News

Every year, on 23 March, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), its 188 countries and territories Members, as well as the worldwide meteorological communities, celebrate World Meteorological Day. This Day commemorates the entry into force, in 1950, of the Convention that created this specialized agency of the United Nations System, after the meeting of Meteorological Services Directors in September 1949. The International Meteorological Organization is the forerunner of the present-day World Meteorological Organization founded in 1873 in Vienna. For the year 2008 was chosen the theme “Weather, climate and the air we breathe”. Such a theme is particularly appropriate at a time when communities around the globe are struggling to attain the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, especially in terms of health, food, water security and poverty alleviation, as well as to increase their effectiveness in preventing and mitigating natural disasters, of which 90 per cent are directly related to weather, climate and water hazards and thereby fall within World Meteorological Organization mandate. Moreover, scientists and medical professionals are increasingly aware of the critical linkages between weather, climate, the composition of the air we breathe and their effects on human health. Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau (SMG) has been organizing a set of activities in order to remind the population of the different areas of human activities in which meteorology plays an important role, in general, and, in particular, as the activities undertaken by SMG which contribute for the sustainable development of the Macao Special Administrative Region. The commemoration activities of the “World Meteorological Day 2009”, start with a celebration ceremony which will focus on the air quality in Macao, entitled “Macao’s air quality in the last 10 years”, with an objective to understand aspects related to the air we breathe in Macao in the last ten years and its impacts on our health.
The history has taught us that the hydrometeorology warning is very important for the population. So, starting from today, one more service of weather warning will be launched, namely the “Automatic weather information service - InfoMet”. This service consists of disseminating warnings from this Bureau and through an automatic installation of a program in user’s computer, the warnings issued will be automatically up-dated. With this new method of extreme weather warning dissemination, population could know in real-time the situation and can make the necessary precautions. A celebration ceremony will be held at SMG headquarters, on 23 of March at 10:00 a.m. in Taipa Grande with the presence of the Secretary for Publics Works and Transportation, Eng. Lau Si Io.
…

The Chief Executive, Mr Edmund Ho Hau Wah, today officiated at the swearing-in ceremony of the members of the Election Commission of the Legislative Assembly. The Chairman of the Commission, Mr Fong Man Chong, said the Commission would work closely with related bureaux and organise the election on the basis of integrity, legitimacy, fairness, openness and offering convenience to the people. The four other members of the Commission are the President of Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau, Mr Tam Vai Ma; the Director of Public Administration and Civil Service Bureau, Mr José Chu; the Director of the Financial Services Bureau, Ms Lau Ioc Ip; and the Deputy Director of Government Information Bureau, Ms Ho Wai Heng. Speaking to reporters, Mr Fong said the revised electoral law for the Legislative Assembly provided greater power to the Commission and related bureaux to crack down on any irregularities and even crimes committed during the election process. The Commission would issue precise and detailed guidelines for candidates, he said. As the society continued to advance, he said, more and more voters were aware of the importance of their ballots. With the concerted efforts of the entire community, he said he expected the election would be well-organised. The Legislative Assembly Election is scheduled to be held on 20 September.
…

