News

Heavenly Harmonies – Taoist Ritual Music in Macao, exhibition organized by Macao Museum under the Cultural Affairs Bureau, raised its curtain at Macao Museum yesterday (December 16th) at 6 pm, completing the ribbon-cutting ceremony with Zhang Xiaoguang, Deputy Director-General of Department of Culture and Education of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Macao Special Administrative Region, Jin Qian, Director-General of Department of General Affairs of the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China in the Macao Special Administrative Region, Ng Peng Chi, President of the Macao Taoist Association, Ung Vai Meng, President of the Cultural Affairs Bureau and Chan Ieng Hin, Director of the Macao Museum. During the ceremony, Macao Taoist Orchestra Association has especially presented a live demonstration performance on the Taoist ritual music, in order to provide a better understanding for the guests and the public on the music. The music played at the rites, namely “Taoist Fasts and Offerings Music” or “Taoist Ritual Music”, is part of the Taoist ceremony and a major component of the Chinese traditional music as well, featuring its strong local colour. The Macao Taoist Ritual Music is an integration of the music from the Zhengyi and Quanzhen School; meanwhile, Macao is the one which preserves the most Taoist songs compared to other Taoist temples in the region, amounting to 500. Therefore, the Taoist Ritual Music has become an element of Macao’s local intangible cultural heritage. In 2009, the Museum has already initiated the nomination of three items, namely the “Macao Taoist Ritual Music” (in the category of Traditional Music), the “Cantonese Naamyam (Singing and Narrative Songs)” (in the category of Quyi), and the “Festival of the Drunken Dragon” (in the category of Folk Customs) as the third batch of the National Intangible Cultural Heritage List, which has been approved by the vetting committee of experts, has passed the public comment period and is now waiting for the official declaration of the Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China. During the exhibition, exhibits related to Taoism are showcased, including music scores, books and journals in the field of Taoist ritual music study, instruments and classic books, which enables visitors to understand more of Taoism and its very way of expressing religion and promoting principles and doctrines. This exhibition aims at showing to the public the representative achievement of Macao’s local traditional music, spreading the message of the protection of the local intangible cultural heritage and making people realize the significance of the protection. The current outstanding achievements on salvaging, conserving, systemizing and studying this endangered traditional music are also displayed. Exhibits are mainly provided by Macao Taoist Association. The exhibition is held from December 17th, 2010 to March 20th, 2011. To tie in with the exhibition, the organizer has especially scheduled a themed seminar entitled The Value of Taoist Ritual Music to be held in the Macao Museum Auditorium on Saturday (December 18th) from 3 pm to 5 pm. Wang Zhongren, a former associate professor of Wuhan Conservatory of Music, has been invited to speak at the seminar. Interested parties may call 8394 1204 for reservation. In addition, the organizer has particularly arranged a concert performed by Macao Taoist Orchestra Association at the Main Hall of Macao Museum, on January 2nd, 2011, at 3:30 pm. Admission will be free for all visitors. For further information, please refer to Macao Museum’s website www.macaumuseum.gov.mo.
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To encourage Macao enterprises and non-profit making organisations to actively participate in MICE activities while optimizing the effect of promotion through products displays and establishing direct contacts with customers, Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM) started to provide exhibitions and trade fairs incentives enquiry and application services to local enterprises and non-profit making organsiations since 1995. The beneficiary organisations can obtain subsidies for the costs incurred during the participation of overseas exhibitions. The financial incentive application has been extended to benefit exhibitors of local exhibitions and fairs in August 2007. With the objective to optimize the measures on providing such financial incentives on a continual basis, and after collecting opinions from SMEs, IPIM has revised the “Regulations on Participation in IPIM’s Promotional Activities” (hereinafter referred as the Regulation) and will come into effect on 1 January. Revised contents include: streamlined application procedures, efficient document submission process, revised exhibition categorisation and the introduction of fixed-amount financial incentives to trade fairs. The new regulations enable applicants to have a better understanding of the application procedures, their respective rights and obligations as well as getting the approval results timely. (1) Streamlining application procedures and efficient document submission process.
