News

The 12th Macao International Trade and Investment Fair (MIF) was inaugurated today (18th October 2007) at 10:30 AM at the Venetian Macao Convention and Exhibition Center. Chief Executive Mr. Ho Hau Wah of the Macao SAR and 11 guests jointly officiated at the Opening Ceremony, with the impressive attendance of more than 1000 guests from 50 countries and regions. It is the first time that the ever-largest MIF is being held at the Venetian Macao Convention and Exhibition Center. Guests officiating at the Opening Ceremony include: Mr. Edmund Ho Hau Wah, Chief Executive of Macao Special Administrative Region, Mr. Herry Mane, Minister of Commerce, Tourism and Handraft of Guine Bissau, Ms Gao Yan, Deputy Director General of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Macao Special Administrative Region, Mr. Zhou Bo, Deputy Director of Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council, Mr. Wan Yongxiang, Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China in the Macao Special Administrative Region, Mr. Tang Bingquan, Executive Vice Governor of the People’s Government of Guangdong Province, Mr. Ye Shuangyu, Vice Governor of the People’s Government of Fujian Province, Mr. Francis Tam Pak Yuen, Secretary for Economy and Finance of the Macao Special Administrative Region, Mr. Yu Ping, Vice Chairman of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, and Mr. Jing Chongyun, Director of 12th MIF Organizing Committee and Chairman of Macao Convention and Exhibition Association. Lee Peng Hong said in his speech that the MIF, in addition to advancing the role of Macao as a trade and economic platform, provides Macao’s business sector, particularly the Small and Medium Enterprises an opportunity to get in line with the international standards and improve their competitiveness. Besides, it is the first time that the MIF has the coordination of 3 MICE associations of Macao, combining the strengths of the sector and provides the MICE sector an opportunity for practice and improvement. In the grand exhibition venue of over 18,000 square meters, there are a total of 889 booths, representing an increase of 170% over last year’s record of 326 booths. There are 15 thematic pavilions, more than 30 sessions of international forums, conferences, seminars and presentations, and over 428 sessions of pre-arranged business matching, a year-on-year increase of 30%. In terms of scale, level and degree of internationalization, the MIF this year has surpassed its previous editions. As at 5:00 PM, a total of 11,866 visits have been registered for the first day. Over 500 professional visitors have participated in the forums, conferences, seminars and presentations. With the participation of 236 delegations from 50 countries and regions including the Mainland, Europe, Asia, and Portuguese Speaking Countries, a total of 130 sessions of purchase negotiations and business matching have been conducted on site, with 10 agreements signed with respect to such areas as product distribution, trade and investment, banks, hotels, industry, convention and education. Organised by Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute, Investment Promotion Agency of Ministry of Commerce of the PRC and Macao Chamber of Commerce, the “International Trade and Investment Forum 2007” was held at 3:00 PM. Mr. Francis Tam, Secretary for Economy and Finance of Macao SAR together with other guests, have delivered their speech with the theme of “Advantages are merged to create great business opportunities”, so as to jointly promote regional and cross-boundary trade and economic co-operation. At 4:00 PM, another major activity of the MIF, “Macao International Exhibition CEO Conference 2007” was held, which congregated the MICE professionals from the Mainland, Hong Kong and Macao, who explored together the future trends of the MICE of Macao and the impact on the society and economy in an interactive way. Regarding seminars and presentations, the “Portugal Day” has been held on the first day of the MIF. The organiser of the event has adopted the actual image and broad vision of Portugal, with an aim of providing all the participating Portuguese enterprises an opportunity to get in close contact with the high level businesspeople and make good use of the business negotiation function of the MIF. The programme of activities for the second day of the 12th MIF include “European Union-Fujian-Macao Economic Co-operation Seminar”, “Seminar on the Promotion and Attraction of Chinese Investment in Angola”, “Business Opportunities offered by SMEs from Poland”, “Shaanxi Investment Environment and Project Promotion Conference”, “Successful Branding vs Advertising Excellent” Conference”, “Inner Mongolia-Macao Cooperation and Project Promotion Conference”, “Presentation of Shanghai World Expo 2010”, “Investment Opportunities in India”, “Guangzhou Panyu New Business Opportunity Seminar”, and “China and the Portuguese-Speaking Countries-Products Sourcing – 2007”.
