News

Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that a total of 1,087 new companies were incorporated in the third quarter of 2016, a decrease of 139 year-on-year. Total value of registered capital dropped by 67.1% to MOP124 million, of which registered capital of Business Services (MOP18 million) down significantly by 93.9%. Analysed by industry, there were 364 new incorporations operating in Wholesale & Retail and 257 in Business Services. In the third quarter of 2016, companies in dissolution totalled 163, and the value of registered capital of companies in dissolution amounted to MOP30 million. Analysed by size of registered capital, there were 783 new companies (72.0% of total) registered with capital under MOP50,000, and the total value of capital was MOP20 million. On the other hand, there were 23 new companies registered with capital of MOP1,000,000 or over, and the total value of capital amounted to MOP63 million (50.4% of total). As regards origin of capital, the majority of the capital came from Macao (MOP84 million) and Mainland China (MOP20 million) in the third quarter of 2016. Capital from the 9 Provinces of the Pan-Pearl River Delta Region totalled MOP15 million, of which 12 million were from Guangdong province. Analysed by combination of shareholders, there were 730 new companies established solely by Macao shareholders, and 101 joint ventures between shareholders from Macao and other countries or regions. In the first three quarters of 2016, a total of 3,345 new companies were incorporated, down by 630 year-on-year; total value of registered capital decreased by 57.1% to MOP387 million. Number of companies in dissolution totalled 587, and the value of registered capital of companies in dissolution amounted to MOP140 million. At the end of the third quarter of 2016, number of registered companies totalled 55,816, an increase of 3,637 from a year earlier.
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Prof Philip Chen, dean and chair professor of the Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Macau, recently was recognised as one of the 2016 Outstanding Electrical and Computer Engineers (OECE) by the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at his alma mater, Purdue University. OECE honorees are engineers who represent the finest in their fields; and who embody the spirit of Purdue Engineering, applying a world view to work that has a universal impact. The award aims to recognise the achievements of Purdue alumni. Prof Chen is the editor-in-chief of the IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Systems. He is the first scholar from Macao to be appointed editor-in-chief of an IEEE journal. Former editors-in-chief of this journal include Andrew Sage, a member of the United States National Academy of Engineering (who received the Purdue OECE Award in 2010); Madan Singh, a late chair professor at the University of Manchester, United Kingdom; Donald Brown, William Stansfield Calcott Professor at the University of Virginia, United States; and Witold Pedrycz, professor at the University of Alberta, Canada. Prof Chen is also an associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics, and IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems, a steering committee member of IEEE Transactions on Big Data, and vice editor-in-chief of the Communications of Chinese Association of Automation (published by the Chinese Association of Automation under the Chinese Academy of Sciences). He was the president of IEEE’s Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society (IEEE SMC) for the 2012-2013 period, and now serves as its Senior Past President in charge of Fellow and Awards. He was a Distinguished Lecturer of IEEE SMC from 2010 to 2015.
