News

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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The Historical Archives will hold a Binding Workshop on Saturday 18th of December from 14.00 to 17.00. Participants can learn more about binding, one of the techniques used to protect Macao’s precious documentary heritage, as well as gain a deeper understanding of how handmade books are sewn together. Conservation professionals will introduce and demonstrate this traditional technique and support participants as they make their own hardcover notebook. By the end of the three-hour session, participants will be able to take home their own hardcover notebook … and perhaps offer it as a beautiful Christmas gift! No previous experience is required but participants must be at least ten years old. Starting 13th of December, please visit the Historical Archives of Macao (open Mon-Fri, 09:30-18.30) on Tap Seac Square to register beforehand and pay the workshop fee of MOP$20. Places are limited and will be distributed according to order of registration. Please call Miss Chu if more information is required, tel: 8598 6537.
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According to statistics released today by the Monetary Authority of Macao, on a monthly basis, money supply M2 continued to grow in October. As deposits grew at a faster pace than loans, the loan-to-deposit ratio dropped from a month earlier.
Money supply
Currency in circulation and demand deposits dropped 0.5% and 6.5% respectively. M1 thus decreased 5.6% when compared with the previous month. Meanwhile, as quasi-monetary liabilities rose 4.7%, M2 increased 3.2%, amounting to MOP244.6 billion. On an annual basis, M1 and M2 rose 7.9% and 15.9% respectively. The share of Pataca (MOP) in M2 stood at 27.5%, down 1.0 percentage point over a month ago or 0.6 percentage points from a year earlier. Concurrently, the share of Hong Kong Dollar (HKD) in M2 was 55.9%, up 1.2 percentage points month-to-month or 2.0 percentage points year-on-year.
Deposits
Resident deposits grew at a faster pace. Their value increased 3.3% from the previous month to MOP239.2 billion. Of which, MOP deposits dropped slightly by 0.5%, while HKD deposits and other foreign currency deposits increased at respective rates of 5.6% and 2.0%. Concurrently, non-resident deposits grew 4.4% to MOP76.1 billion and public sector deposits with the banking sector increased 6.2% to MOP21.5 billion. As a result, total deposits with the banking sector grew 3.7% from a month earlier to MOP336.8 billion. The shares of MOP and HKD in total deposits were 23.4% and 47.2% respectively.
Loans
Domestic loans to the private sector grew at a slower pace. Their value increased 2.1% on a monthly basis to MOP122.1 billion. Among which, MOP36.7 billion was MOP-denominated and MOP76.6 billion was denominated in HKD, representing 30.1% and 62.7% of the total respectively. Meanwhile, external loans increased 1.0% to MOP114.3 billion; of which, loans denominated in MOP and HKD accounted for 0.7% (MOP0.7 billion) and 41.4% (MOP47.3 billion) of the total respectively.
Loan-to-deposit ratios
As the growth pace of resident deposits (including public sector deposits) was faster than that of domestic loans to the private sector, the loan-to-deposit ratio for the resident sector at end-October 2010 dropped 0.7 percentage points month-to-month to 46.8%. The ratio for both the resident and non-resident sectors marked 70.2%, down 1.5 percentage points from the previous month.
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Organized by Macao Museum under the Cultural Affairs Bureau, a themed exhibition entitled Heavenly Harmonies – Taoist Ritual Music in Macao will be open to public during December 17th, 2010 to March 20th, 2011. Opening Ceremony will be held at 6 pm on December 16th (Thursday). This exhibition is expected to better promote the preservation of the local intangible cultural heritage and provide more relevant information to the general public. Following the successful inscription of ‘Macao Religious Figure Carving’ on the list of the second batch of National Intangible Cultural Heritage (in the category of traditional art) in June 2008, Macao Museum once again initiated the declaration for three other items, namely the “Taoist Ritual Music in Macao” (in the category of Traditional Arts), the “Cantonese Naamyam (Singing and Narrative Songs)” (in the category of Quyi), and the “Festival of the Drunken Dragon” (in the category of Folk Costums) to the Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China in 2009. Taoism is a traditional Chinese native religion and part of the Chinese culture. It greatly enriches the Chinese traditional culture during its long development process. Up until now, its influence is still profound. Chinese traditional culture which is composed of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism is actually the backbone of Macao’s local culture. Therefore, the music played during the Taoist rituals (generally called “Taoist Fasts and Offerings Music” or “Taoist Ritual Music”) becomes one of the Macao’s local intangible cultural heritage elements.
The themed exhibition Heavenly Harmonies – Taoist Ritual Music in Macao held by the Museum aims at showing to the public the representative achievements of Macao’s local traditional music and promoting the cultural value contained. At the same time, this exhibition is expected to showcase the significance and the current progress of salvaging, conserving, systemizing and studying the local endangered traditional music. Besides, by holding this exhibition, it is believed that the general public can have a better knowledge and understanding about this intangible cultural heritage so that the public awareness of preservation can be enhanced. In order to help the residents and visitors in Macao get more acquainted with the features of the Taoist Ritual Music in Macao, the organizer has arranged two themed seminars to tie in with the exhibition. The first session was held on November 27th and the second one will be held in the Macao Museum Auditorium on December 18th (Saturday), from 3 pm to 5 pm. Wang Zhongren, a former associate professor of Wuhan Conservatory of Music, is especially invited to speak at the seminars. All are welcome to join in the seminars. As seating is limited and available on a first come first served basis, interested party may contact the Museum at 8394 1204 during office hours, from 10 am to 6 pm (closed on Mondays), or visit Cultural Affairs Bureau website at www.icm.gov.mo or Macao Museum at www.macaumuseum.gov.mo.
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