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The Government announced that all kindergartens and primary and secondary schools would cancel summer classes in order to help prevent the spread of Influenza A (H1N1). The Director of the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau, Mr Sou Chio Fai, made the announcement today at a press conference at the Influenza Response and Coordination Centre. Summer activities co-organised by the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau and Macao Sport Development Board would be launched as planned, but the number of participants in each class would be capped at 30. The Health Bureau announced a newly imported Influenza A (H1N1) case, taking the total number of confirmed cases to 13. The patient, a 39-year-old Filipina croupier manager in a casino, visited the Philippines on 21 June and met family members with flu symptoms. Back in Macao, she showed flu symptoms yesterday evening at work and was sent to Hospital Conde S. Januário where she was tested positive for the virus. The Bureau had asked three casino workers who had met her briefly to stay home for medical observation. The Bureau also announced that two patients were discharged from the hospital today after recovering from the disease. Currently there were 10 confirmed Influenza A (H1N1) patients quarantine at Hospital Conde S. Januário.
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Four more imported Influenza A (H1N1) cases have been confirmed, bringing the total number of such cases to 12. The Health Bureau announced today that the four confirmed cases comprised three Macao people – two men and a woman – and an Indian boy. Currently there were 11 confirmed Influenza A (H1N1) patients being treated in the quarantine wards at Hospital Conde S. Januário, two of them expected to be discharged in the next few days. Ten people were under medical observation at the quarantine camp and four were quarantined at home. So far 25 people have left the camp after having completed the medical observation. As of 17:00 today, the Influenza Response and Coordination Centre had received nearly 800 telephone inquiries, which were mainly about precautionary measures, the extent of the spread of the virus and Government’s advice on group activities and events.
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The Monetary Authority of Macao released today, for the first time, the results of its mortgage loans survey. New Lending Approved For the first quarter of 2009, new residential mortgage loans (RMLs) approved by Macao banks increased by 36.0% quarter-to-quarter to MOP2.3 billion. Of which, 87.4% was extended to residents. In terms of approved value, new RMLs to residents and non-residents grew at respective rates of 28.6% and 125.4%. Meanwhile, new commercial real estate loans (CRELs) approved increased notably by 54.7% to MOP2.0 billion. Of which, 75.6% was granted to residents. In terms of approved value, new CRELs to residents surged 134.4%, while those to non-residents fell 24.6%. Outstanding Balances As at end-March 2009, the outstanding value of RMLs reached MOP34.9 billion, an increase of 1.7% compared with the end of 2008. 88.5% of the loans was extended to residents. RMLs to residents and non-residents grew at respective rates of 1.9% and 0.4% during the first quarter of 2009. Concurrently, the outstanding value of CRELs rose by 3.1% to MOP35.2 billion. Residents accounted for 85.3% of the loans. During the first three months of 2009, CRELs to residents grew 3.1% while those to non-residents increased by 3.5%. Delinquency Ratios At the end of March 2009, the delinquency ratio for RMLs was 0.24%, up slightly by 0.04 percentage points during the previous three months, whereas that for CRELs slid 0.01 percentage point to 0.55%. Mortgage lending is a major business of Macao banks. It also serves as an indicator of local property-market conditions. Starting this year, the Monetary Authority of Macao conducts a comprehensive survey of mortgage loans and disseminates the results on a quarterly basis.
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The Monetary Authority of Macao released today the credit card statistics for the first quarter of 2009. The total number of personal credit cards in circulation was 330,734 at the end of March 2009, down 1.18% from the previous quarter. The numbers of Pataca (MOP) cards, Hong Kong Dollar (HKD) cards and Renminbi (RMB) cards were 266,964, 55,012 and 8,758 respectively. HKD cards and RMB cards increased 0.44% and 3.00% quarter-to-quarter whereas MOP cards witnessed decrease of 1.63%. Compared with the same period last year, RMB cards grew at a strong pace of 14.32% whereas MOP cards and HKD cards dropped 0.17% and 14.53% respectively. As at the end of March 2009, credit card credit limit granted by banks in Macao amounted to MOP6.04 billion, up 1.74% from end-December 2008. Credit card receivables reached MOP0.95 billion while the rollover amount totalled MOP0.46 billion, accounting for 47.77% of credit card receivables. The delinquency ratio, i.e. the ratio of credit card receivables overdue for more than three months to total receivables, was 1.03%. In the first quarter of 2009, the credit card turnover dropped 5.62% from the last quarter to MOP1.52 billion. The cash advance turnover amounted to MOP0.13 billion, accounting for 8.24% of total credit card turnover. Credit card repayments, in which payments for interest and fees are included, totalled MOP1.69 billion.