To ensure applicants can obtain timely approval outcome, and make better preparation for the exhibition, the “Regulations” will adjust the day-counting mechanism from working days to consecutive days, applicants should submit a written application to IPIM no less than 45 days before the exhibition and the late submission of supporting documents should be made 30 days before the exhibition. The Regulation will also introduce a series of facilitation measures , eg. the submission of documents issued by Macao Financial Services Bureau - Professional tax - Nominal List of Employees and Wages-Earners -Form (M3/M4 Form), complimentary tax payment advise M5 and M6 form, Social Security Contribution are exempted. In addition, for enterprises and non-profit making organisations which may take part in exhibitions for more than once in the same financial year, documents such as the copies of the Declaration form of Start/Alteration of Activity of Industrial Contribution (M/1 Form) and Contribução Industrial – Conhecimento de cobrança (M/8 Form) issued by Macao Financial Services Bureau, and copies of Macao ID of shareholders will be exempted and can be replaced with a declaration, provided that these information have not been changed or updated within the same year. (2) Preferential arrangements granted respectively to exhibitions and trade fairs
Exhibitions– applicants may lodge an application for the cost of printed or audio-visual materials with the document proof of subsidy approval from IPIM in the same year.
Trade fairs – applicants must submit supporting documents at least 30 days before the exhibition. While the quotations may be submitted within the aforementioned period, or within 5 days after the approval notification is received. (3) Special Incentive for Macao Products
Furthermore, to cope with Macao SAR government’s policy of supporting the MICE industry, the Regulation will further lower the criteria for parties eligible for the subsidies and will provide extenuation for applicants not fulfilling the criteria of registration with Macao Financial Services Bureau for at least 2 years or at least 50% of the company shareholders are Macao residents (applicants should provide relevant supporting documents, e.g Certificate of origin and Trademark Registration) (4) Categorisation of incentive applications for exhibitions and trade fairs, incentive amount accumulation system on trade fairs
Starting from 1 January 2011, exhibitions with duration of at least 2 days are eligible for the application of financial incentives. The approval procedures of exhibitions and trade fairs subsidies will be classified into two categories, with the approval principles of exhibition remain unchanged. To enable applicants to have enough time for pre-exhibition preparation and get the approval results timely, review and evaluation for application of trade fair subsidies will adopt a fixed subsidy accumulation system in 2011. The maximum amount that each enterprises/entity may receive for each of the first two applications for trade fairs is MOP 5,000.00, with an accumulation of MOP 30,000.00 every year. In addition, IPIM will further optimize the settlement of subsidy payments by making use of standardized event reports, hence making reimbursement procedures more efficient. IPIM will continue to assess the effectiveness of the incentive measures by means of a questionnaire. The above contents are uploaded on IPIM’s website (www.ipim.gov.mo). The revision of the Regulations will come into effect on 1 January 2011.For more information, please contact Ms. Wong or Ms. Hoi of SME Service Center (Tel: 28728212; Email: smec@ipim.gov.mo). Free copies of the “Regulations on Partcipation in IPIM’s Promotional Activities” are also available at SME Service Center or Service Counter at Centro de Serviços da RAEM.
