News

Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) and delegates of the local travel trade are joining the China International Travel Mart (CITM) inaugurated in Shanghai today (11 November) to enhance their connections with tourism industry partners from the Mainland and overseas, as well as to promote Macao as a World Centre of Tourism and Leisure. Organized by China National Tourism Administration (CNTA), Civil Aviation Administration of China and Shanghai Municipal People’s Government, CITM 2016 is held in Shanghai New International Expo Centre from 11 to 13 November. CNTA Chairman Li Jinzao, Mayor of Shanghai Yang Xiong, Vice Mayor Zhao Wen and Minister of Tourism and Sports of Thailand Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul officiated at the opening ceremony together with other personages. MGTO Director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes and the team are taking part in the event together with local travel trade delegates on behalf of 14 enterprises ranging from hotels, travel agencies to airlines from Macao. This year, MGTO once again runs a booth under the theme of "Experience Macao Your Own Style" to showcase a diversity of tourism products, events and festivals Macau offers. MGTO also offers Macao’s latest tourism information to the public and industry professionals, presenting Macao’s goal to become a World Centre of Tourism and Leisure. A welcome dinner has also been arranged on the day before the opening. CNTA Chairman Li Jinzao; CNTA Vice Chairman Du Jiang; Vice Mayor of Shanghai Zhao Wen; MGTO Director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes; Deputy Commissioner for Tourism of Tourism Commission of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Aaron Liu and Deputy Executive Director of Hong Kong Tourism Board, Becky Ip were present among others. During the dinner, guests updated each other on the latest tourism trends and development directions of their destinations. Being one of the largest travel marts in Asia, China International Travel Mart is an annual event held in Shanghai and Kunming alternately. According to the statistics provided, CITM 2016 features 2,500 booths and covers a total floor area of around 57,000 square meters. As a key platform for the tourism industry, CITM enables Macao travel trade to promote and sell local tourism products to their counterparts from Mainland China and across the globe.
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According to statistics released today by the Monetary Authority of Macao, new approvals of residential mortgage loans (RMLs) and commercial real estate loans (CRELs) both increased in September 2016. With regard to the outstanding balance, RMLs increased whereas CRELs witnessed a mild decrease. New lending approved In September 2016, new RMLs approved by Macao banks increased by 44.3% month-to-month to MOP5.4 billion. Of which, new RMLs to residents, accounting for 98.8% of the total, rose by 49.2% to MOP5.3 billion, mainly attributed to larger loan size recorded for a number of approvals. In contrast, the non-resident component dropped by 60.6%. When compared with the same period of 2015, new approvals of RMLs increased by 48.2%. New RMLs collateralised by uncompleted units (i.e. equitable mortgage) decreased by 14.8% from the preceding month to MOP252.9 million. Attributable to a higher comparison base in the same period last year, new equitable mortgage approved dropped by 75.4% on an annual basis. New CRELs rose by 21.5% month-to-month to MOP9.0 billion. On an annual basis, new approvals of CRELs declined by 13.9%. Outstanding balances As at end-September 2016, the outstanding value of RMLs was MOP178.6 billion, an increase of 0.4% from one month earlier or 5.0% from a year ago. The resident component made up 93.5% of the total. When compared with the previous month, outstanding RMLs to residents and non-residents rose by 0.3% and 1.0% respectively. The outstanding value of CRELs reached MOP169.8 billion, down slightly by 0.1% month-to-month or up by 10.4% when compared with a year ago. Residents accounted for 89.0% of the loans. Compared with a month earlier, outstanding CRELs to residents decreased by 0.2% whereas those to non-residents rose by 0.4%. Delinquency ratios At the end of September 2016, the delinquency ratio for RMLs was 0.15%, virtually unchanged from a month ago but up 0.07 percentage points from a year ago. The ratio for CRELs was also unchanged from one month earlier but up 0.1 percentage point from end-September 2015, to 0.11%.
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Macao Post will participate the “China 2016 Asian International Stamp Exhibition”, located in Nanning, Guangxi, during 2nd to 6th December, 2016. To commemorate this Exhibition, Macao Post issues the commemorative envelopes and provides the commemorative postmark cancellation service on site of the exhibition. For the convenience of the philatelist, the commemorative envelope with stamp priced at MOP5.00 will also be available for sale at the Philatelic Shop of Macao Post Headquarters starting from 2nd December. You may send your mail of this cancelled commemorative envelope at the following locations *: Philatelic Shop at Macao Post Headquarters: 2nd December, 9:00 – 17:30 Post Offices: 2nd to 6th December, Service Hours to Public * No commemorative postmark cancellation service will be provided in Macao.
