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Statistics and Census Service released the results of Manpower Needs and Wages Survey for the first quarter of 2006. The survey coverage included Manufacturing; Electricity, gas & water supply; Hotels & restaurants; and Financial intermediation sectors, but excluded own-account workers and the insurance intermediary not directly employed by insurance companies. Information on the number of employees, vacancies and earnings was extrapolated based on the results obtained from 642 statistical units successfully interviewed, which was given as follows: At the end of the first quarter of 2006, the Manufacturing sector had 31,850 paid employees, with 22,577 working in the manufacture of wearing apparel. Compared with the same period of 2005, number of paid employees in the Manufacturing sector decreased 5.9%. In March 2006, average monthly earnings (excluding year-end bonuses, holiday allowances, profit-sharing and similar bonuses) for full time employees in this sector amounted to MOP 4,494, up by 5.0% over the same month of 2005. Electricity, gas & water supply sector had 1,039 employees, up 1.3% over the first quarter of 2005. Average monthly earnings in this sector decreased by 1.4% over March 2005 to MOP 18,162. Hotels & restaurants sector had 22,636 employees, with 13,110 working in the restaurant industry. Compared with the first quarter of 2005, number of employees went up 6.9%; the average monthly earnings for March 2006 increased by 6.4% to MOP 5,952. Financial intermediation sector had 4,531 paid employees, with 3,845 working in the banks. Compared with the first quarter of 2005, number of employees in this sector increased 7.3%; the average monthly earnings for March 2006 went up by 6.1% to MOP 13,990. At the end of March 2006, the Manufacturing sector had 7,839 vacancies, of which 6,136 were in the manufacture of wearing apparel. Hotels & restaurants sector had 3,863 vacancies, the Financial intermediation and Electricity, gas & water supply sectors had 182 and 10 vacant posts respectively. In terms of recruitment prerequisites, approximately 75% of the vacant posts in the Manufacturing sector required working experience. The majority of the vacancies in the Electricity, gas & water supply and the Financial intermediation sectors required senior secondary or higher education. English (96.7%) and Mandarin (78.6%) were the more preferable language skills for the vacancies in the Financial intermediation sector, while in the Electricity, gas & water supply sector, 80.0% of the vacant posts required English.
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According to the information released by the Statistics and Census Service, coverage of the 2005 Health Care Survey included the two hospitals providing hospital care services, 425 private clinics and health care centres providing primary health care services, as well as 211 establishments providing Chinese medicine and therapy services. There were 1,483 persons engaged in primary health care services in 2005, 558 were doctors and 318 were nurses. Number of consultations administered totalled 2,073,000, up by 7.1% over 2004. In addition, 96.9% of the 425 establishments providing primary health care were run by the private sector and the majority (381) were private clinics. Number of persons engaged in hospital care services was 2,569, within them, 888 were nurses and 454 were doctors. The two hospitals in Macao provided 984 in-patient hospital beds and the occupancy rate of the hospital beds increased by 1.1 percentage points over 2004 to 73.9%. Number of deliveries and surgical operations carried out in 2005 were 3,689 and 11,446 cases respectively. With respect to the entire health care system, the ratio of residents to doctor (excluding dentist) was 473:1 and the ratio of residents to nurse was 430:1. In 2005, there were 8,999 blood donors, an increase of 14.3% compared with 2004; the median age of the blood donors was 26.1. Meanwhile, the Blood Donation Centre provided 17,707 units of blood and blood components to the two hospitals. Within the 447 persons engaged in Chinese medicine and therapy services in 2005, 67 were doctors of Chinese medicine, 181 were Chinese herbalists, 22 were acupuncturists and masseurs, which provided approximately 620,000 consultations in Chinese medicine and therapy services in 2005.
