The Government Spokesperson Office and the Government Information Bureau organise a tea session with the press.
The Government Spokesperson and Director of the Government Information Bureau, Mr Chan Chi Ping, said today that the new government team was striving to strengthen its dissemination of information and its co-ordination work, to make it more standardised, institutionalised and professional. A meeting with the press would be held on a regular basis to enhance mutual communication and to listen to their opinions in optimising the system, he said. Speaking in a tea session to almost 60 media representatives from local cutlets and correspondents stationed in Macao representing oversea news organisations, Mr Chan revealed details of the plan, reviewed Bureau’s work in the past year, and the use of new media by government departments. He said the Government placed great importance not only on communication with traditional media, but also in the development of new media. To put into action the Chief Executive’s policy vision on increasing government transparency, enhancing speed and quality of responding, and making better use of the new media, every government department has put more efforts in developing a multi-media platform to better disseminate information and promote its policies. Currently, all government departments have their own websites, and there are also specific sites, for example the Wealth Partaking Scheme and life-long learning incentive scheme. Policy-making secretaries would gradually launch their websites, to collect people’s views and promote policies in various areas. Mr Chan said besides providing information on websites, more than 20 departments had also launched mobile applications providing information on portable devises ranging from transportation, weather, to emergency services in hospitals, giving more updates on the situation to help the public in choosing the services needed. More than 10 departments have subscribed to WeChat accounts, the Chinese-mobile communicating app that also offers information sharing. The Bureau had also established different channels in disseminating information, such as the government news app “MARS News”, a Youtube channel, and a recently-launched WeChat account. The Bureau was also preparing to put online the bi-monthly “Macao” magazine, and re-construct its online information broadcast system to the media, Mr Chan said.