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‘Google Map’ has been added to Consumer Council’s website as a function to help consumers when checking information of its ‘Certified Shops’ & ‘Adherents’. Consumers are able to see the type of business, location and other information by clicking on the list of ‘Certified Shops’ & ‘Adherents’ on the Council’s website. The emblem of ‘Certified Shops’ & ‘Adherents’ has become a trusted one in local shopping industry. As of December 2010, there are currently 1,379 ‘Adherent’ shops covering most types of businesses in Macau and among which 1,261 shops have already been awarded the ‘Certified Shop’ emblem. The Council indicates that many consumers visit its website for checking information of its ‘Certified Shops’ & ‘Adherents’ prior to shopping. For consumers’ convenience, a ‘Google Map’ function has been added to the Council’s website to help consumers when checking details of the scheme members. When clicking the list of ‘Certified Shops’ & ‘Adherents’ on its official website, consumers are now able to see the type of business, shopfront picture, location and contact details of the searched ‘Certified Shops’ & ‘Adherents’. The just-added function will be running as a beta version and comments and suggestions from consumers are welcome for the Council to better its service. Further, the latest issue 207 of Consumer Report has been published. In this issue, the Council introduces its work plan for the coming year, including the enhancement of services provided by Consumer Arbitration Centre, the suggestion on the introduction of a regulation for product labeling, and the proposal for adding the number of days of ‘No Plastic Bag Day’. This issue also covers the new measures taken by the Administration on enhancing the transparency of the real estate market. Consumer Report is now available free of charge at the two offices of the Consumer Council, bookstores and libraries. Consumers may also access the resources online at the Council’s official website (http://www.consumer.gov.mo). For inquiries, please call 8988 9315. Consumer Council’s website: http://www.consumer.gov.mo
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The Monetary Authority of Macao announced today that the preliminary estimate of Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves amounted to MOP182.2 billion (USD22.78 billion) at the end of November 2010. The reserves rose by 4.1% from the revised value of MOP175.1 billion (USD21.92 billion) for the previous month. When compared with a year earlier, the reserves increased by MOP36.4 billion or 25.0%. Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves at end-November 2010 represented 35 times the currency in circulation or 271.2% of Pataca M2 at end-October 2010. The trade-weighted effective exchange rate index for the pataca, a gauge of the domestic currency’s exchange rates against the currencies of Macao’s major trading partners, rose by 0.14 points month-to-month and 0.24 points year-on-year to 89.03 in November 2010. For enquiry, please contact:
Research and Statistics Department, Monetary Authority of Macao (Tel: 83952532; Fax: 28353042)
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Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT) has the honour of inviting culinary expert of the Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Arts Schools to feature again the “Le Cordon Bleu Master Chef Week at IFT”. Chef de Cuisine Patrick Terrien will visit Macao to showcase his expertise in “French Authentic Regional Cuisine Culinary Art” - the theme of this month’s programme. Le Cordon Bleu, one of the leading schools for teaching classical French cuisine, patisserie and boulangerie, was founded in Paris, France in 1895. Over the last century, Le Cordon Bleu has evolved from a cooking school to an international network of 29 international schools across 5 continents, in the area of culinary arts and hospitality institutes, maintaining at the same time the highest standards of culinary excellence. Chef Patrick Terrien joined the prestigious team of Le Cordon Bleu chefs since 1989, has many year of experience in the industry having worked with the world renowned chef, Joël Robucho, his own restaurant in the City of Tours which was awarded one Michelin Star. During his visit in Macao, Chef Terrien will demonstrate the culinary skill of French regional cuisine, including Normandy, Alsace, Provence, Preigord Cuisine and dessert of Loire Valley, Brittany, Basque Country and Ile-De-France areas. Chef Terrien aims to offer participants an exclusive gastronomic programme and introduce them to a sense-awaking experience of superb dishes throughout this one week French Master Chef Programme. Special cross-over like this is an example of IFT’s endeavour to bring in new culinary elements to Macao and to encourage ideas exchange with international prestigious institutions. Through this it is believed that the local arts in culinary will be enhanced to a new level. The “LE CORDON BLEU Master Chef Week at IFT” will take place from 14 till 18 December, including a tutorial on conceptual knowledge and cooking demo, also featuring set lunch for selected programmes, followed by cooking practicum. Details can be found on www.ift.edu.mo or call 85983 016/041 for enquiry.
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The Macao SAR Government has held a discussion with the Russian Federation Delegation led by Mr. Andrey Karlov, Director of the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on 7 December 2010 in regard to the text of the mutual visa exemption agreement. Consensus was met after the meeting and the agreement is expected to be concluded in 2011.
