News

The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Vietnam, Mr Pham Gia Khiem, arrived in Macao today for a two-day official visit. Mr Pham and his delegation are scheduled to meet Macao's Chief Executive, Mr Edmund Ho Hau Wah, in the evening and attend a banquet hosted by Mr Ho. During his visit, Mr Pham and his delegation is to attend a trade symposium, visit the University of Macau and some tourist attractions. Mr Pham is on a six-day visit in China at the invitation of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Li Zhaoxing. Macao is his last stop on this visit.
…

Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that total number of visitor arrivals in 2006 increased 18% over 2005 to a new record of 21,998,122; visitors from Mainland China and Hong Kong accounted for 55% and 32% of the total respectively. Mainland visitors travelled to Macao under the Individual Visit Scheme totalled 5,905,477, up by 11%. Visitor arrivals in package tours also increased 9% to 2,925,724. In 2006, number of residents travelling in package tours went down 8% over 2005 to 272,444, while those travelled under own arrangements using services provided by the travel agencies increased 12% to 372,159. The opening of 6 new hotels in 2006 increased the availability of guest rooms by 20% to 12,978. While the number of hotel guests recorded a 14% year-on-year growth to 4,680,854, the average hotel occupancy rate rose by 1.3 percentage points to 72.3%. The average length of stay of hotel guests was 1.21 nights, a slight decrease of 0.01 night compared with 2005. Per-capita spending of visitors was MOP 1,610 in 2006, up by 6% over 2005; per-capita spending of Mainland visitors topped with MOP 3,215. Compared with 2005, per-capita spending of visitors arriving by sea and by land was MOP_1,302 (+5%) and MOP 1,937 (+6%) respectively, while that of visitors arriving by air was MOP 4,723 (-3%). Per-capita non-shopping spending (excluding gaming expenses) of visitors was MOP 863, a marginal increase of 1% over 2005. Visitors from Mainland China led with MOP 1,143. Expenses on food & beverage; and accommodation took up 39% and 38% respectively of the per-capita non-shopping spending of visitors. Per-capita shopping spending of visitors posted a 11% growth over 2005 to MOP 747. Mainland visitors took the lead with MOP 2,071, while that of Hong Kong visitors was MOP_216. Spending on local food products (26% of the total shopping spending) and clothing (19%) took the largest share. Per-diem spending of visitors was MOP 1,485, an increase of 11% over 2005; visitors from Mainland China had the highest per-diem spending of MOP 2,619. The average length of stay (1.1 days) of visitors was similar to that of 2005, while the average for the tourists and same-day visitors was 1.6 days and 0.2 day respectively.
…

Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO) Director João Manuel Costa Antunes led a delegation to take part in the Intourmarket (ITM) – 2007 held in Moscow as an initiative to explore the Russian market. During the visit to Russia, MGTO is invited by China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) to join the “China Tourism Night”, a prologue to the “Year of China” in Russia. Headed by MGTO Director João Manuel Costa Antunes, the delegation, comprising of chiefs of MGTO’s Promotion and Marketing Department and Research and Planning Department, representatives of 3 travel agents and 1 convention/exhibition and shipping company in Macau, aims to promote Macau’s tourism products and build relationship with the travel trade in Russia. “Russia is an important potential market for us to explore. As ITM this time coincides with the “Year of China” in Russia, we are very pleased to be invited by CNTA to join the “China Tourism Night”. We truly believe that Russia is a forthcoming market and the tourist attractions of Macau and the Mainland, when combined together, will be a very attractive tourism product,” Director Antunes said. MGTO has set up a booth showcasing the slogan of “Experience Macau” at ITM 2007, the International Trade Fair for Travel and Tourism held from March 18 to 21 at IEC “Crocus Expo” in Moscow, to introduce the tourism industry of Macau and its latest development. Representatives of the local travel trade actively explore business opportunities through this travel fair in Russia to raise the awareness of Macau and lay the foundation to develop the source market in Russia. Representatives of Macau’s travel trade met in the fair with over 100 counterparts, who showed great interest in Macau’s tourism products. To be in line with a series of activities for the “Year of China” in Russia, Chairman of CNTA, Shao Qiwei led a large scale delegation to host a promotional activity, “China Tourism Night” in Moscow and St Petersburg on March 20 and 22, where the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG), Shanghai 2010 World Exposition National Organizing Committee, MGTO and Hainan Provincial Tourism Bureau were invited to do presentations. MGTO took this opportunity to introduce the latest tourism development and tourism products of Macau to over 400 guests. Guests participated in the “China Tourism Night” included officials from CNTA, Chinese envoy in Russia, Le Yucheng and officials from tourism departments of Russia. China and Russia enjoy close relationship in a wide range of aspects. According to the statistics of CNTA, China received over 2.4 million visitors from Russia in 2006. This press release is available at: http://www.macautourism.gov.mo
…