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I. Free Shuttle Bus offering point to point service
The organiser will provide free shuttle bus service to the MIF venue from official hotels in Macao (Golden Dragon Hotel, Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Rocks Hotel, Beverly Hotel, Landmark Hotel) and official hotels in Taipa (Grand Waldo Hotel, Macau Golden Crown China Hotel) daily from 09:00 to 17:00 every 30 to 60 minutes during the MIF period (beginning at 08:00 on 18th October). Besides, the organiser will provide free shuttle bus service to the MIF venue in Macao and Taipa, daily from 09:00 to 17:00 every 30 minutes during the MIF period (beginning at 08:00 on 18th October). The bus pick up point in Macao will be located at Macau Square on Avenida Dr. Mario Soares and the pick up point in Taipa at the bus stop at Hung Fat Garden on Avenida Guangdong (opposite to Crown Macau). In addition, residents who are driving to the venue may park their cars at the car park of the Venetian or Macao Dome (about 900 parking spaces). At the Macao Dome, round trip bus transfer service to the venue will be provided every 30 minutes approximately. II. Public Bus Service
² Transmac Bus no.26：
Routing：Fai Chi Kei←→Ponte cais No14←→A-Ma Temple (Maritime Museum)←→Sai Van Bridge←→Jockey Club←→Airport ←→Lotus Bridge←→Karting Track←→Coloane
² Transmac Bus no. 26A:
Routing：Fai Chi Kei←→Red Market/ Alm.Ribeiro(Central Town )←→H.Lisboa←→New Century/H.Hyatt←→Macau Stadium←→Pischina Olimpica←→Pousada Marina Infante←→MUST←→Karting Track←→Coloane←→Cheoc Van ←→Hac Sa Beac
² TCM Bus no.25：
Routing: Macau-China Border/Canidrome/Av. Horta e Costa/Memorial of Dr. Sun Yat Sen/Hotel Estoril/Rua do Campo/Hotel… (Sintra, Lisboa, Wynn, New Century)/Coloane-China Border/Karting Track/Seac Pai Van/Coloane Village/Hac Sa Beach
² TCM Bus no.21：
Routing: P.Ponte Horta/A-Ma Temple/Macau Tower/Ocean Garden/Jockey Club/ Airport (Hotel Golden Crown China) Coloane-China Border/Karting Track/Seac Pai Van Park (Statue of A-Ma)/Coloane Village
² TCM Bus no.21A：
Routing: A-Ma Temple/Senado Square/ Hotel Lisboa, Wynn/ Hotel New Century/ Av. Dr. Sun Yat Sen/ Coloane-China Border/Seac Pai Van Park/Coloane Village/ Hac Sa Beach III. The Venetian Macao~Resort~Hotel Free Shuttle Bus
The organiser will provide additional shuttle bus service to pick up visitors at the Border Gate and at the Hong Kong-Macau Maritime Terminal at 08:00 and 09:00 on 18th October, The Venetian Macao~Resort~Hotel will also provide free shuttle buses at Hong Kong Macao Maritime Terminal and Border Gate daily from 10:00 to 12:00 midnight and at Macau Airport daily from 11:00 to 21:00, which go directly to The Venetian Macao~Resort~Hotel. If you have any query, please contact the on-site MIF staff or call at tel: (853)2871 3913
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that in light of the Summer holidays, the number of visitor arrivals in package tours reached 387,518 in August 2007, which surged by 65.6% year-on-year. Visitors from Mainland China (282,834), Hong Kong (29,954) and Taiwan, China (27,753) recorded remarkable growth of 58.6%, 166.1% and 78.1% respectively compared with August 2006. In the first eight months of 2007, visitors arrived in package tours rose by 39.3% over the same period of 2006 to 2,664,390. In August, the number of Macao residents travelling in package tours dropped by 23.9% year-on-year to 25,978. Mainland China, Japan, and Thailand were the three most popular tour itineraries, which accounted for 72.3%, 7.1% and 6.2% of the total respectively. In the first eight months of 2007, Macao residents travelling in package tours dropped by 23.4% over the same period of 2006 to 145,339. Meanwhile, 53,597 residents travelled under individual arrangements using services provided by travel agencies, an increase of 33.9% over August 2006. Hong Kong (59.7%), Mainland China (16.0%) and Taiwan, China (11.7%) were the major destinations. In the first eight months of 2007, Macao residents travelled under such arrangements increased slightly by 0.8% compared with the same period of 2006 to 250,025. Along with the opening of a new hotel in August, at the end of August 2007, the total number of guest rooms available in the hotel sector increased further by 3,987 (+33.8%) from a year ago to 15,778 rooms. In August 2007, a total of 527,651 guests checked into hotels and similar establishments, representing a year-on-year growth of 25.7%. The average hotel occupancy rate rose by 9.5 percentage points to 83.7%, with 4-star hotels leading at 91.7%. The average length of stay of hotel guests increased by 0.08 night to 1.24 nights. The majority of the guests came from Mainland China (48.8%) and Hong Kong (31.5%). Number of hotel guests totalled 3,693,280 in the first eight months of 2007, up by 24.0% over the same period of 2006. In the first eight months of 2007, hotel guests (excluding Macao residents) accounted for 42.7% of the total number of tourists, up from 41.1% in the same period of 2006.