Information released by the Statistics and Census Service indicated that the population of Macao was estimated at 549,200 as at 31 December 2008, down by 8,100 from end-September, on account of a substantial decrease of non-resident workers in the fourth quarter. The rate of population growth for 2008 was 2.0%, representing an increase of 11,100 year-on-year. As regard the gender ratio, 50.9% were female and 49.1% were male. In terms of age distribution, the youth population (aged 0-14) accounted for 12.8%, the adult population (aged 15-64) and the elderly population (aged 65 and over) shared 80.0% and 7.2% respectively. In the fourth quarter of 2008, there are 1,327 live births and 441 mortality cases. For the whole year of 2008, total number of live births went up by 4.0% year-on-year to 4,717 and mortality cases increased by 13.7% to 1,756. The top three underlying causes of death were “Neoplasms”, “Diseases of the Circulatory System” and “Diseases of the Respiratory System”. Number of Notifiable Disease was 1,136 cases in the fourth quarter of 2008, bringing the annual total to 3,079 cases, which consisted mainly of “Varicella (chickenpox)” (909 cases), “Enterovirus Infection” (804 cases) and “Tuberculosis of Lung” (420 cases). Regarding marriage registration, 607 cases were recorded in the fourth quarter, with the annual total rising significantly by 35.7% over 2007 to 2,778 cases. In 2008, the median age of first marriage was 25.8 for female and 28.0 for male. In addition, 429 Chinese immigrants with One-way Exit Permit moved to Macao in the fourth quarter, bringing the annual total to 2,280, with 67.8% coming from the Guangdong Province. Meanwhile, 431 illegal immigrants were repatriated in the fourth quarter and the total number for 2008 decreased by 9.6% year-on-year to 1,424. The end-year number of non-resident workers was 92,161 and the total number of persons authorized to reside in Macao was 7,917 in 2008, up by 6,954 and 1,802 year-on-year respectively. In 2008, total number of non-institutionalized households rose by 3.6% from 2007 to 177,000 households.
…

The Statistics and Census Service released the results of the Survey on Manpower Needs and Wages for the fourth quarter of 2008. The survey covered Wholesale & Retail Trade; Transport, Storage & Communications; Security Activities and Public Sewage & Refuse Disposal Activities, but excluded own-account workers. The survey results were extrapolated according to the information collected from 893 statistical units successfully interviewed. At the end of the fourth quarter of 2008, Wholesale & Retail Trade had 26,012 paid employees, up by 8.0% year-on-year, with 15,665 working in Retail trade. In December 2008, the average earnings (excluding bonuses and allowances) for full-time employees amounted to MOP8,603, up by 6.9% year-on-year, with the average earnings of Sales representatives and Salespersons amounting to MOP10,037 and MOP7,505 respectively. Transport, Storage & Communications took on 7,816 paid employees, up by 6.4% over the fourth quarter of 2007. In December 2008, the average earnings for full-time employees increased by 5.2% year-on-year to MOP14,925. Drivers of Passenger/cargo transport by land earned an average of MOP12,930. Security Activities had 3,910 paid employees, up by 5.6% over the fourth quarter of 2007. The average earnings for full-time employees in December 2008 rose by 17.6% year-on-year to MOP7,482, with Security guards earning MOP 7,110 in average. Public Sewage & Refuse Disposal Activities had 658 paid employees, up by 6.1% compared with the fourth quarter of 2007. The average earnings for full-time employees in December 2008 increased by 2.4% year-on-year to MOP11,243. At the end of December 2008, Wholesale & Retail Trade reported to have 1,728 vacancies, Transport, Storage & Communications and Security Activities had 313 and 476 vacancies, down significantly by 57.6%, 72.6% and 32.7% respectively. In terms of recruitment prerequisites, 57.6% of the vacancies in Wholesale & Retail Trade and 63.2% in Transport, Storage & Communications required working experience; 66.9% and 65.3% of the vacancies in the above-mentioned sectors required junior secondary education or higher, while 96.2% of those in Security Activities required primary education only. Besides Cantonese, Mandarin (61.4%) was the more preferable language skill for the vacancies in Wholesale & Retail Trade.
…