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The Government today raised its pandemic alert to Level VI, its highest level, after a locally infected Influenza A (H1N1) case was confirmed. The patient, a 39-year-old Filipina, lived with Macao’s fourth confirmed case since arriving in Macao a month ago. She fell ill on Sunday and was identified by medical personnel tracking close contacts of the fourth confirmed case. She was sent to hospital, tested positive for the virus and later confirmed as Macao’s first locally infected case as she had no travel history since arriving. The Secretary for Administration and Justice, Ms Florinda Chan, who is also the Vice President of the Co-ordination Centre for Preparedness and Response to Influenza Pandemic, urged the public to work as one in dealing with the virus. The Director of the Health Bureau, Dr Lei Chin Ion, said it was expected that the virus would spread rapidly in the community and he urged the public to be cautious. In accordance with the advice of the World Health Organization, the health departments would place its focus on treating patients. Therefore, close contact persons of confirmed cases would no longer be sent to quarantine centres. Instead, they would be required to undergo medical observation at home. The Director of the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau, Mr Sou Chio Fai, said schools are not required to suspend classes as yet since the patient had no contact with schools or students. Regarding the summer activities organised by the Government for youngsters and students, the number of participants in each class had been capped at 30. From now on, the Health Bureau would hold a press conference daily to give the public the latest information, Dr Lei said. The Bureau also announced two more imported cases today, taking the total number of confirmed cases to eight. The Government had divided pandemic alert Level VI into four stages according to the number of people infected. They are Blue, Yellow, Orange and Red. Currently we were at Blue Level, the lowest of the four, which indicated no outbreaks, no fatal cases and no more than 20 patients were being treated at hospital at one time, Dr Lei said.
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Macao logged two more imported Influenza A (H1N1) cases today, adding the total number of imported cases to five. Macao’s fourth confirmed case, a 61-year-old Filipina, was a security guard working at Macau International Airport. She visited the Philippines from 8 to 18 June and developed symptoms of sore throat and fever the next two days. She sought medical attention at hospital on 21 June and was tested positive for the virus today. The Health Bureau had arranged tests and medical observation for three people who lived with her and began tracing the close contact persons of the patient. The fifth confirmed case, a 21-year-old female university student, visited Thailand with 10 classmates for graduation trip from 15 to 19 June. She attended a graduation dinner on 20 June and sought medical attention at hospital the next day after developed symptoms of fever, cough and sore throat, and was tested positive for the virus today. Her mother was identified as a close contact person and was required to undergo medical attention. Her classmates that visited Thailand with her were urged to stay at home and pay attention to the health condition. As of today, there were five confirmed imported cases of Influenza A (H1N1).