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Work on a new facility to alleviate the saturated capacity of the present Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal has been completed, it was announced today. The Co-ordinator of a group representing eight departments which was set up to monitor the construction of the Taipa Temporary Ferry Terminal, Ms Wong Soi Man, said a ceremony will be held next Tuesday (16 October) to celebrate the completion of the project. Ms Wong, who is also the Director of Port Authority, said as the number of visitors continued to increase every year and the Taipa ferry terminal would not be completed until the end of 2009, it was necessary to build a temporary terminal. She said the temporary terminal would complement the policy of developing the conference and exhibition industry in Macao, which facilities have recently came on stream. The new maritime facility, costing 2.18 billion patacas, has three berths that could accommodate two 300-400 passengers vessels and one 1000-1200 passengers vessel at one time, according to the Director of the Office for Infrastructure Development, Mr António José Castanheira Lourenço. The acting Chief of Transportation Department of the Land, Public Works and Transport Bureau, Mr Cheong Ion Man, said the terminal could be reached on buses numbers 21, 26, AP1, MT1 and MT2. Members of the cross-government departments group comprised the Port Authority, the Office of Infrastructure Development, Office of the Secretary for Security, Land, Public Works and Transport, Macao Customs Services, Public Security Forces Affairs Bureau, Public Security Police Force and Fire Services Bureau.
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Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO) is organizing a new series of seminar for professionals interested in convention and exhibitions organization, with the first being held today. The speakers are MGTO’s consultants on business tourism development, Gary Grimmer and Mike Williams. The seminars are divided into two main topics, “Meetings Business: Getting Your Share” and “Building Your Business: Developing the Convention and Incentive Market for Macau”, each involving a several day training program. “Meetings Business: Getting Your Share” is a four day training series, to be held today, October 15, December 4 and 11. The seminars target top sales, marketing and service managers of business that have an involvement or interest in the meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (MICE) industry. The “Building Your Business: Developing the Convention and Incentive Market for Macau” training series will be held on October 16 and December 6. This training series are tailored for owners and operators of business that have an involvement and interest in the MICE industry. The training series aim to help participants understand the MICE market, how it is changing, how customers think, how to be more successful in their sales and customer service, the sales opportunities that are being created and how to get involved. MGTO director, João Manuel Costa Antunes, said “MGTO has been giving its full support to the development of the business tourism industry in Macau, actively contributing to the implementation of the government policies for this area. In this regard, the task of training is fundamental. The organization of training programs enables the Macau convention and exhibitions industry to improve its performance, which is essential for its development. To conduct the seminars, we have invited two distinguished experts with rich experience in the conventions industry that we hope can provide fresh information and ideas.” He added that “for more than a year, the MGTO’s Macau Business Tourism Centre has been coordinating, supporting and organizing business tourism activities and training programs. In the next two years, various mega-conventions will be held in Macau and the Centre will continue to perform its role in the facilitation of the development of business tourism in Macau.” The speakers of the seminars are two experienced, well-connected and knowledgeable MICE experts. Gary Grimmer is the CEO of the international consultant company on business tourism Gary Grimmer & Company. Prior to starting is own company, he was CEO of the Convention Bureau in Melbourne, Australia, and bureaux of Portland and Albuquerque, in the US. He also serves as chairman of ConventionWorks, a global convention industry consulting network. Born in the US, he lives in Australia. Mike Williams joined Gary Grimmer & Company as senior consultant in February, 2007. Prior to that he served as general manager sales of the Melbourne Convention Bureau where he led the community’s bid teams to secure major international and national business events to the city. He also oversaw strategic planning and marketing programs within the Bureau. This press release is available at: www.macautourism.gov.mo