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The 20th ITE HK (International Travel Expo Hong Kong) and ITE MICE opened this morning (15th) at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC). Mr. Shao Qi Wei, Chairman of China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) and Mr Stephen Ip, the Secretary for Economic Development and Labour Bureau of the Government of the Hong Kong SAR officiated at the Opening Ceremony. Director of the Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO), João Manuel Costa Antunes led a delegation of MGTO personnel and 28 Macau tourism industry representatives to attend the opening ceremony. Through this travel expo, MGTO aims to promote “Macau World Heritage Year”, introduce Macau’s events and festivals around the theme of “Macau A World Of Difference, The Difference Is Macau”, and present Macau as an emerging destination for Business Tourism. The 120-square meter MGTO pavilion this year is themed to emphasize “Macau World Heritage Year”, with counters for the travel trade designed to resemble the iconic buildings of the “Historic Centre of Macau”. 28 representatives from Macau’s tourism industry, including hoteliers, travel agencies, airlines and ferry companies will promote Macau’s tourism products, entertainment facilities and services to the participating trade from around the world. Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau continue to join force this year to promote regional tourism of the Pearl River Delta in ITE HK. The Expo this year has also added a new hall dedicated to business tourism, named ITE MICE (meeting, incentive, convention & exhibition) covering various types of business travels and incentive tours. This new feature has drawn tourism authorities from Bahrain, Czech, Dubai, Fiji, Hungary, Malaysia and Macau to join as exhibitors. MGTO has set up a 60-square meter pavilion in this hall to promote Macau’s budding business tourism and the upcoming large-scale MICE facilities to be completed shortly. 8 representatives from the hotel and convention and exhibition industry took part in ITE MICE. MGTO held a prize presentation ceremony for the “New Macau New Guide!” Travel Route Contest which was organized as a highlight of MGTO’s major promotional activities in Hong Kong for “Macau World Heritage Year”. By inviting proposals of a Macau thematic tour from HK travel agencies who are members of the Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong (TIC), the contest aims at re-packaging Macau with creativity. The award presentation was followed by an in-pavilion cocktail reception to facilitate business contacts and exchange with Hong Kong tourism officials and trade representatives. ITE HK is a prime tourism trade show in Asia and MGTO is one of the many supporters of this annual event, which attracts tourism boards and travel trade worldwide. The 4-day Expo this year attracted 600 exhibitors from 55 countries and regions, among which were 45 official pavilions by tourism authorities. Thousands of local and overseas travel trade are expected to take part in the event. The 20th ITE HK at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre covers an area of 13,000 square meters. The first two days are open only to the travel trade while the last two days are open to the public. The organizer also arranged a series of seminars and product presentations on the trade days while the public can enjoy a variety of cultural performances and lucky draws in the two public days.
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The Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Mr Chui Sai On, said today that the Ministerial Roundtable on Asia-Pacific Tourism Policies, being held in Macao, would provide a timely opportunity for participants to exchanges ideas. Mr Chui said at the opening of the session that the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) had worked constantly as a global forum for tourism policy issues, and provides a practical source of tourism know-how to its members worldwide. “Being an Associate Member of UNWTO, Macao has received valuable assistance and guidance in our tourism development, through projects that covered tourism marketing, tourism product development, tourism education and other aspects,” said Mr Chui. He said the ministerial roundtable provided a timely opportunity for tourism policy-makers from the Asia-Pacific regions to exchange ideas on tourism policies when challenges and uncertainties disturbing the balance of the tourism industry remain. “Over the past few years, the evolution of this industry has resulted in dynamic economic growth in related sectors. This rapid and positive development is also due in a great part to the support of the Central Government. We are proud that ‘The Historic Centre of Macao’ has been inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List last July.” He said that on the other hand, he was also fully aware that opportunities come with challenges. “The growth in visitor numbers and the sophistication of modern travellers are placing new demands on service quality. At the same time, we are not immune to external impacts, positive and negative alike.” He said Macao would play its part in the cooperative efforts to realise the objectives of the meeting.”