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The Commission Against Corruption (hereinafter referred to as the “CCAC”) releases the “Investigation report on the granting of public car park management service by the Transport Bureau”. It is pointed out that in the course of the outsourcing of public car park management services, the Transport Bureau (hereinafter referred to as the “DSAT”) often replaced the statutory “operation contract” by the “short-term management services contract” and “split” the management service, so that the amount of grant was under MOP750,000 and the contract execution period was less than six months to avoid the statutory stipulation of open tendering and signing of notarial contracts. In addition, there was a lack of proper supervision of the DSAT regarding the parking income to be turned over by the management companies, which was a serious violation of the fiscal disciplines of the public departments. The CCAC considers that the problems revealed in the report reflected the defects and loopholes in the internal monitoring mechanism and the financial operation of the DSAT. The leadership of the DSAT should review comprehensively the problems in the granting of public car park management services and rectify them as soon as possible. In April last year, the CCAC cracked down a case in which the chief and his subordinates of the Transportation Management Division of the DSAT colluded with the management companies and took advantages of their positions to manipulate the granting of service contracts of public car park management and from which illicit advantages were received. The sum involved totaling nearly MOP67 million and the illicit profit was about MOP19 million. During the process of the criminal investigation of the case, the CCAC found that in addition to the subjective criminal intent of the persons involved to achieve the purpose of the crime through various means, the DSAT had serious defects in the outsourcing process and internal supervision mechanism of public car park management services, resulting in the failure of timely detection and curbing of the illegal acts, thus objectively served a pampering and facilitating effect on the occurrence of the case. Thus, investigation on the relevant issues is commenced. According to the Regulations of Public Car Park Services, the Public Administration shall, through open tendering for the “operation contract”, outsource the management of a public car park to a private entity. Under an “operation contract”, the management company that operates the car park shall be self-financing and bear all the costs for running the car park, including the expenses on purchasing equipment. All the revenue shall go to the management company after an amount of it is paid to the Public Administration as “pecuniary returns”. However, the CCAC found that the DSAT that played the supervisory role did not adopt the “operation contract” without providing sufficient justifications. Instead, it repeatedly signed the “short-term management services contracts” with management companies according to Decree Law no. 122/84/M, where the management services of the car parks were outsourced to the management companies, which in return received a certain amount of service fee. The DSAT was also found to have constantly split the orders of the management services. Since 2003, 39 of the 46 public car parks in total have signed 341 “short-term management services contracts”. The CCAC considered that such practice by the DSAT obviously evaded the signing of “operation contract” and the stipulations that open tendering shall be called for the contract involving more than MOP750,000 and that a notarial contract shall be signed for a service to be run for more than six months. Such practice has violated the “principle of legality” and impaired the dignity and authoritativeness of the law. Moreover, the existing statutory systems and procedures were totally ignored and finally they were made used by criminals as means of manipulating the grant of car park management service contracts for the purpose of gaining illicit advantages. The CCAC also found that when the DSAT purchased the equipment or repair services of car parks, it always “passed the buck” to the management companies to submit quotations from other professional companies. The DSAT exempted the procedure of price inquiries without stating the reasons and directly granted the projects to the management companies which did not have the conditions of providing relevant equipment or works. Moreover, the DSAT failed to effectively supervise the parking income that the car park management companies should pay to the government and the truthfulness and accuracy of the amounts of the payments it had received. For some of the companies which always delayed the payments of parking income, the DSAT did not take effective measures to dun for the payments. It even paid those companies the management service fees promptly and suggested granting the new contracts to them. Such practices have seriously contradicted the fiscal disciplines of public departments, causing a huge risk to public funds. The DSAT’s failure to supervise the management companies was firstly caused by the defects of the internal supervision mechanism. In fact, there is a complete and strict procedure to monitor the accounts of public departments. It is impossible for a division to manipulate the accounts. The DSAT’s negligence to the defaulted payments reflected that there were serious loopholes existing in its internal financial operation. The CCAC pointed out that in the case involving the chief of the DSAT, the evasion of the use of open tendering procedures and the use of “written price inquiries” and even “direct grant” to particular companies to manipulate the management services of some of the public car parks had become the tools of obtaining illicit benefits. Although criminal sanctions were imposed on the person involved in the case due to his illicit acts, the chief of the Transportation Management Division only possessed the right of suggestion while the superiors