News

The Office of the Chief Executive today assured the people that the nuclear power plants accidents in Japan following last week's devastating earthquakes and tsunami had no direct impact on Macao. But the crisis could last for a certain time and Macao would be watching the situation closely and keep citizens informed of the latest developments, a statement from the Office said. The statement was issued after the Chief Executive, Mr Chui Sai On, convened a meeting with his top officials. Officials who attended the meeting included the Secretary for Security, Mr Cheong Kuoc Va, the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Mr Cheong U, the Secretary for Transport and Public Works, Mr Lau Si Io, the Chief-of-Cabinet of the Office of the Chief Executive, Mr Tam Chon Weng, the Secretary-General of the Executive Council and Advisor of the Office of the Chief Executive, Ms O Lam, the Director of Government Information Bureau, Mr Chan Chi Ping, the Director of Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau, Mr Fong Soi Kun, the Commissioner of Fire Services Bureau, Mr Ma Io Weng, the President of Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau, Mr Tam Vai Man, the Director of Health Bureau, Mr Lei Chin Ion, and the Acting Director of Macau Government Tourist Office, Mr Manuel Gonçalves Pires Júnior. Mr Chui convened the meeting this morning to evaluate the effects of the radiation leakages in relations to Macao. Officials reported what they have done so far and gave their assessments to the Chief Executive. The statement following the meeting said the leakages had no direct impact on Macao to date, but that the crisis could last for a certain period. Mr Chui stressed that the Government would do its utmost to deal with the situation and he called on the public to stay calm and pay attention to information released by the authorities. He had instructed all related government agencies to make the necessary preparation to ensure public health and ordered the Fire Services Bureau and Health Bureau to activate the radiation screening equipment at Macau International Airport. He said the Government was aware of the rumours about radiation and the authorities would keep on releasing information to arrest the rumours. Meanwhile the Government would keep on with its current measures, such as: - Health Bureau provide radiation screening on a voluntary basis to those returning from Japan; - Tourism Crisis Management Office operate 24-hour a day to assist travellers;
- Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau monitor the radiation level in Macao; and - Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau inspect for food imports from Japan. The Government would activate its civil defense mechanism if necessary, the statement said.
…

Upon the radiation leak occurred at Fukushima Prefecture Nuclear Power Plant No. 1 in Japan, the Macao Meteorological Bureau has been monitoring closely for any alteration of the radiation level in Macao and so far no abnormalities has been discovered. At the same time, the World Meteorological Organization has already activated its Environmental Emergency Response operation. According to the latest forecasts conducted today (17th) by the two Regional Specialized Meteorological Centres including Beijing and Tokyo, nuclear radiation will mainly affect the eastern part of Japan and the Northern Pacific to the east of Japan for the next two days. Thus this nuclear incident is still not expected to affect Macao directly and we are still safe from that. According to the monitoring data of Gamma Radiation recorded for the past 24 hours (16th March 16:01 till 17th March 16:00) by the Taipa Grande Station of the Macao Meteorological Bureau, the Gamma-ray absorbed dose rate per minute ranges between 0.1178 and 0.1309μGy/h (micro Gray / hour) which is far more below the warning level of 0.35μGy/h. Besides, the radiation level in Macao has always been within the normal level with no abnormalities found since the very beginning of this incident. The Macao Meteorological Bureau will continue to pay close attention to this nuclear incident in Japan and monitor for any possible impact on Macao. If any abnormalities being discovered, we will release related message to the public immediately and inform relevant government departments to adopt relative contingency measures.
…

Upon the series of Nuclear Power incidents occurred at Fukushima Prefecture Nuclear Power Plant No. 1 in Japan, the Macao Meteorological Bureau has been monitoring closely for any alteration of the radiation level in Macao and so far no abnormalities has been discovered. At the same time, the World Meteorological Organization has already activated its Environmental Emergency Response operation. According to the latest forecasts conducted today (17th) by the two Regional Specialized Meteorological Centres including Beijing and Tokyo, areas affected by nuclear radiation for the next two days are still limited to the eastern part of Japan and the Northern Pacific to the east of Japan. Thus this nuclear incident is not expected to affect Macao directly and we are still safe from that. According to the monitoring data of Gamma Radiation recorded for the past 24 hours (16th March 10:01 till 17th March 10:00) by the Taipa Grande Station of the Macao Meteorological Bureau, the Gamma-ray absorbed dose rate per minute ranges between 0.1178 and 0.1318μGy/h (micro Gray / hour) which is far more below the warning level of 0.35μGy/h. Besides, the radiation level in Macao has always been within the normal level with no abnormalities found since the very beginning of this incident. The Macao Meteorological Bureau will continue to pay close attention to this nuclear incident and monitor for any possible impact on Macao. If any abnormalities being discovered, we will release related message to the public immediately and inform relevant government departments to adopt relative contingency measures.
…