The Government will restructure the Public Security Police Force to offer more promotion opportunities for officers, Secretary for Security, Mr Cheong Kuoc Va, said today. Frontline officers would benefit from this as it would increase the number of senior posts, Mr Cheong said, at the graduation ceremony of the Fifth Training Programme for Public Security Forces Police Cadets. He said the Government was planning to increase the starting salary index for police officers from 195 points ($10,725 patacas) to 260 points ($14,300 patacas), in line with Macao’s latest social and economic growth. At the same time, the entry academic requirement for new officers will be raised from Form 3 to Form 5. About 200 cadets due to start training in late April would help strengthen the security forces, Mr Cheong added.
…

The Tenth Guangdong and Macao Police Authorities Working Meeting opened in Macao today, where top public security officials from the two sides exchanged ideas for enhancing co-operation. The Macao and Guangdong's delegations, comprising more than 30 officials, were led respectively by the Secretary for Security, Mr Cheong Kuoc Va, and the Director-General of the Guangdong Provincial Public Security Department, Mr Liang Guoju. During the meeting, they reviewed the achievement of their past co-operation, such as in the exchange of information and intelligence. Other areas discussed included the strengthening of intelligence and technology exchanges, efforts in combating terrorism, organised crimes, cross-boundary crimes and counterfeit currency. Both parties agreed that the mechanism of the working meeting had brought substantial achievement in the past and they would continue to co-operate and contribute to the social stability and prosperity of the two places.
…

Every year, on 23 March, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), its 187 Members, as well as the worldwide meteorological communities, celebrate World Meteorological Day. This Day commemorates the entry into force, in 1950, of the Convention that created this specialized agency of the United Nations System. For the year 2007 was chosen the theme "Polar Meteorology: Understanding Global Impacts", in recognition of the importance of, and as a contribution to, International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2008, which is being co-sponsored by WMO and the International Council for Science (ICSU). To ensure that researchers can work in both polar regions during the summer and winter months, the event will actually be held from March 2007 to March 2009. The fundamental concept of the IPY is an intensive burst of internationally coordinated, interdisciplinary scientific research and observations focused on the Earth's polar regions and their far-reaching global effects. Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau (SMG) organized a set of activities in order to inform the population about the different areas of human activities in which the meteorology plays an important role, in general, and, in particular, about the activities undertaken by SMG which contribute for the sustainable development of the Macao Special Administrative Region.The first commemoration activity of the "World Meteorological Day 2007", is "The Tropical Cyclone Name Nomination Contest", with the main objectives of the contest are to promote public awareness of the hazards related to tropical cyclones and to enhance the public understanding of the Tropical Cyclone Signal System in Macao. SMG will start to disseminate the four days forecast of the relative humidity. The forecast of this weather parameter is of great importance for different professional activities and the population in knowing before hand the condition of the content of water vapor in the atmosphere for their most varieties of objectives. A celebration ceremony will be held at SMG headquarters, on 23 of March at 10:00 a.m., with the presence of the Chief of Cabinet of the Secretary for Transport and Public Works, Dr. Francis Wong, the ceremony for the signing of the "Cooperation Agreement between Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau and the Macao University of Science and Technology in the area of remote sensing", and through the promotion of the media about the importance of the cooperation with the university in the development of interdisciplinary in scientific knowledge in MSAR. A presentation for university students about the theme of this year will also include in this occasion.
…

