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From 1996, “Macao, China” became Member of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and participated actively in their activities and meetings of technical cooperation, research and exchange of experiences in the regional and international level as well.. As from 1997 with the signed of the Cooperation Protocol with the Faculty of Atmospheric Science of the Sun Yat-sen University, project on the introduction of meteorological mesoscale weather prediction model was started which went further in cooperation area of research and experiences exchanges on areas of meteorology and environment. To promote some of the activities and research achievement of the cooperation as well as use as incentive for experiences exchanges among professionals in this area, SMG decided collecting some of the technical-scientific papers presented in the regional and international conferences and seminars and those published in technical journals in this area, and publish them in a Technical Collected Papers of MMGB. The preface of this Collected Papers is once again written by the Secretary for Transport and Public Works, Eng. Ao Man Long. His stimulus and continuous support made possible the publication of this second volume. The research in these last years was mainly focused in two areas of “Asia Summer Monsoon and Mesoscale Numerical Models”. The publication of the Collected Papers was also strongly supported by the China Meteorological Press of the China Meteorological Administration, and the full support of their Fifth Editorial Group which is responsible for the English edition of the “Acta Meteorologica Sinica”. The Collected Papers are edited in English with dimension of 184X260 and have about three hundred pages. A ceremony to launch the publication will be held at noon of 29 May 2006 at the SMG headquarters in Taipa Grande, which will be presided by the Secretary for Transport and Public Works Eng. Ao Man Long. The Chairman of the Typhoon Committee Advisory Working Group/Deputy Administrator of China Meteorology Administration, Dr. Xu Xiaofeng and the Director of Macao Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau, Dr. Fong Soi Kun will also attend the ceremony. Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau, 26 May 2006.
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Commissioner General of the Unitary Police Service, Mr José Proença Branco, leaves for Hong Kong tomorrow to attend the first annual tripartite meeting with his Guangdong and Hong Kong counterparts to discuss measures in the fight against terrorism. Officers from the three jurisdictions last met in December 2005 and discussed ways to enhance co-operation and the exchange of intelligence. At tomorrow's meeting, they are scheduled to discuss operations against suspected terrorists and port surveillance, in addition to other measures.
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According to the information released by the Statistics and Census Service, resident population of Macao was estimated at 498,000 as at 31 March 2006, an increase of about 27,000 compared with the same period of 2005. In the first quarter of 2006, there were 936 cases of live births, a decrease of 13.3% over the fourth quarter of 2005. Among the live births, 52.2% were male. Number of mortality cases reported was 422, major causes of which were “Diseases of the circulatory system” and “Malignant neoplasms”. Moreover, 1 case of fetal death was recorded. In this quarter, the Health Bureau received 728 cases of Notifiable diseases, which included 475 cases of “Varicella (chickenpox)”, 109 cases of “Tuberculosis of lung” and 48 cases of “Enterovirus infection”. Meanwhile, 514 cases of marriage were registered, up by 13.0% and 9.4% over the fourth and first quarters of 2005 respectively. Regarding the migratory flow, number of legal immigrants from Mainland China totalled 1,133 in the first quarter of 2006, an increase of 20.3% compared with the same period of 2005; besides, 201 illegal immigrants were repatriated. The end-period balance of non-resident workers in Macao was 47,876, up 8,465 and 19,228 persons respectively compared with the fourth and first quarters of 2005.