The Chief Executive, Mr Chui Sai On, visited Hengqin this morning to learn more about the construction of the University of Macau's new campus and the planning of the Chinese medicine industrial park. According to a statement by the Office of the Chief Executive, Mr Chui held a working meeting with the Secretary of CPC Zhuhai Municipal Committee, Mr Gan Lin, on implementing the Guangdong-Macao Framework Agreement. During the meeting, Mr Chui said the Macao Government would implement the content of the framework agreement in order to build Macao into a global leisure hub and diversify its industries portfolio. He said both Macao and Guangdong had agreed to focus on co-operation in the Chinese medicine industrial park, cultural industry, tourism personnel training and convention and exhibition industry, and that they would discuss their follow-up work in a high-level meeting next month. Mr Gan said the implementation of the framework agreement and development of Hengqin by the joint efforts of Guangdong and Macao would help diversity Macao's economic spectrum. He said the construction of the new university campus would be completed by the end of next year. Macao and Zhuhai had set up a working mechanism to follow up on the construction of Chinese medicine industrial park and this could be an example for their co-operation in other areas, he said. Mr Hui Yongzheng, the former Deputy Ministry of the Ministry of Science and Technology and now an advisor of Macao's Science and Technology Council, explained his thoughts on the industrial park. After the meeting, they visited the sites of the new campus and industrial park. Mr Chui was accompanied by the Secretary for Economy for Finance, Mr Tam Pak Yuen, the Secretary for Transport and Public Works, Mr Lau Si Io, the Chief-of-Cabinet of the Office of the Chief Executive, Mr Tam Chon Weng, the Secretary-General of the Executive Council and Advisor of the Office of the Chief Executive, Ms O Lam, Advisors of the Office of the Chief Executive, Mr Fung Sio Weng and Mr Kou Chin Hung, Advisor of the Office of the Secretary for Economy and Finance, Ms Leong Wai Leng, Advisor of the Office of the Secretary for Transport and Public Works, Mr Cheong Kok Kei, and the Assistant Coordinator of the Preparatory Office for Chinese Traditional Medicine Industrial Park, Ms Chan Keng Hong.
…

The Tourism Crisis Management Office (GGCT) continues to closely monitor the situation in Japan after the occurrence of the earthquake that struck last Friday the northeast coast of Japan in strict collaboration with the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the tourism sector, the Health Bureau (SSM), the Macao Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau (SMG), the Macao Government's Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau (IACM), the Macao Social Welfare Bureau (IAS) and the representatives of the Macao Government Tourist Office (MGTO) in Japan. GGCT maintains contact with Macao residents in Japan as to provide support in case of need. Once again, GGCT would like to remind Macao residents of the advice that they should be aware of indications given out by Japanese authorities and take necessary precautions as to guarantee their personal safety, as well as, renew the warning to avoid travelling to Sendai and Fukushima. Macao residents in Japan may contact the appropriate entities in case of need through the tourism hotline: 28333000. The Office, which already accounts for a cumulative total of 270 information requests, until 17:00 today (March 16), being the latest mainly related to the current situation in Japan and the situation of air transportation, continues to monitor developments, trying to respond to all cases and provide all the necessary support. The National Tourism Administration, in turn, has issued emergency warnings for all Chinese tourists to reconsider travelling to Japan and avoid the cities most affected by the catastrophe, namely Sendai and Fukushima. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has established a 24 hours contact service for Chinese citizens that are currently in Japan: 03-3403-3388, extensions 8881, 8882, 8712. For further information related to the situation in Japan, interest parties may also gather further information from the following web-portals: GCS: http://www.gcs.gov.mo
SMGM: http://www.smg.gov.mo
DSS: http://www.ssm.gov.mo
IAS: http://www.ias.gov.mo
GGCT: http://www.ggct.gov.mo
DSPA: http://www.dspa.gov.mo
…