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that visitor arrivals in package tours totalled 273,002 in April 2006, up 20.2% year-on-year. Visitors from Mainland China (227,258) and Hong Kong (10,916) grew 27.7% and 71.2% respectively; however, those from Taiwan, China decreased 45.7% to 15,595 over April 2005. In the first four months of 2006, visitor arrivals in package tours surged 24.3% over the same period of 2005 to 1,007,824. Number of Macao residents travelling in package tours was 27,087 in April 2006, surged 39.8%. Mainland China; Taiwan, China; and Thailand were the three more popular tour itineraries, which accounted for 85.3%, 3.9% and 3.7% of the total respectively. In the first four months of 2006, Macao residents (89,007) travelling in package tours went up 20.8% compared with the same period of 2005. Meanwhile, 31,179 residents travelled under own arrangements using services provided by the travel agencies, an increase of 32.4% over April 2005; Mainland China (33.4%), Hong Kong (22.8%) and Taiwan, China (21.1%) were the major destinations. In the first four months of 2006, Macao residents travelled under such arrangements surged 35.2% to 117,007 compared with the same period of 2005. At the end of April 2006, there were 11,323 guest rooms available in hotels and similar establishments, an increase of 687 rooms (+6.5%) over April 2005. In addition, a total of 402,224 guests checked into hotels and similar establishments, a growth of 21.6% compared with April 2005. The average hotel occupancy rate reached 77.8%, showing a notable year-on-year increase of 10.7 percentage points and the highest average was in the 3-star hotels, at 86.7%. The average length of stay of hotel guest remained the same as April 2005, at 1.16 nights. The majority of the guests came from Mainland China (58.0%), Hong Kong (26.4%) and Taiwan, China (2.8%). In the first four months of 2006, number of hotel guests increased 18.4% over 2005 to 1,469,082. In the first four months of 2006, hotel guests (excluding Macao residents) accounted for 40.9% of the total number of tourists, which was slightly lower than the 41.2% recorded in the same period of 2005.
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Included in the Co-operation Programme in the Legal Field between the European Union and Macao and starting tomorrow, June 12, at 6:30 pm, at the Legal and Judicial Training Centre (Luso-International Bank Building, 18th floor), is the Seminar on “Human Rights and International Law: Some Global Challenges”. This training activity will take place daily, between 6.30 and 8.30 pm, until June 16, having as speakers Marco Ventura, Professor of the Faculty of Law of the University of Siena, Italy, and Jónatas Eduardo Mendes Machado, Assistant Professor of the Faculty of Law of the University of Coimbra, Portugal. During the five days of the seminar, will be discussed the following topics: “Human rights in the global market, economics and International Law”, “International Protection of Human rights, Human Rights between global a local understanding”, “International Human Rights Courts and alternative dispute resolution”, “Freedom of Expression and Media Responsibility” and “Human Rights and new frontiers of life: bioethics and biotechnologies”. This seminar is organised by the Legal and Judicial Training Centre, will be conducted in English and targets Law degree holders. The Co-operation Programme in the Legal Field between the European Union and Macao, which incorporates this seminar, has as its main objective the “Consolidation of the Macao Legal System” and is already in its fifth year, taking place until February 2007. The total budget for the programme is of 1.980.000 euros, shared in equal parts by the European Union and Macao. The co-ordination of the Co-operation Programme is at the responsibility of the International Law Office, being the organisation of the pertaining activities ensured by several other entities of the MSAR’s Government, namely the Legal and Judicial Training Centre, the Legal Affairs Bureau, the Economic Services and the Institute of European Studies, other than the International Law Office itself.
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The Secretary for Economy and Finance, Mr Francis Tam Pak Yuen said this evening that the outlook for Macao’s tourism service-oriented economy seems brighter, with regional tourism co-operation being one of the focuses of this year’s pan-Pearl River Delta Regional Co-operation and Development Forum. Returning from Yunnan, Mr Tam said that tourism co-operation between members of the PPRD region had been progressing at a favourable pace. He said he was delighted to see that a new guideline was agreed in this year’s forum and Macao would participate actively. Mr Tam said accessible tourism was a long-term goal for all the members of the PPRD region. He said the Macao delegation took the opportunity of the PPRD Forum to promote the intermediating role of Macao and results were satisfying. At the same time, talks with top trade officials of ASEAN countries had opened new doors for Macao-ASEAN co-operation and the SAR Government was keen to capitalise on these new links to promote further developments of Macao. Mr Tam was a key member of the Macao SAR Government delegation lead by the Chief Executive, Mr Edmund Ho Hau Wah, to attend the PPRD Forum held in Yunnan from earlier this week. The delegation returned to Macao this evening.
