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Crime investigation chiefs from Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao have held their 12th working meeting in Macao today, to further enhance efforts to work closer together to combat crime cross-boundary crime.. They reviewed co-operation in police work over the past year and followed up on agreements made in the meeting last year. They briefed their counterparts on the on public security situation in their jurisdictions, exchanged views and experience on combating crime and discussed security issues. The parties have agreed on the following, among other forms of co-operation: 1.Enhancing co-operation in criminal investigation;
2.Enhancing exchanges of intelligence on gambling-related crimes;
3.Exchanging information on fraud offenders;
4.Establishing the mechanism to exchange information on cross-boundary prostitution;.
5.Enhancing exchanges of intelligence on drugs abuse and trafficking, internet-related crimes and credit card frauds; and 6.Organising joint operation to step up the fight against organised crime.
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Every year on 23 March the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and its 187 Members, as well as meteorological communities worldwide, 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 2006 was chosen the theme “Preventing and mitigating natural disasters”. This choice was made in recognition of the fact that 90 per cent of all natural hazards are related to weather, climate and water and also due to the vital role played by WMO and the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) in all countries in contributing to the prevention, preparedness and mitigation of natural disasters, as well as those arising from environmental emergencies. A synopsis of extreme events in the recent past shows their growing impact on sustainable development. This Bureau prepared a programme of approximately one month 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 reduction and mitigation of natural disasters, contributing for the sustainable development of the MSAR. In the beginning of the commemoration activities of the “World Meteorological Day 2006”, it has taken place on days 1 and 2 March the “Second Technical-Scientific Seminar on Seismology Among Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao”, which gathered seismologists, geophysics and meteorologists from the three regions. The organization of this 2nd Seminar contributed without question to the prestige of Macao in this area, in a time that the world is expecting solutions from the scientific community. The discussion results are indubitably considered fruitful, not only for the SMG staff but also for the people that work in the area of the prevention and mitigation of natural disasters. A celebration ceremony will be held at SMG headquarters, on 23 of March, with the presence of the Secretary for Transport and Public Works Eng. Ao Man Long, who will preside, with informative objectives, trough the mass media, about the importance of the Meteorology and his contribution for preventing and mitigating natural disasters in MSAR. One of the issues of the program includes a short briefing about the very important role played by the Operation Center for Civil Protection referring activities of civil protection resulted from extreme meteorological phenomena. The Remote Sensing System by Laser Beam (Lidar) of SMG, which is result of the technical collaboration between this Bureau and the City University of Hong Kong, will be inaugurated. Meteorological lectures conducted in the last three years in this occasion, are one of the activities more popular in Macao secondary schools, which reflects the great interest of the schools and students about the meteorological phenomena. In this regard there were 31 lectures attended by 5335 students, 26 lectures attended by 5616 students and 24 lectures attended 5616 students, respectively in 2003, 2004 and 2005, which confirms this enthusiasm. For this year, are already confirmed 28 lectures which will be attended by about 5200 students. Lectures in the secondary schools, which will be conducted between 13 and 31 of March, about meteorological and geophysical subjects, include areas of great interest nowadays, for instance earthquakes and their effects, air quality and health, prevention and mitigation of disasters related with typhoons, heavy rains and its impact, climate change and the Lidar System of SMG. Scientific lectures are prepared and presented by SMG Meteorologists based on the most recent findings and data concerning the themes for presentation. At last, find enclosed the message from the Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization, Prof. Dr. Michel J.P. Jarraud on the occasion of the World Meteorological Day 2006 (in Chinese, Portuguese and English).
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Information from Statistics and Census Service showed that visitor arrivals reached 1,773,926 in February 2006, corresponding to a year-on-year increase of 16.5%. As the Chinese New Year holidays continued until the beginning of February, visitors from Mainland China totalled 1,006,275, up 20.9%; visitors from Hong Kong also grew considerably by 10.4%, whereas those form Taiwan, China dropped 8.1%. Meanwhile, same-day visitors accounted for 52.9% of the total arrivals, at 939,089. Visitors came mainly from Mainland China (56.7% of the total), Hong Kong (30.8%) and Taiwan, China (6.3%). Among those from Mainland China, 565,315 (56.2%) arrived in Macao under the Individual Visit Scheme. In the first two months of 2006, the cumulative number of visitor arrivals totalled 3,435,319, a year-on-year increase of 17.5%. Mainland visitors rose 16.7% to 1,934,002, which accounted for 56.3% of the total; those from Hong Kong and Taiwan, China shared 31.3% and 6.0% respectively. Furthermore, same-day visitors made up 52.5% of the total, at 1,802,808. Analyzed by mode of transport, visitors arrived by sea surged 20.5% to 1,263,183 in the first two months of 2006, with 1,192,708 arriving at the Outer Harbour (+17.2%) and the majority of these visitors were from Hong Kong (59.8%) and Mainland China (29.6%). Visitor arrivals at the Inner Harbour leaped 130.3% to 70,475 while 62.4% were from Mainland China. At the same time, visitors arriving by land through the Border Gate rose 16.1% to 1,992,151. The majority of the visitors came from Mainland China (75.3%) and Hong Kong (17.8%). In addition, visitor arrivals by air were 179,985, up 12.1% compared with the same period of last year, with 178,010 arrived at the Macao International Airport (+12.0%). Visitors from Taiwan, China (53.5%) and Mainland China (20.9%) were the major users of this access.
