News

The Secretary for Transport and Public Works, Mr Ao Man Long, said today that regular flights between Macao and Japan could be operating in the near future. Mr Ao, who led a delegation from the civil aviation sector, tourism sector and cultural sector on a visit to Tokyo and Osaka from 26-30 July, disclosed this on his return. During the visit, the delegation paid visited the Senior Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Katsutoshi Kaneda, and to the Senior Vice Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Mr Ryuji Matsunura. In the meetings, Mr Ao updated his Japanese counterparts on the latest economic development in Macao, such as launching of complete of large-scale hotels and theme parks. The Senior Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Katsutoshi Kaneda, said Macao could become one of the hottest destinations for Japanese travellers with the conclusion of an aviation treaty that would allow direct flights between the two places. The Senior Vice Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Mr Ryuji Matsunura, said the aviation treaty would not only promote tourism between Macao and Japan, but also facilitating trade as well. Mr Ao said Macao has always been attracting travelers from mainland and Taiwan: these travelers could also make Macao a transit point from which they could travel on to Japan. Mr Ao said the Japanese government supported an aviation treaty. Moreover, the delegation also visited Osaka Airport and paid a courtesy call to the Ambassador of the Chinese Embassy in Japan, Mr Wang Yi. Mr Ao and the delegation returned to Macao on 30 July.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that number of licensed vehicles in Macao reached 157,204 at the end of June 2006, of which 51% (80,684) were motorcycles and 42% (65,590) were private vehicles. Registration of new vehicles grew by 3% year-on-year to 8,604 in the first half of 2006, motorcycles and light vehicles accounted for 60% and 37% respectively. In the first six months of 2006, there were 6,382 cases of traffic accidents, a drop of 2% over the same period of 2005, resulting in 2,129 casualties and 7 of them were killed. Traffic flow by land between Macao and Mainland China rose by 8% to 1,593,182 vehicle trips. The Border Gate was the major passage that took up 81% of the total, while the Checkpoint of CoTai recorded 301,871 vehicle trips. In the first six months of 2006, arrivals and departures of commercial flights at the Macao International Airport totalled 23,387, up by 13% over the same period of 2005. Taiwan, China and Mainland China were the major routes that accounted for 48% and 35% of the total commercial flights to/from Macao. At the Outer Harbour, helicopter flights between Macao and Hong Kong registered a 2% year-on-year decrease to 7,775 ; besides, 1,400 helicopter flights were recorded between Macao and Mainland China. Passenger transport by sea between Hong Kong and Macao rose slightly by 1% to 39,937 ferry trips over the first half of 2005, while passenger ferry between Macao and Mainland China surged significantly by 37% to 7,242 trips. For containerized cargo, total seaborne container throughput reached 62,213 TEUs or 44,562 seaborne containers handled, up by 25% and 22% over the first six months of 2005. Outward air cargo handled at the Macao International Airport registered a year-on-year increase of 2% to 41,784 tonnes in the first half of 2006. Taiwan, China; Mainland China; and the Luxembourg were major destinations that accounted for 67%, 15% and 7% respectively of the total. Concurrently, inward air cargo fell by 4% to 12,715 tonnes where those from Taiwan, China took up 89% of the total. In addition, transit cargo by air increased by 26% year-on-year to 52,967 tonnes in the first six months of 2006. At the end of June 2006, number of fixed line telephone totalled 175,340; mobile telephone and stored value GSM card users reached 593,061 when the number of internet services subscribers increased by 17% to 96,549. The cumulative usage of internet services reached 54.28 million hours in the first half of 2006, up by 57% over the same period of 2005.
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Students of the Portuguese Summer Course at the University of Macau gathered at “Macau’s highest point” for a farewell dinner offered by the Macau Government Tourist Office. Macau Tower received the 270 students of the Portuguese Language and Culture Course of the University of Macau for a last meeting before returning home. Half of the participants of the XXI Portuguese Summer course came from Beijng, Shanghai, Taipei, Bangkok, Hanoi, Tokyo, Seoul and Pusan, while the remainder are local students. For the students that traveled to Macau to take part in the course, the territory offers a kind of a Portuguese experience without having to travel to Portuguese speaking countries like Portugal or Brazil. In their “luggage” they take back home more Portuguese knowledge and memories of Macau. “When I entered Macau for the first time at the Border Gate I was very excited”, says Zhu Lin, student at the Shanghai International Studies University. “By taking the course, I hope I can broaden my Portuguese ability and know better this wonderful city. Macau is very different from Mainland cities, it has very special characteristics”, describes the student from China’s biggest city. The month-long program of classes includes several workshops on Portuguese folk dances, tours around the old city streets, visits to museums and monuments, along with gastronomic events. The cultural and sightseeing tours are an important part of the course curriculum to showcase Macau, a tourism city. “These occasions are opportunities that allow all of them to see also this angle of Macau that is the hospitality, the good treatment and manners when receiving visitors”, points out University of Macau Portuguese Department director Maria Antónia Espadinha. In Macau, a city built on more than 450 years’ interchange of Chinese and Portuguese cultures, after the establishment of the Macau Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China in 1999, Portuguese is, along with Chinese, one of the official languages. The Macau Government Tourist Office supports initiatives like the Portuguese Summer Course of the University of Macau, as well as exhibitions, conferences and other events in order to help organizers to show the best of Macau to participants from other parts of the world.
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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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