and leaders of the division had the responsibilities and competence to review and approve the work. It is worth the DSAT and its supervisory body to seriously study whether the case involved the default and defect of supervision of the concerned leaders and superiors. The CCAC believed that the although the problems found in the investigation was about the procedure of outsourcing public car park management service and the internal supervision mechanism of the DSAT, the issues that they reflected, including not following the law strictly and even deliberately evaded the law or statutory procedures, lax or formalistic internal supervision, were not unique in the procedures of procurement or service outsourcing run by public departments. A large part of the problems existing in the procedures of procurement or service outsourcing run by public departments do not constitute administrative illegality or misfeasance and even crimes such as corruption. Therefore, it is difficult for the supervisory entities including the Commission of Audit and the CCAC to stage a direct intervention. However, if these issues are not redressed promptly, they will give rise to corruption crimes. The CCAC pointed out that evasion of statutory systems or procedures with unreasonable excuse not only exists in the DSAT but also in other public departments. In particular, the practice of “splitting” an order of purchasing a complex or constant service into several contracts in order to evade the statutory requirements for open tendering or signing of notarial contract is not rarely seen. The reason for most of the cases that the public departments choose to evade the requirements for open tendering or signing notarial contracts in procurement procedures is to simplify the procedure and save time. However, violation of the “principle of legality” shall not be the cost for boosting administrative efficiency. Weakening the openness and transparency of procurement procedure not only makes it difficult for the Public Administration to choose the service of the best quality at reasonable price but also increases the risk of occurrence of corruption and power abuse. The public departments shall strictly follow the provisions about open tendering or signing of notarial contracts under the prerequisite that there is no revision of the current law, while the Public Administration shall make adjustments to Decree Law no. 122/84/M and other related regulations according to the reality and social development in order to strengthen the relevant monitoring and rectification systems as well as simplify public procurement procedures. The CCAC deemed that when a public department procures goods or services directly from a supplier, it must state the reasons why the procedure of “written price inquiries” cannot be carried out or why the exemption of the inquiry process of price comparison among the suppliers can be more beneficial to the public interests of the Macao SAR. It could not give some dubious reasons or simply cite a certain paragraph or article from the law, otherwise, it is in violation of the provisions of the law. During the procurement procedures, the public departments must be cautious with the adoption of such special, exceptional regime of “direct grant”, sufficient reasons must be stated so that it would not be used as a means of seeking unlawful advantages. The CCAC finally pointed out in the report that the leadership of public department shall strictly examine whether the suggestions made by their subordinates accord with the law instead of accepting all of them without any evaluation. They shall always be clearly aware of their responsibilities for the operation of the personnel, finance and administration of the whole department. For the irregular and even illegal acts existing in the department, they shall not turn a blind eye to them without any worries for the reason that they do not seek any illicit advantages from them, because lack of effective management and supervision will objectively give rise to crimes including corruption. The full text of the report is downloadable from the CCAC’s website.
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In order to strengthen the understanding of the convention and exhibition industry regarding the “Regulation on Prohibition of Illegal Work”, and to effectively assist local and international event planners to organize activities in Macao, the Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM) and the Labour Affairs Bureau jointly organized a “Seminar on Rights and Obligations in Labour Relation – Session for Convention and Exhibition Industry”, on 28 October (Friday), at the Macau Business Support Centre. The seminar was aimed to enhance awareness of convention and exhibition industry regarding the provisions and clauses of the “Regulation on Prohibition of Illegal Work”, which will help alleviate challenges faced by the industry in regard to labour relations and human resources management. During the seminar, representatives from the Labour Affairs Bureau provided detailed explanations on labour laws and regulations regarding the employment of non-resident workers responsible for instructing, technical or monitoring tasks during the events organized in Macao. The Labour Affairs Bureau officials also shared relevant examples with more than 80 participants from the local convention and exhibition industry, strengthening their understanding on relevant labour laws and regulations. Lots of participants raised questions enthusiastically. Both the Government representatives and members of the convention and exhibition industry benefited from the interaction during the seminar. The participants included the Executive Director of IPIM, Mrs. Irene V. K. Lau and the Deputy Director of the Labours Affairs Bureau, Mr. Chan Un Tong. More than 80 people from the local convention and exhibition industry attended the seminar, including representatives from Macao M.I.C.E. industry associations, hotels, venue providers, local and overseas professional conference and fair organisers and destination management companies.