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To celebrate the 63rd Macao Grand Prix, Macao Post announced that a Temporary Post Counter will be set up behind the Lisboa Stand (Restriction area for ticket entry) and the Philatelic Shop of Macao Post Headquarters on 19th and 20th November 2016, providing the commemorative postmark cancellation service for the “63rd Macao Grand Prix”. Two designs of commemorative envelopes priced at MOP3.00 each will be issued on the respective dates. Various philatelic products will also be available for sale during the above activity. The service hours are as following: Behind the Lisboa Stand (Restriction area for ticket entry) 19/11 10:00 to 17:00 20/11 10:00 to 17:00 Philatelic Shop of Macao Post Headquarters 19/11 10:00 to 17:00 20/11 13:00 to 17:00 Welcome to visit and collect Macao Stamps.
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To facilitate the public and philatelists for ordering new philatelic products, please note the followings: * Annex Table
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The “Telecommunication over Decades” special exhibition at the gallery of Carmo Post Office will be open to the public starting from 11 November 2016. The opening hours are from 10:30am to 5:30pm on Fridays through Sundays, and public holidays. All are welcomed! The exhibition reflects the development of communication methods and equipment that greatly influenced the lives of the residents over the past 50 years. Visitors can experience the different methods of communication in the past at the “Store of Our Childhood” and “Home in the Past”. They may find their favorites stores in the past by “Looking up Telephone Numbers”. While playing the classic mobile ring tones at the “Mobile Communications” and “Smart Communications” areas, they may realize how mobile phone technology has brought about great convenience in our daily lives. They may also use the “Super Telephone Models” to call other telephones in the gallery. Don’t forget to take selfies at the super telephone model in the garden. 2016 STAMP FESTIVAL – A PILLAR BOX DISCOVERY JOURNEY Let’s go to see the different pillar boxes from all over the world! Pillar box is a kind of public facility that allows people to post their mails. No matter whether it is the prosperous city, quiet countryside or Polar Regions, pillar box is always an eye-catching landscape. The theme of the Stamp Festival this year is Pillar Box. There will also be a series of fun and interactive activities during the Stamp Festival which will be held from December 11, 2016 to April 7, 2017. The thematic guided visits will be lead by our facilitators to introduce about the pillar boxes on stamps, miniatures from other places and interesting stories about pillars boxes. Each guided visit takes about 20 to 30 minutes. Schools and organizations are welcomed to make reservations. “Lucky Draw of the Pillar Box Photo Mosaic” is one of the special activities. Participants only have to circle the answers on the game slip and insert it into the collection box. The participants that answer all the questions correctly will automatically enter the grand lucky draw at the end of the exhibition. We will place two mailboxes with two different cut-off times for mailing in order to “Mail to the Future”. Participants may drop in their handwritten letter or postcard and we shall post them out before February 14 and March 1, 2017 to the receivers. Museum fans are welcomed to “Like” Communications Museum of Macao on the Facebook or share the activity with your friends in WeChat, and then show their mobile phones to our facilitators to each obtain 1 Macao stamp with face value of MOP2 for posting their mails. The museum will organize four “Porcelain Painting Workshops” on January 7, February 11, March 4 and April 1, 2017. In the workshops, participants will be provided porcelain tiles pre-printed with the outline of different pillar box images for painting. The set of four different porcelain tiles from the four workshops will be a good collection of coasters at your home or gifts for your friends or relatives. “A Tour of Special Pillar Boxes in Hong Kong” is discovery trip to be held on February 3 & 4, 2017. On the first day, participants will spend an afternoon enjoying a guided visit at the museum to find out the interesting things about pillar boxes around the world. On the second day, they may invite their parents or friends to join the trip to Hong Kong. They will visit the exhibition at the postal gallery in Hong Kong Post and look for the oldest post office in Stanley to discover the changes that pillar boxes have undergone in Hong Kong. For details of the activities above mentioned, please refer to the Museum website (http://macao.communications.museum).