Organized by IAPCO (International Association of Professional Congress Organizers) and hosted by the Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO), the “IAPCO & Macau Regional Seminar on Organizing Congresses” is opened today (March 16) at the Four Seasons Hotel, Macau. About 100 MICE industry professionals from Macau and other regions in Asia participated. This regional seminar aims to provide an educational opportunity for people in the MICE industry to further develop their event planning skills and raise the standards of customer service. This will be IAPCO’s only seminar specifically on professional conference organizing in Asia in 2009. About 100 professional congress organizers (PCOs), convention and visitors bureaus, events management companies and other meetings industry representatives from Macau, the Mainland, Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand take part in the four-day seminar and each participant will receive a certificate of attendance from IAPCO & MGTO. Three internationally renowned speakers who are experts in the congress industry are invited to share their knowledge and experience on a broad range of topics like Creating the Project Plan, Promotion of a Destination and Bidding to Win, Financial Planning & Budgets, Venue Management, Program Management & Abstract Handling, Congress Registration and On-Site Arrangements and Accountability & Crisis Management. Philippe Fournier, Vice President of IAPCO, is the managing director of MCI in Europe. He has been in the industry organizing congresses in France and all over the world since 1984. Roslyn McLeod, IAPCO Council Member, is the managing director of Tour Hosts Pty Ltd. in Australia. A frequent speaker at regional seminars, Roslyn was awarded Medal of the Order of Australia for her contribution to the meeting industry. Sarah Storie-Pugh, Chairman of Concorde Services Ltd in London, has involved in over 350 events of various scales. She was awarded the meetings industry Personality of the Year Award in 2004.
Director of MGTO João Manuel Costa Antunes pointed out in his welcome speech that the seminar has received overwhelming response, with around 100 meetings industry representatives from Macau, Pearl River Delta and other regions in Asia. He expressed that though the global economic downturn is hitting hard the business tourism industry, the trade must not be discouraged. “We should take this opportunity to strengthen our fundamentals and be well equipped with necessary trainings to turn challenges into business opportunities,” he stressed. He believed that from the valuable insight of the speakers and interactions with participants, the local business tourism trade could enhance their competitiveness and standards of service. MGTO hopes that through hosting this regional seminar, it will work closer with IAPCO and establish a long term relationship, which will become a very powerful and effective promotional tool to show more industry professionals what Macau as an appealing and competitive MICE destination has to offer. IAPCO is a non-profit organization founded in 1968 that represents professional organizers and managers of international congresses, conventions and special events. IAPCO is committed in raising the standards of service amongst its members and other sectors of the meetings industry by means of continuous education and interaction with other professionals. To stimulate regional business tourism in the markets currently served by local carriers, MGTO and Air Macau jointly invited representatives from major MICE publications to come to Macau and learn about the development of the MICE industry and visit MICE facilities. The media familiarization group also took part in the opening ceremony of the “IAPCO & Macau Regional Seminar on Organizing Congresses” to generate extensive coverage on the event.
The 17 media representatives are from professional convention and exhibition publications based in the Mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Korea and the United Kingdom.
…