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Macau International Airport will conduct a biennial “full-scale emergency exercise” from 04:00 to 07:00 on 12 October 2007, which has been scheduled in the 2007 year plan by the Facilitation and Security Committee. The exercise will simulate an accident of an aircraft that lands hard on the runway. The aircraft disintegrates and the passengers encounter different injuries. The objective of the exercise is to provide continuous training to the airport personnel for equipping them with the adequate capacity to activate the contingency measures and procedures in case of an emergency. Coordinated by the Administration of Airports Ltd., the exercise will involve the participation of all the entities responsible for the safety and the security of the Macao airport. In accordance with the guidelines of the International Civil Aviation Organization, exercises simulating real situations shall be performed periodically to test and evaluate airport emergency plans. To ensure that Macau International Airport is a safe and secure airport in the world, two exercises are carried out every year to simulate serious incidents likely to be encountered and to assess the capacity of the airport personnel and the cooperation among them in dealing with such emergencies.
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To cope with the 12th Macao International Trade & Investment Fair, Macao Post announced that a Temporary Post Counter will be set up at Venetian Macao Convention & Exhibition Center, on 18th to 21st October 2007, providing the commemorative postmark cancellation service for the “12th Macao International Trade & Investment Fair”. A commemorative envelope priced at MOP2.00 will be issued, together with the various philatelic products available for sale during the above activity. The service hours are as following: 18/10/2007 12H00 to 18H00
19-20/10/2007 10H00 to 18H00
21/10/2007 10H00 to 17H00 Welcome to visit and collect Macao Stamps.
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Respond to the Universal Postal Union for the celebration of the World Post Day, the Postal Administration achieves various activities relative to this event. Macao Post announced that a Temporary Post Counter will be set up at our Philately Shop located at Macao Post Headquarters and the Communications Museum on 9th October 2007 providing the commemorative cancellation service for the “World Post Day – UPU”. Opening hours as following: Philately Shop of Macao Post Headquarters: 9H00 – 17H30 Philately Shop of
Communications Museum: 9H30 – 17H30 A commemorative envelope will be distributed to public, and various philatelic products will also be available for sale during the above activity. Welcome to visit and collect Macao Stamps.
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Respond to the Universal Postal Union for the celebration of the World Post Day, the Postal Administration achieves various activities relative to this event. Macao Post announced that a Temporary Post Counter will be set up at our Philately Shop located at Macao Post Headquarters and the Communications Museum on 9th October 2007 providing the commemorative cancellation service for the “World Post Day – UPU”. Opening hours as following: Philately Shop of Macao Post Headquarters: 9H00 – 17H30 Philately Shop of
Communications Museum: 9H30 – 17H30 A commemorative envelope will be distributed to public, and various philatelic products will also be available for sale during the above activity. Welcome to visit and collect Macao Stamps.
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Immigration authorities recorded a total of 1,252,744
crossing the six immigration checkpoints of the Macao SAR from 29th September to 1st October 2007. Total number of arrivals stood at 641,005
with Border-gate: 484,514
Lotus Bridge: 15,828
Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal: 115,622
Inner Harbour Wharf Nº14: 10,139
Macao International Airport: 14,247
Zhuhai-Macao Crossborder Industrial Zone: 655 Total of departures stood at 611,739
with Border-gate: 463,285
Lotus Bridge: 12,423
Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal: 111,501
Inner Harbour Wharf Nº14: 5,684
Macao International Airport: 18,216
Zhuhai-Macao Crossborder Industrial Zone: 630 Meanwhile, total number of tourist arrivals in that period stood at 351,737
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