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The Chief Executive, Mr Chui Sai On, will deliver the Policy Address for the Fiscal Year 2017 on Tuesday (15 November) at the Legislative Assembly. The session will be held at 3pm. It will be followed by a press conference at the Government Headquarters at 5pm, when Mr Chui will answer questions from the media. The following day (16 November), from 3pm to 6pm, Mr Chui will attend a plenary meeting of the Legislative Assembly to explain his policy programme to legislators and to answer their questions. The five policy secretaries and their subordinates will present their 2017 policy guidelines to the Legislative Assembly between the hours of 3pm and 8pm, on the following dates: Secretary for Administration and Justice: 22-23 November; Secretary for Economy and Finance: 24-25 November; Secretary for Security: 28-29 November; Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture: 1-2 December, and; Secretary for Transport and Public Works: 5-6 December. Teledifusão de Macau (TDM) will transmit all of the above events live on its television and radio services. Live broadcasts can also be viewed online via the following routes: the Government Portal website of the Macao SAR (http://www.gov.mo); the website of the Chief Executive’s Office (http://www.gce.gov.mo); the website of the Legislative Assembly (http://www.al.gov.mo); and the website of the Government Information Bureau (http://www.gcs.gov.mo). Full Policy Address is also available for download on the websites of these public bodies. Users of portable devices may watch the live sessions via GCE Macao, a mobile application issued by the Chief Executive’s Office, or through MSAR News, the mobile app of the Government Information Bureau, or via the official channel for Macao Government news on YouTube (www.youtube.com/macaogcs). When the Chief Executive starts his presentation on Tuesday, hard copies of the full Policy Address, and pamphlets in Chinese and Portuguese summarising it, will be available at the following locations: the Government Head Office Auxiliary Bureau; the Government Information Bureau; the Public Information Centre; the headquarters of the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau; the Macao Central Library; the Macao Post and at the Government Printing Bureau. To ensure a better understanding of the policies, the Macao Post service will deliver a copy of a pamphlet in Chinese and Portuguese, with highlights of the Policy Address, to every household in Macao. The pamphlets will also be available to the public at other locations. They include: services centres of the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau; citizen service centres managed by the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau; centres of the Social Welfare Bureau; libraries of the Cultural Affairs Bureau; via associations, non-governmental organisations and schools.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the total population was 647,700 as at end-September 2016, a decrease of 4,800 quarter-to-quarter. Female population (332,700) accounted for 51.4% of the total. There were 1,885 live births delivered in the third quarter of 2016, an increase of 246 or 15.0% quarter-to-quarter. Male babies totalled 1,003 and the sex ratio at birth stood at 113.7, corresponding to 113.7 male babies per 100 female babies. In the first three quarters of 2016, a total of 5,188 live births were recorded, down slightly by 5 year-on-year. Meanwhile, mortality totalled 480, a decrease of 85 quarter-to-quarter; the top three underlying causes of death were Neoplasms (192), Diseases of the Circulatory System (99) and Diseases of the Respiratory System (65). In the first three quarters of 2016, mortality increased by 186 year-on-year to 1,703, of which mortality due to Neoplasms (594) went up by 32. In the third quarter of 2016, there were 1,573 Chinese immigrants and 373 individuals granted right of abode, up by 302 and 34 respectively quarter-to-quarter. Non-resident workers totalled 180,277 at the end of the third quarter, a decrease of 2,182 over the previous quarter. A total of 929 cases of marriage registration were recorded in the third quarter, down by 79 quarter-to-quarter. In the first three quarters of 2016, there were 2,912 cases of marriage registration, up by 159 year-on-year.
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The SAR Government has been paying close attention to the developments of global economy and finance as well as Macao’s monetary and financial markets. In response to possible large uncertainties in the markets, the Monetary Authority of Macao (AMCM) initiated relevant established surveillance and response mechanism today (9 November 2016) while strengthening the communication and cooperation with financial institutions in Macao. The AMCM will implement timely the standby measures if needed, in order to maintain the stability of Macao’s economy and financial system. The SAR Government stresses that the capital adequacy ratio of Macao banks is relatively high while the one-month and three-month short-term liquidity ratios both exceed 50%, which is far above the international requirement of 25% to 30%. Hence, sufficient liquidity is available to cope with unexpected events. Macao’s public finance remains stable. The preliminary estimate of Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves amounted to MOP154.9 billion (USD19.40 billion) at the end of September 2016. Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves at end-September 2016 represented 12 times the currency in circulation. On the other hand, as of end-August 2016, the preliminary estimate of Macao SAR Fiscal Reserve assets amounted to MOP438.3 billion (excluding the fiscal surplus of MOP29.3 billion for 2015). With Macao SAR’s sound public finance, stable balance of payments, credible linked exchange rate system and healthy financial system, the Government and local financial system are able to cope with volatilities in financial markets. In addition, the AMCM’s Crisis Management Group will pay close attention to changes in the international financial markets, in accordance with established surveillance indicators in order to judge the impacts on Macao’s monetary and financial markets and return on reserve investment. The AMCM will implement swiftly the standby measures, if necessary. Finally, with anticipated increased volatilities in the financial markets in the near future, the SAR Government urges the general public to invest prudently in one’s capacity and pay attention to risks.
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Consumer Council conducted its third ‘Supermarket price survey’ in November on 9 November for the implementation of Section 2b), Article 10, Law 4/95/M of 12 June. Surveyed locations included 14 supermarkets in Toi San, Ilha Verde and Fai Chi Kei areas in N. Sra. de Fátima Parish. The latest ‘Supermarket Price Survey’ is now available on Consumer Council’s website (www.consumer.gov.mo), ‘Supermarket Price Information Platform’ iPhone and Android apps, and on the Council’s WeChat account page. The survey is also available free of charge at the offices of Consumer Council, IACM’s Iao Hon and S. Domingos Markets, bookstores and libraries. With reference to the local seven parishes and the number of supermarkets in each parish, the Council has divided around 100 supermarkets into 8 areas for price collection. The Council collects prices from these supermarkets for the provision of a more comprehensive database for consumers to check price discrepancies and make price comparisons according to their desired locations. For inquiry, please call 8988 9315.
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