic alert remained at Level VI, Blue, which indicated that there were no fatal cases and the spread of the virus was moderate.
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