The Chief Executive, Mr Chui Sai On, is scheduled to visit Nanjing, Jiangsu, tomorrow to attend a series of trade and tourism promotional activities. During the three-day visit, Mr Chui would meet top officials of Jiangsu Province, including the Secretary of CPC Jiangsu Provincial Committee, Mr Luo Zhijun, and the Governor, Mr Li Xueyong. He would also witness the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Jiangsu and Macao's tourism authorities on co-operation in this area, and attend the opening ceremonies of Macao Week and Dynamic Macao to promote trade and tourism of Macao. The official delegation led by Mr Chui would include the Secretary for Economy and Finance, Mr Tam Pak Yuen, the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Mr Cheong U, the Chief-of-Cabinet of the Office of the Chief Executive, Mr Tam Chon Weng, the Secretary-General of the Executive Council and Advisor of the Office of the Chief Executive, Ms O Lam, the Director of Government Information Bureau, Mr Chan Chi Ping, the President of Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute, Mr Cheong Chou Weng, the Director of Macao Economic Services, Mr Sou Tim Peng, and the Director of the Office of the Macao Special Administrative Region in Beijing, Ms Hong Wai. The Secretary for Administration and Justice, Ms Florinda Chan, will be Acting Chief Executive while Mr Chui is away.
…

Upon the series of Nuclear Power incidents occurred at Fukushima Prefecture Nuclear Power Plant No. 1 in Japan, the Macao Meteorological Bureau has been monitoring closely for any alteration of the radiation level in Macao and so far no abnormalities has been discovered. At the same time, the World Meteorological Organization has already activated its Environmental Emergency Response operation. According to the latest forecasts conducted today (16th) by the two Regional Specialized Meteorological Centres including Beijing and Tokyo, areas affected by nuclear radiation for the next two days are still limited to the eastern part of Japan and the Northern Pacific to the east of Japan. Thus this nuclear incident is not expected to affect Macao directly and we are still safe from that. According to the monitoring data of Gamma Radiation recorded for the past 24 hours (15th March 15:01 till 16th March 15:00) by the Taipa Grande Station of the Macao Meteorological Bureau, the Gamma-ray absorbed dose rate per minute ranges between 0.1187 and 0.1414μGy/h (micro Gray / hour) which is far more below the warning level of 0.35μGy/h. Besides, the radiation level in Macao has always been within the normal level with no abnormalities found since the very beginning of this incident. The Macao Meteorological Bureau will continue to pay close attention to this nuclear incident and monitor for any possible impact on Macao. If any abnormalities being discovered, we will release related message to the public immediately and inform relevant government departments to adopt relative contingency measures.
…

The Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) released results of the Survey on Manpower Needs and Wages for the fourth quarter of 2010. Survey coverage comprised the Gaming sector; Wholesale & Retail Trade; Transport, Storage & Communications sector; Security Activities and Public Sewage & Refuse Disposal Activities, excluding own-account workers and junket promoters & junket associates. At the end of the fourth quarter of 2010, the Gaming sector had 44,806 employees, up by 1.8% year-on-year, of which 19,149 were dealers, an increase of 4.8%. In December 2010, average earnings (excluding bonuses and allowances) of full-time employees rose by 4.0% year-on-year to MOP 15,700, with dealers earning MOP 13,610 in average. Wholesale & Retail Trade had 30,757 paid employees, up by 5.3% year-on-year, with 18,897 working in Retail trade. In December 2010, average earnings of full-time employees rose by 9.2% year-on-year to MOP9,930, with Sales representatives and Salespersons earning MOP12,000 and MOP9,000 respectively in average. The Transport, Storage & Communications sector took on 7,341 paid employees, down by 4.1% year-on-year. In December, average earnings of full-time employees decreased by 1.1% year-on-year to MOP14,930. Drivers of passenger/cargo transport by land earned an average of MOP13,090. Security Activities had 4,735 paid employees, up by 26.3% year-on-year. The average earnings of full-time employees in December rose by 1.4% year-on-year to MOP7,940, with Security guards earning MOP7,610 in average. Public Sewage & Refuse Disposal Activities had 650 paid employees, up by 4.3% year-on-year. The average earnings of full-time employees in December increased by 4.4% year-on-year to MOP10,980. With a major gaming and tourism project and a new public bus operator coming into operation, number of vacancies in the Gaming sector surged by almost nine-fold year-on-year to 3,761 (2,121 for dealers) at the end of the fourth quarter of 2010, while Land transport reported 629 vacancies, up drastically by almost seven-fold year-on-year. In terms of recruitment prerequisites, 68.3% of the vacancies in the Gaming sector required no working experience, while 79.8% of the vacancies in the Transport, Storage & Communications sector and 61.1% of those in Wholesale & Retail Trade required working experience. As regards educational attainment, 75.0% of the vacancies in the Gaming sector and 53.0% of those in Public Sewage & Refuse Disposal Activities required senior secondary education or higher, while 68.5% of the vacancies in the Transport, Storage & Communications sector and 67.9% of those in Security Activities required primary education only. Besides Cantonese, Mandarin and English were the more preferable language skills for the vacancies in Wholesale & Retail Trade at 63.1% and 40.8% respectively; for those in the Gaming sector, 28.3% required knowledge of Mandarin and 23.9% required English. With respect to the indicators that measure the inflow and outflow of human resources, as well as staffing needs of the sectors, Security Activities had the highest job vacancy rate, employee recruitment rate and turnover rate, at 15.6%, 13.7% and 7.4% respectively. Job vacancy rate of the Gaming sector (7.9%) rose substantially by 7.0 percentage points year-on-year, whilst the employee recruitment rate was 5.9%, up by 1.0 percentage point.
…

Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that visitor arrivals in package tours decreased by 3.7% year-on-year to 442,061 in January 2011. Visitors from Mainland China (316,362), Japan (22,224) and Hong Kong (17,522) decreased by 3.8%, 6.5% and 15.1%; however, visitors from Republic of Korea (24,050); and Taiwan, China (23,961) increased by 85.6% and 4.5% respectively. In January 2011, Macao residents travelling outbound in package tours soared by 42.0% year-on-year to 18,232, with Mainland China (83.1% of total) and Malaysia (3.2%) being the most popular tour itineraries. Meanwhile, outbound residents travelling under own arrangements using services of travel agencies surged by 51.2% year-on-year to 43,046 and the main destinations were Mainland China (41.7% of total); Hong Kong (24.2%); Taiwan, China (16.3%) and Thailand (5.8%). At the end of January 2011, total number of available guest rooms of the hotel sector increased by 804 (+4.2%) year-on-year to 19,890 rooms. A total of 640,835 guests checked into hotels and guest-houses in January 2011, down by 3.5% year-on-year, with the majority coming from Mainland China (56.6% of total) and Hong Kong (16.9%). The average occupancy rate of hotels and guest-houses was 80.3%, down by 1.3 percentage points year-on-year; average occupancy rate of hotels stood at 81.1%, with 4-star hotels leading at 86.2%. The average length of stay of guests increased by 0.03 night to 1.5 nights. In January 2011, visitor-guests of hotels and guest-houses accounted for 63.7% of the total number of tourists, up from 62.7% in January 2010.
…

Upon the series of Nuclear Power incidents occurred at Fukushima Prefecture Nuclear Power Plant No. 1 in Japan, the Macao Meteorological Bureau has been monitoring closely for any alteration of the radiation level in Macao and so far no abnormalities has been discovered. At the same time, the World Meteorological Organization has already activated its Environmental Emergency Response operation. According to the latest forecasts conducted this morning (16th) by the two Regional Specialized Meteorological Centres including Beijing and Tokyo, areas affected by nuclear radiation for the next two days are still limited to the eastern part of Japan and the Northern Pacific to the east of Japan. Thus this nuclear incident is not expected to affect Macao directly and we are still safe from that. According to the monitoring data of Gamma Radiation recorded by the Taipa Grande Station of the Macao Meteorological Bureau, the Gamma-ray absorbed dose rate per minute this morning ranges between 0.1187 and 0.1414μGy/h (micro Gray / hour) which is far more below the warning level of 0.35μGy/h. Besides, the radiation level in Macao has always been within the normal level with no abnormalities found since the very beginning of this incident. The Macao Meteorological Bureau will continue to pay close attention to this nuclear incident and monitor for any possible impact on Macao. If any abnormalities being discovered, we will release related message to the public immediately and inform relevant government departments to adopt relative contingency measures.
…