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Statistics and Census Services released the results of Manpower Needs and Wages Survey for the fourth quarter of 2005. The survey coverage has been extended from Wholesale & retail trade; Transport, storage & communications to include, for the first time, Security activities; and Sewage, refuse disposal & sanitation activities; however, the own-account workers engaging in these industries were excluded. Information on the number of employees, earnings and number of vacancies was extrapolated based on the results obtained from 813 statistical units successfully interviewed, as follows: At the end of the fourth quarter of 2005, a total of 20,000 paid employees were working in Wholesale & retail trade, within which 11,088 were in retail trade. Compared with the same period of 2004, number of paid employees in Wholesale & retail trade increased 10.6%. In December 2005, average earnings (excluding year-end bonuses, holiday allowances, profit-sharing bonuses and other similar bonuses) for full-time employees in Wholesale & retail trade was MOP 6,439, up by 7.8% over the same period of 2004. Transport, storage & communications took on 6,661 paid employees, with 2,219 working in Supporting & auxiliary transport activities. Compared with the fourth quarter of 2004, number of paid employees in this sector decreased 9.7%, while their average earnings for December 2005 increased by 13.7% to MOP 11,895. Security activities had 2,872 paid employees, with an average monthly earnings of MOP 5,136. There were 519 paid employees working in Sewage, refuse disposal & sanitation activities, the average monthly earnings amounted to MOP 9,876. At the end of December 2005, Wholesale & retail trade reported to have 2,269 vacancies, of which 1,490 vacancies were in Retail trade. In addition, Transport, storage & communications; Security activities and Sewage, refuse disposal & sanitation activities had 557, 826 and 3 vacancies, respectively. In terms of recruitment prerequisites, over 60.0% of the vacant posts in the Wholesale & retail trade and Sewage, refuse disposal & sanitation activities required working experience. Most of the vacant posts in the Wholesale & retail trade; Transport, storage & communications; and Security activities required junior secondary education or lower in educational attainment. Besides Cantonese, Mandarin was the more preferable language skill in Wholesale & retail trade (49.2%), while English was more desirable in Security activities (60.7%) and Sewage, refuse disposal & sanitation activities (66.7%).
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The Heath Bureau has urged the public to help eradicate mosquitoes and keep their homes clean, following confirmation of the first case of suspected dengue fever this year. A statement from the Bureau said the 53-year-old patient was admitted to Kiang Wu Hospital on Tuesday. His condition remained stable. The construction worker started to have symptoms of dengue fever -- fever, joint pains and chronic headache -- from March 7, and developed erythemas, when was sent to hospital. The patient said mosquitoes had bitten him several times where he worked, at a construction site in NAPE. He had also visited Zhuhai twice at the end of February. His family members had no symptom of the disease. The Health Bureau dispatched a team to eradicate mosquitoes in a 200-metre radius of the construction site.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that number of visitors arrived in Macao in package tours totalled 201,060, up 10.0% over January 2005. Visitors from Mainland China (161,875) had a year-on-year growth of 11.5% but those from Taiwan, China (9,654) decreased 35.8%. In view of the Chinese New Year holidays, visitors from Hong Kong (7,917) showed a drastic increase of 82.0% over January 2005. Subsequent to the continuous improvements of the local economy and the income level of the residents, more people preferred to travel outside Macao during the Chinese New Year holidays. Number of Macao residents travelling in package tours totalled 29,011 in January, a remarkable year-on-year increase of 134.3%. Mainland China, Thailand and Taiwan, China were the three more popular tour itineraries, which accounted for 78.2%, 5.9% and 3.9% of the total respectively. Meanwhile, 32,064 residents travelled under own arrangements using services provided by the travel agencies, a jump of 80.5% over January 2005; Mainland China (33.0%), Hong Kong (30.0%) and Taiwan, China (15.0%) were the major destinations. As a result of the openings of several new hotels in the past few months, the number of guest rooms available in the hotel industry increased by 11.3% (+1,114 rooms) over the same month of 2005 to 11,015 at the end of January 2006. In addition, a total of 327,331 guests checked into hotels and similar establishments, up 8.1% over January 2005. The average hotel occupancy rate was 64.5%, a year-on-year decrease of 2.3 percentage points, the highest average was in 3-star hotels, at 70.4%. The average length of stay of hotel guests was 1.16 nights, which fell by 0.04 night compared with January 2005. The majority of the guests came from Mainland China (57.9%), Hong Kong (27.2%) and Taiwan, China (2.8%). In January 2006, hotel guests (excluding Macao residents) accounted for 39.3% of the total number of tourists, which was lower than the 42.8% in January 2005.