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The Chief Executive, Mr Edmund Ho Hau Wah, and his delegation left Kunming for Lijiang today. Mr Ho was in Yunnan Province to attend the Third Pan-Pearl River Delta (PPRD) Regional Co-operation and Development Forum and Economic and Trade Co-operation Fair. In the afternoon they visited the Old Town of Lijiang, an UNESCO World Heritage site since 1997. They are scheduled to visit the Mountain of Jade Dragon and Shuhe Old Town tomorrow and return to Macao in the evening.
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The Chief Executive, Mr Edmund Ho Hau Wah, said this evening that Macao was in favour of accessible tourism, but it should be approached practically as all destinations have its own limits besides being complementary to one another. During a joint press conference held by the heads of governments in the Pan-Pearl River Delta in Kunming, Mr Ho said Macao anticipated the realisation of accessible tourism, which was also a common goal of all the PPRD members. He said Macao, as a city where tourism was the main industry, had gained much from PPRD regional co-operation, and the approval of the “PPRD Regional Tourism Cooperation Guideline” in the PPRD heads of governments joint meeting today had further strengthened cooperation in the industry in the sense of capitalising on the complementary resources in the region and in widening the market. “But this inevitably has to run its course, as every destination have different resources which can complement one other, but at the same time, have limits of its own,” said Mr Ho. Taking Macao as an example, he said it was unrealistic to expect unlimited growth in tourist arrivals as it would not only hinder the enhancement of tourism resources, but could also bring negative impact. He said accessible tourism could only be approached in a practical way and with a perspective of generality, and all governments should keep an open mind when looking at the flow of consumer spending power. He said traffic and accommodation capacity were the first two issues they had to deal with.
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The Chief Executive, Mr Edmund Ho Hau Wah, said today Macao should further promote co-operation in tourism with its partners in the Pan-Pearl River Delta (PPRD) region in an attempt to craft the Special Administrative Region (SAR) into a unique regional tourist destination. Mr Ho was delivering a speech at a forum attended by the governors of the nine provinces in the PPRD region, the Chief Executive of Hong Kong SAR, and high-ranking officials in the region. He said despite successive increase in tourist arrivals in recent years, the lack of natural tourist attractions had restrained the development of Macao's mainstay industry. Developing regional tourism with the PPRD region, whose members possessed enormous natural tourism resources, would complement Macao, he said. Mr Ho said shared information and joint marketing would boost the competitiveness of the whole region's tourism industry. Macao should strengthen its uniqueness in order to integrate into the region, he said According to the 11th Five-Year Plan, the Central Government endorsed Macao's plans to develop its tourism and services industry in a bid to attain a moderately diversified economy. Mr Ho said Macao would be committed to the vertical diversification of its tourism industry, which included the integration of culture, leisure, business, retailing, sports, convention and meeting, fine food, gaming and entertainment. Moreover, Macao would spare no efforts to enhance its business environment, credibility and quality of its services. Speaking on the role of the MSAR in regional tourism co-operation, Mr Ho said Macao would welcome members of the PPRD to harness its status as a platform in tourism promotion, especially during major international events in Macao, such as the 44th Meeting of the UNWTO Commission for East Asia and the Pacific, the 48th Meeting of the UNWTO Commission for South Asia, the 2006 World Heritage Year, the 1st Lusofonia Games and the 2nd Asian Indoor Games. In addition, Mr Ho said Macao had plans to step up its promotion in various overseas markets and would welcome members of the PPRD to join in these campaigns.
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