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University of Macau (UM) student Leong Kin Man won the championship at the 14th Portuguese Speech Contest held today (1 November). The theme of this year’s competition was ‘the art of life’. In his speech, Leong discussed the joy and challenges of learning Portuguese, how his study trip in Portugal improved his spoken Portuguese, and interesting anecdotes about local culture. Leong is from the Faculty of Law, enrolled in the 5-Year Bachelor of Law Programme (conducted in Chinese and Portuguese). He is grateful to the professors from the Department of Portuguese for their guidance, which helped him overcome the various difficulties in learning the Portuguese language. ‘During my first year at UM, I went to Portugal to study as an exchange student, which gave me a good grounding in the language,’ he says. ‘The good language learning environment at UM not only stimulates my interest in the Portuguese language and culture, but also allows me to put what I’ve learned into practice.’ Organised by UM’s Department of Portuguese, the Portuguese Speech Contest is an annual event that aims to provide a platform for local college students enrolled in Portuguese programmes to showcase their language skills. The second, third, and fourth prizes of this year’s competition went to Peng Ying Ying from Macau University of Science and Technology, Marcelino Luis Do Rosario Sousa from Macao Polytechnic Institute (IPM), and Tu An from IPM, respectively.
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For the implementation of Section 2b), Article 10, Law 4/95/M of 12 June, Consumer Council collects prices of fresh pork from wet markets and supermarkets for consumers’ reference on 1 November. The mentioned data collected during 26 October to 1 November are used for comparing the average selling price of the same products from Zhuhai and Hong Kong. The relevant data has been uploaded to the Council’s website for consumers’ reference. The specific price surveys on fresh pork and vegetables are now available on the Council’s website (www.consumer.gov.mo), iPhone & Android ‘Supermarket Price Information Platform’ app, and the Council’s WeChat Account page. The relevant surveys include the average selling prices of local fresh pork and vegetables, and comparison on the respective the average selling prices rom Zhuhai, HK, and Macao. Results of specific product price surveys on refrigerated and frozen pork are released The Council also conducted its specific price surveys on refrigerated and frozen pork on 1 November. Price data of the mentioned surveys have been uploaded to the Council’s website (www.consumer.gov.mo). For enquiry, please call 8988 9315.
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Organised by the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC) and co-organised by the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau (IACM), the second edition of the “Tap Siac Craft Market” of this year will be held from 17 to 20 November (Thursday to Sunday) at Tap Siac Square, featuring a total of 24 handicraft workshops. Interested parties are welcome to register for the workshops from today through IC’s website Activity Registration System . The fee for each workshop is MOP50. The workshops at Tap Siac Craft Market comprise a variety of courses, namely, “Simple Long Clip”, “Baby Hugs Bear”, “Pure Silver Pendant”, “Leather Notebook”, “Pure Silver Earrings”, “Preserved Flower Nightlight”, “Children’s Story—Caterpillar’s Magical Flying Machine (Kite-making)”, “Pressed Flower Music Box”, “Woollen Chicken”, “Handmade Luna Lamp”, “Pure Silver and Natural Stone Ring”, “Handmade Accordion Book”, “Embroidering x Watercolour Fabric Necklace”, “Baby Hugs Bunny”, “Making Card Holder/Wallet with Milk Carton”, “Natural and Artistic Handmade Soap”, “Dream -catcher”, “3D Wool Fibre Painting”, “Hand-stitching Sewn Binding for Christmas Notebook”, “From Paper to Book—A Storybook in Your House”, “Christmas Preserved Flower Wreath”, among others. Workshop instructors are the booth operators as well as cultural and creative professionals from Macao, Guangzhou, Malaysia and Singapore. Residents and tourists may join the activities and experience the fun of handicrafts making. For more information about the dates and content of the workshops, please check IC’s website Activity Registration System (www.icm.gov.mo/eform/event). Online registration is available from today until Thursday, 10 November, 5pm. Successful applicants will be selected by drawing lots and will be notified by SMS for paying the registration fees at designated IC libraries in a specific period of time. On-site registration and payment will also be available, subject to availability. For more information about the Craft Market, please visit the Cultural Affairs Bureau website (www.icm.gov.mo), the Macao Cultural and Creative Industries Website (www.macaucci.com), or the “Tap Siac Craft Market” page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/MacaoCraftMarket). For enquiries, please contact Ms. Wong, staff member of IC, through tel. no. (853) 2892 4040 during office hours.