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The Health Bureau announced today that two more imported Influenza A (H1N1) cases were confirmed, taking the total number of imported cases to three. The second case was a 27-year-old woman who became the first Macao resident infected with the virus. She is a flight attendant who had visited Sydney, Jakarta, Hong Kong and Japan between 6 to 17 June. She sought medical attention at Hospital Conde S. Januário yesterday after having fever, running nose and cough, and was tested positive for the virus. A second test conducted today confirmed the test result. She was treated at the quarantine ward at Hospital Conde S. Januário and was in a fair condition. Her husband was tested negative for the virus, but was required to undergo medical observation. The third case is a 54-year-old man, a Macao resident who visited Toronto from 10 to 17 June and suffered from fever, headache and sore throat yesterday. He sought medical attention yesterday at Kiang Wu Hospital and was confirmed as having contracted the virus after two tests. He had been transferred to a quarantine ward at Hospital Conde S. Januário and was in a fair condition. His wife and his domestic helper were required to undergo medical observation. As of today, there were three confirmed imported cases of Influenza A (H1N1) in Macao.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that the total number of visitor and non-resident arrivals was 2,205,208 in May 2009. Affected by the adverse impact of the human swine influenza pandemic, visitor arrivals for May 2009 dropped by 20.4% year-on-year to 1,591,500. Analysed by place of residence, visitors from Mainland China were 791,394 (49.7% of total visitor arrivals), a year-on-year decrease of 26.8%, with 316,111 travelling to Macao under the Individual Visit Scheme, down drastically by 50.9% from May 2008 (644,051). Visitors from Hong Kong (489,129); Taiwan, China (97,976); Malaysia (26,730) and Japan (26,355) also decreased by 8.8%, 12.3%, 42.3% and 9.9% respectively. Same-day visitors (883,559) accounted for 55.5% of the total visitor arrivals, with 457,502 coming from Mainland China. The cumulative visitor arrivals totalled 8,912,874 in the first five months of 2009, down by 10.6% year-on-year. Visitors from Mainland China (4,447,039); Taiwan, China (528,171) and Malaysia (136,142) decreased by 16.6%, 5.8% and 30.3%, while those from Hong Kong (2,834,335) and Japan (150,290) registered slight increase of 0.4% and 8.8% respectively. Cumulative number of same-day visitors accounted for 53.8% of the total visitor arrivals, at 4,791,977. Analysed by mode of transport, visitor arrivals by sea totalled 3,640,617 in the first five months of 2009, down by 2.5% year-on-year. Visitors arriving at the Outer Harbour decreased by 25.8% to 2,482,693, but those arriving at the Provisional Ferry Terminal in Taipa surged by 405.0% to 1,030,868. Visitor arrivals by land dropped by 16.4% year-on-year to 4,627,706 in the first five months of 2009; those arriving through the Border Gate totalled 4,292,081 and the majority were visitors from Mainland China (76.0%) and Hong Kong (15.6%). Visitor arrivals by air went down by 8.2% year-on-year to 644,551 in the first five months of 2009. Visitors arriving at the Macao International Airport decreased by 8.0% to 633,396, with the majority coming from Taiwan, China (38.2%) and Mainland China (23.8%).
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the Composite CPI for May 2009 rose by 1.82% year-on-year to 125.60, of which the price indices of Alcoholic Beverages & Tobacco; Clothing & Footwear; and Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages went up by 14.26%, 11.51% and 6.55% respectively. Among the subgroups of Alcoholic Beverages & Tobacco, price index of cigarettes soared by 19.39% following the increase of excise on tobacco. As regrards Clothing & Footwear, price indices of women’s clothing (+9.43%) and women’s footwear (+17.98%) registered marked increase. For the subgroups of Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages, notable increase was observed in the price indices of fresh fish (+28.75%) and fruit (+15.72%). On the contrary, price index of Transport registered a year-on-year decrease of 11.14% on account of falling prices of gasoline. The CPI-A and CPI-B for May 2009 were 127.43 and 125.10 respectively, up by 1.93% and 1.84% year-on-year. The Composite CPI for May 2009 increased by 0.17% month-to-month, attributable to the 13.57% increase in the price index of Alcoholic Beverages & Tobacco. However, decreasing rentals for housing drove down the price index of Housing & Fuels by 0.91%. The CPI-A and CPI-B rose by 0.14% and 0.19% respectively month-to-month. The average Composite CPI for the first five months of 2009 went up by 2.83% year-on-year. For the 12 months ended May 2009, increment of the average Composite CPI tapered to rise by 5.98% from the preceding period. The Composite CPI reflects the impact of price changes on the general population. The CPI-A relates to about 49% of households, which have an average monthly expenditure of MOP3,000 to MOP9,999. The CPI-B relates to about 31% of households, which have an average monthly expenditure of MOP10,000 to MOP19,999.