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The Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO) organized a series of promotional activities in 4 major cities in Japan to affirm Macau as a cultural destination for the Japanese market. From May 22 to 27, a grand line up of activities were scheduled to take place in Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe and Kyoto, taking the promotion of “2006 Macau World Heritage Year” a step further. Led by Director of the Macau Government Tourist Office, João Manuel Costa Antunes, the delegation comprised travel trade representatives from Macau and staff of MGTO. The promotional activities introduced Macau’s multi-dimensional tourism products, in particular “2006 Macau World Heritage Year” and “Macau Grand Prix” to three target groups - local citizens, media and travel trade. The activities included: “Macau Nights”, each attended by 700 to 800 Japanese citizens featuring Chinese and Portuguese music performed by famous Japanese musicians, on-site Macau visual tour and destination presentation; “Media Nights” which introduced Macau’s tourism products to some 100 local media; “Trade Workshops and Seminars” which provided the travel trade in Japan with the latest tourism updates on Macau and networking opportunities for the trade representatives of Macau and Japan. To strengthen the ties between the travel trade of the two places, MGTO met with 50 JATA (Japan Association of Travel Agents) board members to exchange information and further enhance mutual cooperation. JATA is the largest tourism industry organization in Japan with over 3,000 members from more than 90 countries and regions. MGTO also cooperated with the Japanese trade and media to promote a number of themed itineraries including “2006 Macau World Heritage Year” and “Macau Grand Prix”. From May 18 to 21, posters and video clips on Macau’s heritage sites and Macau Grand Prix are paraded on trains of Japan Railway’s Yamanote Line. Yamanote Line, with 29 stations and serving 4 million passengers per day, is the principal line of the Tokyo train network. The Japanese market has always been a major emphasis for the Macau tourism industry. Last year Macau welcomed nearly 170,000 Japanese visitors, a significant growth of 39% over 2004. The first quarter of this year saw a 17% growth in arrivals from Japan. Capitalizing on the effect of the Macau World Heritage brand and the promising future of Macau’s tourism development as various tourism facilities will soon be completed, MGTO strives to build Macau into a cultural tourism destination for the Japan market through this series of promotional activities.
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Macao has been announced as the 26th member in the 8th Steering Group Meeting of the ADB-OECD Anti-Corruption Initiative for Asia and the Pacific, held in Manila, Philippines. The Commissioner of the Commission Against Corruption, Mr Cheong U, who led a delegation to Manila from 16 to 22 May, said Macao would step up anti-corruption work and exchange experience with international members after having become an official member of the anti-graft organisation. Aside from announcing Macao's new membership, the meeting also discussed the implementation of the Anti-Corruption Action Plan for Asia-Pacific, including recent anti-corruption reform projects that have taken place since the last meeting of the Steering Group in September 2005, plus plans for upcoming reform projects in accordance with the Action Plan The Anti-Corruption Action Plan for Asia and the Pacific is the Initiative's main instrument. It defines the participating member states' objectives in building sustainable legal and institutional frameworks to fight corruption. The Implementation Plan, an integral part of the Action Plan, determines the approach to put these goals into practice.
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Macao and France will sign aviation protocol to facilitate traffic between the two places. At the invitation of the republic's Minister for Transport, Capital Works, Tourism and Marine Affairs, Mr Dominique Perben, the Secretary for Transport and Public Works, Mr Ao Man Long, left for Paris to sign the aviation protocol with France on behalf of the Macao Government, on 23 May 2006. Mr Ao is leading a delegation from aviation sector who will also visit the Airbus facilities in Toulouse city, and the aviation-training centre.
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The Secretary of Social Affairs and Culture, Mr Chui Sai On, with an official delegation from the health sector, will participate in the 59th World Health Assembly to be held in Geneva from 22 to 27 May. Macao's delegation will attend as members of the delegation from the People's Republic of China, and will be there from 22 to 24 May. In Geneva, Mr Chui will meet with the Assistant Director-General - Communicable Diseases, Mrs Margaret Chan, to exchange view on how to combat avian influenza. He is also expected to brief the WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific, Dr Shigeru Omi, on the latest prevention measures taken for pandemic diseases under the guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO). The World Health Assembly is the supreme decision-making body for WHO. It generally meets in Geneva in May each year and is attended by delegations from all 192 member states. The main function of the Assembly is to determine the policies of the WHO.
Issues to be discussed at the upcoming meeting include: strengthening pandemic-influenza preparedness and responses including the application of the International Health Regulations 2005; infant and young child nutrition; HIV/AIDS; polio eradication; sickle-cell anaemia; smallpox eradication and the destruction of variola virus stocks; prevention of avoidable blindness; international trade and health; tobacco control; and intellectual property rights.
