News

Information from the Statistics and Census Service shows that in the second quarter of 2006, among the surveyed construction materials, the price indices of electric wires and aluminium registered the largest increase, up 31.3% and 10.2% respectively, compared with the first quarter of 2006. Further to the upsurge in the first quarter, these metal construction materials kept the upward trend. In addition, steel, sand, concrete, lime, timber, red bricks, ceramic products, pipes, sanitary articles and cement rose between 0.2% and 5.7%. However, the price indices of aggregates, glass and paint fell between 1.0% and 6.1%. Compared with the second quarter of 2005, price indices rose in most of the surveyed construction materials, with the biggest increase in aluminium, up 59.7%, followed by electric wires and sand, up 55.1% and 28.9% respectively.
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According to the results of the Employment Survey released by the Statistics and Census Service, unemployment rate for April - June 2006 was held stable at 3.8%, same as that in March - May 2006, and decreased by 0.4 percentage point over the same period of 2005. The underemployment rate was 1.2%, down by 0.1 and 0.4 percentage point respectively compared with the preceding period and the same period of 2005. Number of the unemployed searching for their first job was about 1,000, representing 9.6% of the total unemployed population, up by 1.9 percentage points over the preceding period. Compared with the previous period, the unemployment situation was improved in Transport, storage & communications sector; and Recreational, cultural, gaming & other services when the situation for other sectors was similar to that of the preceding period. Total labour force was estimated at 274,000 in April - June 2006; the employed and the unemployed populations were 264,000 and 10,000 respectively. Labour force participation rate was 65.3%, up by 0.3 and 3.1 percentage points respectively over the preceding period and the same period of 2005. Administrative information from the Labour Affairs Bureau and the Public Security Police indicated that number of non-resident workers with working permits totalled 50,247 at the end of June 2006, an increase of 5.0% over March. Please refer to the attached table for detailed information on non-resident workers by industry.
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Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO) has distributed about 5,500 Macau Heritage Passports through its information counters since the launch of the campaign on July 1. Participating merchants expressed that visitors’ response to the “Macau Heritage Passport” has been encouraging and stronger responses are expected when the summer holidays start next month. Participating merchants reported that many visitors shopped with the “Passport” in hand and spent more than they have planned in order to obtain stamps for the “Passport”, bringing additional business turnover to the merchants. A number of participating hotels pointed out that many Hong Kong visitors learned about the campaign from the television commercials and actively solicited stamps from the hotels. Restaurants expressed that the responses were positive when the “Macau Heritage Passport” was first launched, and was increasingly gaining enthusiastic responses. Stronger responses are expected when the summer holidays start next month. “Macau Heritage Passport”, as a core campaign of “ Macau World Heritage Year”, aims to encourage the spending by visitors while promoting Macau’s world heritage. 140 hotels and merchants are participating in this campaign. All visitors to Macau are invited to join the “Macau Heritage Passport” campaign, the objective of which is to attract more visitors to Macau and to enhance their knowledge on “The Historic Centre of Macau” while driving the length of stay and spending of visitors to new heights. Visitors participating in the campaign are entitled to lucky draws featuring fabulous prizes including golden miniatures of Macau Heritage Site, gold coins, hotel accommodation, Macau heritage highlight tours, Mainland China heritage tours, with a total value of MOP$8 million. The first monthly lucky draw will take place soon. Participating visitors first have to obtain their “Macau Heritage Passport” at MGTO Information Counters a participating hotels in Macau and they can enter an instant lucky draw by presenting the 4 stamps collected according to instructions on the “Passport” and completing the lucky draw slip to any of the designated MGTO Information Counters. In addition to the instant lucky draw, participating visitors can also enter the monthly and year end Mega Lucky Draws by dropping the stamped and completed lucky draw slip into the lucky draw box located at any of the MGTO Information Counters or participating hotels. MGTO has designated this year as “Macau World Heritage Year”. Comprising a series of promotions and publicity activities held in Macau and overseas, “Macau World Heritage Year” aims to promote to the world Macau’s unique cultural heritage “The Historic Centre of Macau” and reinforce its image as a popular tourism destination.