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In response to the invitation from the Department of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation of Guangdong Province, the Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM) organized a business delegation, comprising approximately of 50 entrepreneurs, and led by its President Mr. Lee Peng Hong, to participate in the 1st “Guangdong Foreign-Invested Enterprises Commodities Fair” (FECF) in Dongguan, held on June 17th to 18th. The purpose of the “FECF” was mainly to facilitate cooperation between Guangdong and enterprises with foreign investments to overcome the international financial crisis, help foreign-funded enterprises expand within the domestic market in Guangdong, increase internal demand and secure a stable growth rate. This Fair also aimed at stimulating the domestic consumer market, promoting domestic and foreign exchanges, thus improving market competitiveness. The Fair helped to expand domestic demand, encourage investment from foreign-invested enterprises, and aimed mainly to improve cooperation between manufacturers for exports and those for domestic markets. It also created opportunities for foreign enterprises to develop within the domestic market and invest in Guangdong, to overcome the difficulties arising from the international financial crisis. IPIM set up a “Macao Pavilion” in the FECF, with an area of 216 square meters (24 standard booths), comprising of 20 Macao enterprises with investments in Guangdong, involved in different sectors such as clothing, furniture, houseware, leather goods, plastic packaging, gifts and food industries. During the Fair, update information about the investment environment in Macao, along with the services provided by IPIM were provided. Mr. Wang Yang, Secretary of the Guangdong Committee of the Communist Party of China; Huang Hua-Hua, Governor of Guangdong; Yi Xiao-Zhun, Vice Minister of Ministry of Commerce of PRC; Wan Qing-Liang, Vice Governor of Guangdong, and Tang Bing-Quan, Vice-Chairman of Guangdong Provincial People's Political Consultative Conference, all visited the "Macao Pavilion" on the opening day of the fair. IPIM and the Department of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation of Guangdong Province signed a "Strategic Cooperation Agreement to aid Macao Enterprises to develop the Domestic Market" during the opening ceremony of the FECF. The purpose of this agreement is to help Macao-funded enterprises develop within the domestic market of Guangdong, expand economic and trade cooperation between Guangdong and Macao, as well as enhance the competitiveness of both enterprises from Guangdong and from Macao in both domestic and international markets. Moreover, during the "Procurement Matching Session", IPIM assisted in arranging a total of 102 business matches, relating to different sectors, such as clothing, leather goods, wine, food (biscuits and concentrated drinks), ceramics and furniture. The main purchasers during the “Procurement Matching Session” included companies such as Carrefour, Wal-Mart, Grandbuy Co Ltd, Best Buy, Park'n Shop (Greater China) and the Dongshan Department Store. In addition to the " Strategic Cooperation Agreement to aid Macao Enterprises to develop the Domestic Market " which was signed on the morning of June 18th, IPIM also assisted "Kam Yuen Macao Offshore Services Ltd." and "Heshan Guoji Nanlian Motorcycle Industry Co Ltd." in the signing of a Letter of Intent for the acquisition of motorcycles, with a deal worth of approximately 2.98 million U.S. dollars (approximately 23.1 million patacas). In the afternoon of June 17th, 2009, Wan Qing-Liang, Vice governor of the Province of Guangdong met with Mr Lee Peng-Hong, president of IPIM and the Macao business delegation. Mr. Wan pointed out that in accordance with the guidelines provided by the “Reform of the Pearl River Delta Regional Cooperation Framework”, Guangdong and Macao jointly organized the “FECF” and will organize the "Guangdong & Macao Branded Products Fair 2009" (July 30-August 2). The two places will further organize business delegations from both Guangdong and Macao to participate in the "Entrepreneurial Seminar for Commercial and Economic Co-operation Between China and Portuguese Speaking Countries”, which will be held in mid-August in Brazil. At the same time, they will also cooperate with São Paulo Chamber of Commerce, Brazil in organizing the "Guangdong and Macao Investment Environment Promotion Seminar". All these initiatives will help promote and strengthen cooperation between Guangdong and Macao. They also reflect the communication, as well as the development of economic and trade cooperation between the two places. These initiatives will also provide more opportunities for Macao-funded companies invested in Guangdong to explore more business opportunities. Other participants in the Fair included Mr. Kao Sheung Te, Deputy Director of the Economic Affairs Department of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government; Chui Iok Lam, Vice-chairman of the Industrial Association of Macao and Wang kai Cheong, Chairman of the Association of Weaving & Knitting Industry of Macao.
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