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Information from Statistics and Census Service indicated that the Composite CPI for April 2006 was 107.55, up by 0.87% over the previous month. The increase was mainly attributable to the rising prices in new arrivals of Summer clothing; upward adjustment of the electricity fuel clause and gasoline prices on account of surging international oil prices; higher charges for outbound package tours in the Easter holidays; and the increase in the rentals for housing. As a result, the indices of Clothing & footwear; Transport; Recreation & culture and Housing & fuels rose by 1.90%, 1.79%, 1.46% and 1.39% respectively. On the other hand, the continuous price discount offered in long-distance call (IDD) led to the decrease in the index of Communication (-0.38%) compared with March. The Composite CPI for April 2006 registered a year-on-year increase of 6.30%. Average Composite CPI for January to April 2006 rose by 5.69% over the same period of 2005. For the 12 months ended April 2006, the average Composite CPI increased by 5.22% over the previous period. In addition, the CPI-A and CPI-B for April 2006 were 108.44 and 107.32, up by 0.85% and 0.86% respectively compared with March. Starting from January 2006, the CPI has been rebased to July 2004 to June 2005, apart from the compilation of the Composite CPI that reflects the impacts of price changes for the general population, two indices are compiled to show the influences of price changes for households in different expenditure ranges. 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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Information from Statistics and Census Service indicated that visitor arrivals reached a total of 1,870,314 in April 2006, representing a remarkable year-on-year increase of 25.2%. Visitors from Mainland China and Hong Kong surged 19.2% and 41.7% respectively, whereas those form Taiwan, China dropped 4.0%. Meanwhile, same-day visitors accounted for 51.3% of the total arrivals, at 960,145. Visitors came mainly from Mainland China (52.9% of the total), Hong Kong (33.3%) and Taiwan, China (6.8%). Among those from Mainland China, 451,048 (45.6%) arrived in Macao under the Individual Visit Scheme. In the first four months of 2006, visitor arrivals totalled 7,118,332, a 19.6% growth over the same period of last year. Visitors from Mainland China rose 19.7% to 3,967,829, which accounted for 55.7% of the total arrivals; those from Hong Kong and Taiwan, China shared 31.2% and 6.4% respectively. Furthermore, same-day visitors made up 52.2% of the total, at 3,714,013. Analyzed by mode of transport, visitors arrivals by sea jumped 21.1% to 2,578,482 in the first four months of 2006, with 2,445,996 arriving at the Outer Harbour (+18.0%); the majority of these visitors were from Hong Kong (58.7%) and Mainland China (30.5%). Visitor arrivals at the Inner Harbour leaped 134.2% to 132,486 while 58.7% were from Mainland China. At the same time, the cumulative number of visitors arriving through the Border Gate grew 28.8% to 4,147,087. The majority of the visitors came from Mainland China (73.9%) and Hong Kong (18.5%). In addition, visitor arrivals by air were 392,763, up 17.1% compared with the same period of last year, with 388,868 arrived at the Macao International Airport (+17.3%). Visitors from Taiwan, China (53.9%) and Mainland China (20.4%) were the major users of this access.
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The charm of Macau’s cultural junction enchanted a group of French journalists who completed a visit to the territory today at the invitation of the Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO). During the past five days, seven journalists from tourism and travel media, together with envoys from Le Monde and Le Nouvel Observateur traveled through Macau with camera and note book in hand, and open minds to collect impressions to tell French readers. For the travel journalist, Marc Michel, from Indigo magazine, “Macau’s Mediterranean side will charm French people, mainly because of the contrast with the Anglo-Saxon, more formal, side of Hong Kong.” The more than 400 years of Macau’s history are also a main attraction for French tourists, according to Indigo’s journalist. “The cultural side has a big appeal for French people and Europeans in general,” says the Parisian, who describes Macau as “a very friendly place for families to visit.” Macau’s other attractions, underlines the travel reporter, are “its good gastronomy and a big and inexpensive offer of wines – which is very important for French people.” In the eyes of Michel Creignou, who writes about the atmosphere and ingredients of the world’s different gastronomies and wines, for Elle à Table and Gault Millau, “Macau could be a different discovery of Asia for the French”. “Macau makes a kind of transition between West and East. It’s a city with its own identity compared to the traditional Asia that we know. Macau has a mixed culture and it’s the charm of this cultural mixture that makes Macau an extraordinary place,” points out Michel Creignou, who names Macanese food as a “travel gastronomy”, because it “mixes flavors and influences” that reflect the history of the territory. From last Wednesday to this Sunday, the group has explored Macau, walked through the Historic Centre, designated as World Heritage by UNESCO, visited the new tourism and leisure infra-structures, and tried the best of Macau’s gastronomy. The invitation for the French travel media to explore Macau comes in the context of MGTO to open new markets like France. Since last year, MGTO has a representative office in Paris to promote Macau in the world’s number one tourist destination. MGTO receives every year familiarization groups of different opinion leaders, including media, travel trade, academics and other areas, as a way to show Macau to the world. Last year, MGTO invited close to five thousand people for familiarization visits, one fifth of which were journalists.
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