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From December 7 until 5p.m. of December 13, the Cross-departmental Working Team sealed two more premise suspected to provide accommodation illegally. A managing staff was seized on site. Since the law on "Prohibition of Providing Illegal Accommodation" took effect on August 13, Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO) has waged a total of 93 sanctions, among which two sanction proceedings have been completed and two operators who provided accommodation illegally were fined 200 000 patacas. Other cases are in different stages of sanction proceedings. Since the Cross-departmental Working Team started operations, to date, 1,143 premise-checks were conducted, involving 759 premises, of which 93 premises suspected to provide accommodation illegally were sealed, while 116 were normal residences. Ensuing investigations on the rest of the premises have been launched. Among the checked premises, some were vacant or unoccupied. Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO) and the Public Security Police Force (PSP) will continue investigation on unanswered doors, which are suspected to be used to provide accommodation illegally. Meanwhile, during investigations to other cases, PSP has found 19 premises suspected to provide accommodation illegally and informed the Cross-departmental Working Team to handle the cases. To date, the operations involved 927 occupants, among whom 421 were occupants of premises suspected to provide accommodation illegally and were investigated, including 19 overstayers and 15 illegal immigrants. 14 operators, 13 touts, 14 persons who managed the premises that provide accommodation illegally (managing staff) and six occupants who failed to fulfill their duty of cooperation were seized on site. MGTO has begun sanction proceedings on offenders according to the law on "Prohibition of Providing Illegal Accommodation". If the two operators who provided accommodation illegally, who were fined 200 000 patacas, do not pay within the statutory period, the Financial Services Bureau will enforce the collection of fine. Meanwhile, the six occupants who failed to fulfill their duty of cooperation were fined 3 000 patacas each, among which three have paid the fine. For those who fail to pay the fine within the statutory period, MGTO has notified the Financial Services Bureau to enforce the collection of fine and informed PSP that the involved persons should pay the fine or their reentry into Macau will be denied. According to the law, operators and persons who manage the premises that provide accommodation illegally (management staff) incur a penalty of up to 800 000 patacas, touts can be fined up to 100 000 patacas, persons who fail to cooperate can be fined up to 20 000 patacas and occupants who fail to cooperate are fined 3 000 patacas. Following the raid to premises suspected to provide accommodation illegally, MGTO began sanction proceedings on involved operators, touts and managing staff, and adopted provisional measures to cut the supply of water and electricity to the concerned premises and sealed the doors. Public can also call 2833 3000 to report suspected premises.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that visitor arrivals in package tours increased by 4.2% year-on-year to 396,310 in October 2010. In comparison with October 2009, visitors from Mainland China (274,805), Hong Kong (21,283), Japan (17,745) and Republic of Korea (11,794) rose by 3.8%, 8.2%, 5.0% and 194.9% respectively. In addition, visitors in package tour from Malaysia (8,995) and India (7,506) also registered remarkable increase; however, those from Taiwan, China (22,056) decreased by 11.9%. In the first ten months of 2010, visitor arrivals in package tours went up by 30.2% year-on-year to 4,770,216. In October 2010, Macao residents travelling outbound in package tours rose by 21.2% year-on-year to 19,383, with Mainland China (78.1% of total); Taiwan, China (5.4%); Republic of Korea (3.7%) and Thailand (3.2%) being the most popular tour itineraries. In the first ten months of 2010, residents travelling in package tours totalled 206,214, up by 28.3% year-on-year. Meanwhile, outbound residents travelling under own arrangements using services of travel agencies fell slightly by 0.3% year-on-year to 46,426 and the main destinations were Hong Kong (31.4% of total); Mainland China (26.7%); Taiwan, China (17.3%) and Thailand (9.1%). In the first ten months of 2010, outbound residents travelling under such arrangements increased by 8.7% year-on-year to 408,997. At the end of October 2010, total number of available guest rooms of the hotel sector increased by 1,359 (+7.3%) year-on-year to 19,849 rooms. A total of 628,773 guests checked into hotels and guest-houses in October 2010, up by 8.2% year-on-year, with the majority coming from Mainland China (50.5% of total) and Hong Kong (21.9%). The average occupancy rate of hotels and guest-houses stood at 78.4%, up by 4.6 percentage points year-on-year; average occupancy rate of hotels was 79.0%, with 4-star hotels leading at 80.5%. The average length of stay of guests went up by 0.01 night to 1.5 nights. Number of guests reached 6,368,709 in the first ten months of 2010, up by 18.2% over the same period of 2009. In the first ten months of 2010, visitor-guests of hotels and guest-houses accounted for 60.6% of the total number of tourists, down from 61.0% in the same period of 2009.