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The Government has stepped up measures to prevent avian influenza, following the confirmation of a human fatality associated with the virus in Guangzhou. A task force chaired by the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Mr Fernando Chui Sai On, held an urgent meeting today and decided to step up measures in three key areas -- personal hygiene, poultry management and for the early discovery of suspected cases. Mr Chui said the Government was deeply concerned and would do all it could to stop the spread of the virus; they would also communicate closely with its counterparts in the Mainland and Hong Kong. Furthermore, he said, the Macao SAR would follow all guidelines of World Health Organisation in dealing with avian influenza, and would also step up preventive measures introduced earlier. These included enhanced surveillance on imported poultry and further notices to social service organisations, schools, live poultry workers, tourism operators and travellers. The task force, called the ''Influenza Pandemic Interdepartmental Co-ordination Group'', includes representatives from the Health Bureau, the Government Information Bureau, the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau, the Public Security Police Force, the Fire Services Bureau, the Social Welfare Bureau, the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau, and the Macau Government Tourist Office. For enquires please call the 24-hour hotline (Tel: 853-561122) set up by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.
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With regard to the accident of the broken tow bar and the injury of three persons on board Air Macau’s plane which occurred at 13:20pm on 04 March 2006, the Civil Aviation Authority (AACM) has, in accordance with its “Aircraft Accident or Incident Investigation Procedures”, set up an accident investigation team to probe into the case and required the relevant entities to submit report. The accident investigation team has conducted initial data collection: inspecting the relevant tow bar which revealed damage to its head assembly, interviewing the persons involved including the ground handling staff of Menzies Macau Airport Services Ltd., the pilots and the aircraft maintenance staff of Air Macau Company Ltd. In addition, AACM has obtained the maintenance record of the tow bar and preserved the debris of the head assembly for sending to the manufacturer for analysis. AACM has required Menzies Macau Airport Services Ltd., Air Macau Company Ltd. and Administration of Airports Ltd. to submit their detailed report. In accordance with the aircraft investigation provision stated in Annex 13 of the Chicago Convention, the sole objective of the investigation of an accident or incident shall be the prevention of accidents and incidents and not the apportionment of blame or liability. AACM also follows this objective and aims at collecting relevant information to determine the cause of the accident and make recommendations for improvement. It is expected that the preliminary report, which contains factual data, will be ready after one month.
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Macao SAR Government has expressed concern after having been informed by the Mainland authorities of a confirmed case of avian flu in Guangdong province. The interdepartmental Bird Flu Response Taskforce will hold a meeting tomorrow, chaired by the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Mr Chui Sai On, to look at how to intensify disease prevention measures and implementation of the guidelines of the World Health Organisation. In the meantime, the MSAR Government will work closely with the governments of the Hong Kong SAR and Guangdong Province in exchange of information.
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The Chief Executive, Mr Edmund Ho Hau Wah, left today for Beijing to attend the opening ceremony of fourth Plenary Session of the 10th National People's Congress, scheduled for Sunday. When asked about the issue of the overaged offsprings of Macao residents in the Mainland, as he left, Mr Ho said the issue was under the authority of the Central Government and the SAR Government would continue to communicate with the Central Government over the issue. He emphasised that the issue was a matter for the Central Government and it must be dealt with in accordance with the Basic Law of the Macao SAR. He said the matter was not a simple one and it might take some time to resolve. On the salinity of drinking water in the MSAR, Mr Ho said the SAR Government was highly concerned and would work with the Central Government, the Guangdong Provincial Government and the Zhuhai Municipal Government, to find an immediate and long-term solution. He said the Secretary for Transport and Public Works, Mr Ao Man Long would visit provinces in the Mainland to discuss ways to improve the water supply system and to solve the problem of the salinity of drinking water.
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