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The Macao Orchestra, under the auspices of the Cultural Affairs Bureau, will present the concert “Journey into the World of Music - Peter and the Wolf” on Sunday, 18 December, at 2:30pm, at the Macao Tower Auditorium. In this concert, the Macao Orchestra plays the classical music fairy tale “Peter and the Wolf” in collaboration with Platypus Theatre from Canada, whose humorous narrative and choreography, accompanied by particular instruments, will surely encourage the imagination of both children and adults. The concert is suitable for children aged three or above, and tickets are now available at Macau Ticketing Network. The work “Peter and the Wolf”, written by Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev, is one of the most popular classical music works for children to cultivate their musical taste. Each character in the story is represented by a different instrument, for children to learn more about musical instruments in an interesting manner. Moreover, the famous Platypus Theatre from Canada was specially invited to perform live in the concert, drawing the audience into the story while bringing joy and musical inspiration to children. The assistant conductor of the OM, Francis Kan, will lead this classic in a vivid way and interact with the audience, allowing the families to have a pleasant afternoon. Tickets for the concert “Journey into the World of Music - Peter and the Wolf” are priced at MOP120, and the event will be conducted in Cantonese and English. Ticketing hotline: (853)2855 5555. For details of OM’s concert seasonprogramme, please visit Macao Orchestra’s webpage www.icm.gov.mo/om or follow its official WeChat account “Macao Orchestra”.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the average daily wage of construction workers decreased by 2.5% quarter-to-quarter to MOP768 in the third quarter of 2016, due to reduction in overtime following the completion of large-scale entertainment construction projects in Cotai. The average daily wage of local construction workers (MOP961) dropped by 2.1% quarter-to-quarter, while that of non-resident construction workers (MOP687) rose by 2.2%. The average daily wage of skilled & semi-skilled workers was MOP773, down by 3.5% quarter-to-quarter. Among them, the average daily wages of structural iron erectors (MOP790), painters (MOP719), bricklayers & plasterers (MOP651) and concrete formwork carpenters (MOP820) decreased by 12.0%, 10.8%, 10.6% and 7.8% respectively, while the wages of air-conditioning mechanics (MOP849) and carpenters (MOP1,142) increased by 3.2% and 2.9%. Meanwhile, the average daily wage of unskilled workers was MOP403, up by 2.5%. After discounting the effect of inflation, the wage index of construction workers (100.0) for the third quarter of 2016 decreased by 3.0% quarter-to-quarter in real terms, and that of local construction workers (125.1) dropped by 1.7%. As regards construction materials, the average price of concrete fell by 3.5% quarter-to-quarter to MOP797 per cubic metre in the third quarter of 2016; the average price of spiral & round reinforcing steel bars edged down by 0.2% to MOP4,410 per tonne. Meanwhile, the price index of construction materials for residential buildings was 131.9 in the third quarter of 2016, down by 1.1% quarter-to-quarter.
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To celebrate the Macao – Foshan Joint Stamp Exhibition, Macao Post announces that a Temporary Post Counter will be set up at the Gallery of Macau University of Science and Technology at 10:00 to 17:00 on 5th November 2016 providing the commemorative postmark cancellation service for the “Macao – Foshan Joint Stamp Exhibition”. A commemorative envelope will be distributed to public, and various philatelic products will also be available for sale during the above activity. Welcome to visit and collect Macao Stamps.
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