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Organized by the Legal and Judicial Training Centre the “Regulatory Impact Assessment and Legislative Elaboration” Workshop begins on Monday, December 13, at 4:00pm in the Auditorium of Economic Services of the Macao SAR, Rua Dr. Pedro José Lobo n.° 1 - 3, Luso International Bank Building, 7th floor. This workshop will feature the following guest speakers: 1. Dr. António Pedro da Fonseca Delicado, Legal Adviser in the Justice Policy Directorate General of the Ministry of Justice, Portugal; 2. Dra. Paula Cristina Meira Lourenço, Assistant at the University of Lisbon Faculty of Law, Portugal. The objective of this workshop is to reinforce the practical knowledge of all practitioners in the legal field on the production of normative legal acts. During the five daily sessions, taking place from 4:00pm to 6:00pm, till this coming December 17th, the following areas will be discussed: 1) Guidelines for formal and legislative material drafting; 2) The drafter of legal instrument(s), information and the team / institutional development models; 3) Preliminary and continuous regulatory impact analysis of legal instruments; 4) Public consultations and relations with stakeholders; 5) Common problems and pitfalls on drafting legislations. This action will be conducted in Portuguese, with simultaneous translation into Cantonese, and has about 81 participants enrolled. The 2nd EU-Macao Co-operation Programme in the Legal Field, extending until December 2012, which embodies this workshop, has the “Consolidation of the Macao Legal System” as its main objective. The total budget for the programme is 1.500.000 euros (approximately 16.500.000 patacas), this programme is co-financed by the European Union and the Macao Foundation, with the remaining costs being supported by the MSAR’s budget. The execution of the Co-operation Programme is coordinated by the International Law Office (GADI), with the participation of several other MSAR’s entities and public departments, namely, the Legal and Judicial Training Centre (CFJJ), the Legal Affairs Bureau (DSAJ), the Economic Services (DSE), the Financial Services Bureau (DSF) and the Institute of European Studies of Macau (IEEM).
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The Macau Business Tourism Centre (MBTC) of the Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO), together with its Japan Representation Office, participated in the 20th International Meetings Expo (IME2010) held at the Tokyo International Forum on December 7-8 to showcase the exciting MICE (Meeting, Incentive, Conference and Exhibition) developments of the recent Macau, as well as to work collaboratively with the Industry to build a stronger presence of Macau’s MICE products at similar events around the globe. Six hotel representatives from Macau joined MBTC to co-exhibit at the IME2010. The International Meetings Expo is the only major MICE tradeshow for meetings and incentive travel held in Japan once every year since 1990. The event is co-organized by the Ministry of Land Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Japan National Tourist Organization and Japan Congress and Convention Bureau, in hope of promoting MICE as one of the growing sector in Japan. Expecting 3,000 selected key organizers and planners will be participating in the IME2010, it is considered as an ideal networking platform for MBTC and suppliers from Macau to get in touch and create business relationships with the international MICE buyers and sellers. The Macau pavilion was the largest in terms of exhibition space out of 63 exhibiters in the trade show, drawing lots of potential event planners’ and organizers’ attention and requests for more information about having incentive tours in Macau. Mr. Fumihiro Sakakibara, General Manager of MGTO-Japan said during the trade show, “We have put great efforts in establishing the brand of Macau as a destination of World Heritage with multiple tourism products to the leisure market, and therefore we expect that the Japanese incentive tours to Macau will reach almost half of the total number of the tourists from Japan this year. We also believe that the MICE sector will become more important to Macau in the future. I understand that Macau still needs to reform and enhance the destination management; however, we believe that a variety of accommodations will further enable event organizers to choose Macau as a preferred MICE destination. Nevertheless, infinite capacity of accommodation will be one of the greatest charms of Macau.” He added, “The Macau pavilion was the most impressive pavilion among all the exhibitors in the IME. We do not only highlight the presence of Macau to the visitors but also the exhibitors. We believe such basic promotional activities will bring success in the near future”. Taking this opportunity, MGTO conducted two seminars on Macau’s MICE development on December 9 and 10 in Tokyo and in Osaka respectively. The seminars brought together 100 key agents in Japan, which were well received by the participants and their response to the program was very positive.
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