Information from the Statistics and Census Service showed that the number of visitor arrivals totalled 2,169,489 in February 2007, representing a notable year-on-year increase of 22.3%. As the Chinese New Year fell in February this year, visitors from Mainland China and Hong Kong registered remarkable growth of 23.1% and 24.1% respectively, whereas those from Taiwan, China dropped slightly by 1.8%. Meanwhile, same-day visitors accounted for 52.9% of the total arrivals, at 1,147,826. The majority of the visitors came from Mainland China (57.1% of the total), Hong Kong (31.3%) and Taiwan, China (5.1%). Among the Mainland visitors, 61.9% travelled to Macao under the Individual Visit Scheme, at 766,863. In the first two months of 2007, visitor arrivals totalled 4,208,257, up significantly by 22.5% over the same period of last year. Arrivals from Mainland China surged 23.8% to 2,394,004, those from Hong Kong and Taiwan, China went up by 19.3% and 4.6% respectively. Furthermore, same day visitors made up 52.4% of the total arrivals, at 2,203,079. Analyzed by mode of transport, visitor arrivals by sea went up 14.0% year-on-year to 1,440,423 in the first two months of 2007. Among them, 1,331,336 arrived at the Outer Harbour, with 61.3% from Hong Kong and 25.7% from Mainland China. Visitor arrivals at the Inner Harbour were 109,087 and 60.6% were from Mainland China. At the same time, visitors arrived by land increased 28.2% to 2,553,415, most of them arrived through the Border Gate; visitors from Mainland China and Hong Kong accounted for 75.7% and 17.8% respectively. In addition, arrivals by air were 214,419 in the first two months of 2007, up 19.1% over the same period of 2006. Among 212,105 arrivals at the Macao International Airport, visitors from Taiwan, China (44.7%), Mainland China (24.7%) and South East Asia (17.4%) were the major users.
…

Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that the Composite CPI for February 2007 rose by 1.44% over January to 112.03. The indices of Recreation & culture; Food & non-alcoholic beverages; Housing & fuels; and Miscellaneous goods & services recorded notable increase of 6.74%, 2.04%, 1.60% and 1.41% respectively, on account of the effects of the Chinese New Year. The increments were attributable to higher charges for hairdressing services, outbound package tours and meals bought away from home, as well as the general price increase of the food items, which was accompanied with higher rentals for housing and rising charges for the maintenance and repair services of dwelling. In addition, dearer prices of air tickets drove the index of Transport up by 0.71%. However, the price index of Clothing & footwear was the only section that recorded decrease, down by 2.07%, as a result of seasonal sale of Winter clothing and footwear. As the Chinese New Year took place in February this year but in January last year, the Composite CPI for February 2007 registered a larger year-on-year increase of 4.94%. Observing the changes in the average indices for the first two months can lessen the anomalous impact to the consumer prices caused by the different timing of the Chinese New Year. The average Composite CPI for the first two months of 2007 went up by 4.38% compared with the same period of 2006. For the 12 months ended February 2007, the average Composite CPI rose by 4.94% over the previous period. In addition, the CPI-A and CPI-B for February 2007 were 113.11 and 111.68, up by 1.36% and 1.40% respectively compared with January. The Composite CPI reflects the impacts of price changes on the general population. The CPI-A relates to about 49% of households, which have an average monthly expenditure of MOP 3,000 to MOP 9,999, whereas the CPI-B relates to about 31% of households, which have an average monthly expenditure of MOP 10,000 to MOP 19,999.
…

The Chief Executive of the Macao SAR Government, Mr. Edmund Ho, received the delegation led by Mr. Daniel Glazer, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Department of the Treasury of the United States of America, during their visit to Macao this morning. Both sides exchanged views on the latest development of the Banco Delta Asia (BDA) incident. The Macao SAR Government reiterated its concern and regret over the decision of the Department of the Treasury in regards to BDA. Both sides also agreed that mutual dialogue and cooperation should be strengthened in the process of dealing with the North Korean Accounts so as to come up with a satisfactory solution. The Delegation also visited the Monetary Authority of Macao, and provided information in regards to the North Korean Accounts.
…

The Monetary Authority of Macao (AMCM) notes the latest news reports in relation to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea related accounts (DPRK accounts) at Banco Delta Asia. AMCM and the parties concerned analyzed and reviewed the information provided by the United States Department of the Treasury last week in regards to their investigation on the DPRK accounts. As regards the treatment of the DPRK accounts, the process will be in accordance with the instructions of the account holders.
…