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The Chief Executive, Mr Edmund Ho Hau Wah, today met with the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Commerce of Thailand, Mr Somkid Jatusripitak. Mr Somkid and his delegation arrived in Macao from Hong Kong this morning and paid a courtesy call on Mr Ho when they expressed strong willingness to further enhance co-operation in trade and tourism between Macao and Thailand. Among those present at the meeting were Vice Minister for Commerce of Thailand, Mr Suvit Maesincee; Secretary for Economy and Finance of the MSAR, Mr Francis Tam Pak Yuen; Chief of Office of the Office of the Chief Executive, Mr Ho Veng On; President of the Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute, Mr Lee Peng Hong; Acting Director of the Macao Economic Services, Mr Sou Tim Peng; the Deputy Director of the Macao Government Tourist Office, Ms Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes; the Consultant of the Office of the Chief Executive, Mr Fung Sio Weng. Mr Somkid visited several tourist attractions in Macao in the afternoon. He is scheduled to leave for Guangzhou tomorrow to continue on his visit in China.
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Officials from the civil aviation sector from China, Hong Kong and Macao have mapped out long-term schemes to manage the rapidly-growth of air traffic in the Pearl River Delta leading to 2020. They met in Macao on 20-21 July, during which a string of measurements on solving air traffic congestion within the Delta had been reached. These measures will be adopted soon. The also agreed to start a study on sustainable development of air traffic within the Delta by means of unique standard and procedure. Moreover, a technical group would be set up to standardise ways to exchange information, to further facilitate management in air traffic. Officials from the aviation sector have been meeting regularly since the industry within the Delta has been developing prosperously. The first of such meeting was held in 2004 in Dalian, China.
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Information from Statistics and Census Service indicated that the Composite CPI for June 2006 was 108.62, up by 0.43% over May. The increment was caused by the increase in the price indices of Food & non-alcoholic beverages and Transport; however, the impacts were offset by the decrease in the price index of Communication. Compared with May 2006, the indices of Food & non-alcoholic beverages; Transport; and Recreation & culture rose by 1.65%, 0.99% and 0.52% respectively. The increments were driven by dearer prices of vegetables after heavy rain and typhoon, rising gasoline prices on account of surging international oil prices and the ascending charges for outbound package tours near the Summer holiday period. On the other hand, discount changes for international long-distance call (IDD) and lower LP gas prices led to decrease in the indices of Communication (-3.12%) and Housing & fuels (-0.13%) . The Composite CPI for June 2006 registered a year-on-year increase of 5.71%. Average Composite CPI for the first half year went up by 5.80% compared with the same period of 2005. For the 12 months ended June 2006, the average Composite CPI increased by 5.54% over the previous period. Composite CPI for the second quarter of 2006 rose by 6.11% over the same quarter of last year, with notable increase in the indices of Housing & fuels (+13.71%) and Education (+9.31%). In addition, the CPI-A and CPI-B for June 2006 were 109.66 and 108.32, up by 0.51% and 0.37% respectively compared with May. Starting from January 2006, the CPI has been rebased to July 2004 to June 2005. The Composite CPI reflects the impacts of price changes for the general population. The CPI-A relates to about 49% of households, which had an average monthly expenditure of MOP 3,000 to MOP 9,999; the CPI-B relates to about 31% of households, which had an average monthly expenditure of MOP 10,000 to MOP 19,999.
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Free kindergarten education will be extended from the present one year to three, taking effect as early as the coming school year in September, spokesperson for the Executive Council, Mr Tong Chi Kin announced today. After meeting with the members of Executive Council, Mr Tong told the press that a legal draft of non-tertiary education system had been discussed and would soon be passed to the Assembly for further discussion. He said the extension of the free education for the third pre-school year could be extended to include the first and second years within two months. And he also disclosed that the free education system would be extended to senior high school levels progressively. According to the proposed scheme, education is categorised into two types: regular education and continuous education. Regular education comprises three-year programme for pre-school, six-year programme for primary education, three-year for junior high school education and three-year programme for senior high school education. Under the current non-tertiary education system, senior high school education may be either two or three years. Continuous education includes vocational training, Back-to-School Programme, education from family and community. The draft also stipulated that residents aged from five to 15 must be in school. Meanwhile, the draft also made clearer definitions of free education: free tuition and other related expenses such as enrollment fees and certificates, etc.