2009 Macao International Environmental Co-operation Forum & Exhibition (2009MIECF) will be held on 2-4 April at The Venetian Macao-Resort-Hotel. The Organizing Committee (OC) has already received from all over the world more than 440 environmental projects for business matching, an increase of almost seven times over the previous year. The event is believed to provide valuable business opportunities for participating enterprises. The OC has received environmental initiatives focusing on areas such as sewage management, recycling and treatment of solid refuse, production of renewable energy, air purification technique, energy savings plan, eco building and construction, solar and wind powers, and environmental engineering and management, etc. Participating regions include Macao, Mainland China, Hong Kong, Brazil, England, Canada, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Korea, and Belgium, etc. 2009MIECF is hosted by the Macao SAR Government and co-organized by Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute and Environment Council. The event is also fully supported by China’s Central Government and the extensive support by the Pan-PRD 9+2 provinces / regions and other regions. This year the MIECF has prepared a series of Green Matching and negotiation activities for participating enterprises from all over the world, helping them seek suitable partners through a series of activities such as professional recommendation symposiums and forums. Concurrently, the Green Matching Zone will also provide a one-stop service for business operations in Macao, global market information, and Mainland and local legal consulting services, etc. Green Business Matching for Exploring Development Opportunities
The OC has invited and connected global green industry to participate in the exhibition and forums. Further business opportunities will also be provided to participants, through a series of on the spot recommendation and matching activities, as well as pre-organized and pre-arranged business matching, etc. At present, the OC is collecting information on co-operation intentions from local and overseas business and investments organizations, assisting project providers to utilize Macao as a commercial trading service platform for seeking co-operating partners. More than 440 environmental projects have been received so far. Meanwhile, in order for exhibition and forum participants to fully utilize Macao as a commercial trading service platform for expanding customer network and seeking suitable co-operating partners, the OC has arranged several opportunities for on the spot matching and representative matching, including the “Green Business Co-operation Day” jointly organized by the Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute, the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and other international chambers of commerce, and the Green Dot on 3 April: Environment-Business-Connection – “Green Properties Exchange Symposium”, etc. Online Business Matching for Early Opportunities
In line with this year’s series of MIECF activities, the OC has introduced the online business matching service platform with the latest business matching information uploaded. Enterprises can browse through the most updated project details without leaving the office, as well as register in advance Business Matching. This online platform will continue assisting enterprises to seek suitable partners even after the exhibition, maximizing its full effectiveness. Pre-Matching for the Most Effective Results
To date, the OC has already arranged for more than 140 pre-matching sessions. Meanwhile, walk-in matching will also be registered at the “Green Matching Zone”. Pre-registration of Green Matching is now open for Macao industrial and commercial sectors and local enterprises. Please visit the online Green Matching service platform (http://bm.ipim.gov.mo) or contact the OC’s matching specialist (Tel: 853 2872 8328, Fax: 853 2872 7506, Email: matching@ipim.gov.mo) for details, registration and getting the latest green matching information for more business opportunities.
…

The Public Security Police Forces today refused the entry of five Hong Kong residents, in accordance with the Internal Security Law, according to a press statement issued by the Forces. With a view to safeguarding Macao’s social stability and public order, the Public Security Police Forces, which is the bureau responsible for regulating the entry and exit of people into and out of Macao , may turn down the entry requests by non-Macao residents who fail to meet the entry criteria, according to the statement.
…

The Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Macao S.A.R. Government will organize an Academic Research Lecture in the Cultural Affairs Bureau Auditorium (Edifício do Instituto Cultural, Tap Seac Square, Macao) at 6:30pm on Thursday March 19. Dr. George Bryan Souza, adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Texas, will give a lecture on “Commerce and Consumption: Merchants and Opium at Batavia over the 18th Century”. This presentation introduces and discusses an anatomy of commerce and consumption of opium at Batavia, on Java, and throughout the Indonesia Archipelago over the long eighteenth century (c.1684-1796). The anatomy of this commerce is introduced by outlining and identifying the importance of the trade in opium to different locally based, indigenous and foreign merchants and their networks. Based upon archival work on the Dutch materials held in Jakarta, Indonesia, this presentation focuses upon all of the major merchant groups, with emphasis upon Chinese in particular, that purchased, distributed, and sold opium to end consumers. The merchant’s families, identities, backgrounds, occupations, and networks are described and explored with the purpose of determining the overall significance of these merchant groups and the relationship of opium and its commerce to the political economic development of Java, in particular, and over a broader geographical space in Southeast Asia, during the 1740s and until the late 1780s – the beginning of a period from 1740 to 1840 that has been claimed as a Chinese century. George Bryan Souza is an adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Texas, San Antonio. Educated at Stanford University (B.A. with Departmental Honors in History), the School of Oriental and African Studies, at the University of London (M.A. in Southeast Asian Area Studies), and Trinity College, Cambridge University (D. Phil. in History), he is the author of The Survival of Empire: Portuguese Trade and Society in China and the South China Sea, 1630-1754, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986 and numerous articles. Over the past few years, he has received support for his research interests in global maritime economic history, the history of European expansion, and cross-cultural contact and exchanges in the early modern period from the following institutions: affiliated fellow, IIAS, Leiden University, the Netherlands; IANTT/FLAD research grants, Lisbon, Portugal; Bernardo Mendel fellowships, at the Lilly Library, Indiana University; research grant from the American Institute for Sri Lankan Studies; Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore; Visiting Research Fellow at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Kyoto University and is in Macao on a Fulbright grant. Upon completion in April 2009, Souza will take up his invited appointment as a Mercator Guest Professor at Tubingen University in Germany. The lecture will be given in English with Mandarin, Cantonese and Portuguese simultaneous interpretation. Entrance is free. For further details, please contact Ms. Chu of the Macao Historical Archives of the Cultural Affairs Bureau at 85986537.
…

Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that Macao registered 430,599 visitor arrivals in package tours in January 2009, up by 12.7% from a year earlier. Visitors from Mainland China (319,375) and Hong Kong (31,769) increased by 16.0% and 40.5% year-on-year respectively, while those from Japan (15,269) decreased by 5.7%. The number of Macao residents travelling outbound in package tours rose markedly by 34.0% year-on-year to 18,132 on account of the Lunar New Year fell in January 2009. Mainland China (68.7%), Republic of Korea (6.5%) and Taiwan, China (6.1%) were the three most popular tour itineraries. Meanwhile, 29,818 residents travelled outbound under individual arrangements using services provided by travel agencies, down by 11.3% over January 2008. Hong Kong (43.1%), Mainland China (27.9%) and Taiwan, China (10.2%) were the major destinations. At the end of January 2009, the number of guest rooms available in the hotel sector increased by 1,410 (+8.7%) from a year earlier to 17,538 rooms. In January 2009, a total of 524,618 guests checked into hotels and similar establishments, down by 6.8% year-on-year; the majority of the guests came from Mainland China (49.5%) and Hong Kong (23.5%). The average hotel occupancy rate for January 2009 dropped by 7.1 percentage points year-on-year to 65.6%, with 4-star hotels leading at 70.0%; in addition, the average length of stay of hotel guests stood at 1.4 nights, same as that in January 2008. In January 2009, visitor-guests staying in hotels accounted for 56.7% of the total number of tourists, down from 61.2% in January 2008.
…

Macau Government Tourist Office and the Macau travel trade promote the city as a leisure and business tourism destination and strengthen ties with the international travel trade in the world's leading travel trade show, ITB Berlin 2009 opened today (March 11). MGTO deputy director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes heads the Macau delegation to the exhibition, held from March 11 to 15. The theme of MGTO’s booth at ITB this year is “Experience Macau!”, showcasing UNESCO world heritage “The Historic Center of Macau” as well as the new tourism products to the travel trade and consumers of the region. Latest tourism information of Macau is also distributed at the booth, where travel trade representatives from Macau, Germany and around the world meet for business. MGTO aims to uplift the reputation of Macau at large-scale international travel fairs to tap more overseas markets and promote connections between travel trade partners. Besides taking part in various activities promoted by the organizer, MGTO invites key media and travel trade partners to the Macau Welcome Hours reception for updates on Macau’s tourism industry. MGTO will also participate in the Pan Pearl River Delta presentation, HKTB luncheon and PATA luncheon. Helena Fernandes will be present at meetings of UNWTO Task Force and UNWTO Tourism Resilience Committee. The five days of the exhibition will also include interviews with the media and appointments with tourism executives. MGTO also takes this opportunity to promote the celebrations of the 10th Anniversary of the Establishment of the Macau SAR this year to the long-haul markets, attracting more visitors from Europe to experience Macau’s unique blend of East and West cultures. Held at the capital of Germany, ITB Berlin has a history of 43 years. This year about 11,000 exhibitors from 180 countries and territories are participating in the exhibition, which is hailed as one of the largest travel fairs in the world. Exhibitors from around the globe present their destinations, products and services on a gigantic display area of 160,000 square meters. More than 280,000 visitors attended the exhibition last year.
…