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Information from Statistics and Census Service indicated that Tourist Price Index (TPI) for the second quarter of 2006 was 120.04, up by 4.15% over the previous quarter. Higher prices in jewellery on account of rising gold prices pushed the index of Miscellaneous goods to grow by 11.23%. Indices of Clothing & footwear and Accommodation rose by 6.65% and 5.86% respectively, which were attributable to new arrivals of Summer clothing, as well as the increasing charges of hotel accommodation during Easter holidays and Labour Day “Golden Week”. On the other hand, Entertainment & culture was the only section that recorded a decrease (-0.83%) in the index, as a result of lower charges in the night clubs. Compared with the second quarter of 2005, TPI rose by 11.27%, with notable increase in the indices of Miscellaneous goods (+29.08%), Accommodation (+27.75%), and Clothing & footwear (+6.23%). The average TPI for the 4 quarters ended in the 2nd quarter of 2006 rose by 5.08% over the previous period. In the first half of 2006, TPI increased by 7.89% over the same period of 2005. TPI is an indicator that reflects the price changes of goods and services purchased by visitors, which is compiled based on the consumption pattern of visitors derived from the Visitor Expenditure Survey. TPI covers 8 sections of goods and services, namely Food, alcoholic drinks & tobacco; Clothing & footwear; Accommodation; Restaurant service; Transport & communications; Medicine & personal goods; Entertainment & culture; and Miscellaneous goods. The base year of TPI is from July 1999 to June 2000.
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Stephen Henderson, a well-known freelance journalist from New York City of the United States arrived for his two-day visit to Macau on July 11. Focused on presenting different aspects of tourism destinations, he writes on travel, food, visual style of the place, architectures and how people live. When preparing himself to visit Hong Kong, a Portuguese friend of his highly recommended Macau to him. Since then, he made efforts to carry out a historic research on the former fishing village. Not knowing what exactly to expect, he got the idea that Macau is a place for relaxation and took his first step into this intensely interesting place. He was amazed and surprised by the sophisticated Macau. Soon enough as he went through the old Macau, especially the “Historic Centre of Macau”, he enjoyed the harmonious co-existence of the old and the new. Having a glimpse of both, he cited: “Macau is Night and Day”. Daytime would be for travelers who loved to see the old Macau and others would enjoy the nighttime with modern facilities and entertainment. During his stay, Henderson was enchanted by the architectural style of StarWorld, the atmosphere of the Red Market, the vibrant and living “Historic Centre of Macau”. As a good cook, he took the chance to make the “African Chicken” dish at the Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT) and learned more about Chinese cuisine and the Macanese culture. Top three of Henderson’s choices of Macau are antiques, A-Ma Temple and the Macau Museum. Last year, over 120 thousand visitors to Macau were from the United States, recording a growth of 28%. With the belief that Americans would be attracted by the cultural heritage of Macau, Henderson expressed that previously Americans loved to visit Vietnam, but now, they have great affection for China and India. Even though it was a two-day trip for Henderson, he said that Macau gave him a journey “very full of experience and was excited.” When he returns to the U.S., he will be writing stories for New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and Baltimore Sun to give readers a taste of how Hong Kong and Macau is like. With the thought that he would be back for a longer stay in Macau next time, he hopes to use his fun-filled experience to attract more Americans to the region.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that visitor arrivals in package tours totalled 237,461 in May 2006, up 12.3% year-on-year. Visitors from Mainland China (193,436) grew 23.3%; however, those from Taiwan, China (14,288) and Hong Kong (6,220) decreased 38.0% and 28.6% respectively over May 2005. In the first five months of 2006, visitor arrivals in package tours surged 21.8% over the same period of 2005 to 1,245,285. Number of Macao residents travelling in package tours was 19,868 in May 2006, a year-on-year decrease of 19.1%. Mainland China; Thailand; and Taiwan, China were the three more popular tour itineraries, which accounted for 77.5%, 6.1% and 5.3% of the total respectively. In the first five months of 2006, Macao residents (108,875) travelling in package tours grew 10.9% compared with the same period of 2005. Meanwhile, 26,403 residents travelled under own arrangements using services provided by the travel agencies, an increase of 6.6% over May 2005; Mainland China (40.2%), Hong Kong (19.6%) and Taiwan, China (16.5%) were the major destinations. In the first five months of 2006, Macao residents travelled under such arrangements surged 28.9% to 143,410 compared with the corresponding period of 2005. At the end of May 2006, number of guest rooms available in the hotel industry increased by 871 (+8.3%) over May 2005 to 11,325 rooms. In addition, a total of 343,016 guests checked into hotels and similar establishments, up 4.2% compared with May 2005. The average hotel occupancy rate was 65.4%, representing a decrease of 1.6 percentage points; the highest average was in the 3-star hotels, at 73.6%. The hotel guests stayed an average of 1.15 nights, which fell slightly by 0.03 night compared with May 2005. The majority of the guests came from Mainland China (58.5%), Hong Kong (22.3%) and Taiwan, China (2.9%). In the first five months of 2006, number of hotel guests increased 15.4% over 2005 to 1,812,098. In the first five months of 2006, hotel guests (excluding Macao residents) accounted for 40.5% of the total number of tourists, which was lower than the 41.6% recorded in the same period of 2005.
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