News

The Government Headquarters Open Day sessions will this year be held on 15 October (Saturday) and 16 October (Sunday), from 9am to 6pm. The sessions will include a series of performances and thematic flower displays. During the two days, members of the public will have the opportunity to visit the Protocol Palace of the Government Headquarters – a brightly coloured landmark built more than 160 years ago – and its garden, located on Avenida da Praia Grande. There will also be guided tours of the ground floor of the Headquarters. There will additionally be a display in the Multi-purpose Room of the Protocol Palace, titled “Exhibition of Old Photos of Macao”. This year’s flower show is themed “Green Home”, inspired by the concept of urban dwellers that also seek a “green” life. The colourful blooms of the flower show will be in the front yard display zone, the lawn display zone and the flower rack display zone. There will be live musical performances by the Macao Police Band; and musical instrument performances, choir singing and dance performances by students from, respectively, the School of Music and the School of Dance – institutions both based at the Macao Conservatory. The original portion of the Government Headquarters – including the Protocol Palace – was built in 1849. It was used as the office for Macao heads of government prior to the establishment of the Macao SAR, and has been used for that purpose since then. Nowadays the building houses the Executive Council chamber; a Multi-purpose Room; and the Lotus Room. The office of the Chief Executive is on the first floor, together with the Green Hall, the Yellow Hall and the Blue Hall, which are for greeting guests and holding meetings and banquets. An application for digital devices called “GCE Macao” has been developed on behalf of the Chief Executive’s Office. It has more detailed information about the Headquarters and a schedule of Open Day session activities. Members of the public may download this application and at the same time enter a lucky draw game. For more information, please visit http://www2.gcs.gov.mo/openday or http://www.gov.mo.
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Organized by the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC, from the Portuguese acronym), in co-organization with the Macao Government Tourism Office and the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau, the 19th Lusofonia Festival associated with the culture of the Macao Portuguese-speaking communities will be held from 21 to 23 October, at the Taipa Houses-Museum in three consecutive days. The Festival offers excellent activities including gastronomy, music, dance and games, as well as street decoration in the surrounding areas of the Taipa Houses-Museum in Portuguese style, allowing visitors to feel like travelling in a foreign country. All residents and tourists are welcome to participate in the event, and experience the Portuguese customs and feel the Festival’s cheerful atmosphere. The 19th Lusofonia Festival Press Conference was held on 6 October at the Auditorium of the Cultural Affairs Bureau. Representatives who attended in the Press Conference included the Vice President of the Cultural Affairs Bureau, Leung Hio Ming; the Deputy Director of the Macao Government Tourism Office, Cheng Wai Tong; the Head of the Department of Cultural Events of the Cultural Affairs Bureau, Kent Ieong Chi Kin; and the Head of the Division of Recreational Activities, Cheang Kai Meng. The first edition of the Lusofonia Festival was held in 1998, aiming to celebrate the Portuguese Expatriate Day on 10 June as to honour Portuguese-speaking individuals who resided in Macao and contributed to Macao’s development. The programme of this edition is as diversified as in previous years. Different cultural booths of Macao Portuguese-speaking communities from ten countries/regions, namely Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Goa, Daman and Diu, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe, Macao and East Timor, will be set up, introducing their countries or regions’ traditional music, photographs, arts and crafts, costume, literary books and gastronomy, thereby putting vitality in the Lusofonia Festival as well as allowing visitors to have in-depth understanding of the Portuguese-speaking countries and regions’ culture. Three ensembles of the art groups from nine Portuguese-speaking countries or regions will perform different styles of music and dance every evening; several local Portuguese-speaking performing art groups will also offer performances in the afternoon and evening. Every night starting from 7:30pm, music performances by local groups will be held at the Carmo Square, allowing the public to enjoy music in a relaxed environment while tasting Portuguese-inspired delicacies. In addition, activities also include Portuguese-inspired gastronomy restaurants (providing daily roasts of Portuguese flavour at lunch and typical dishes from the different Portuguese-speaking countries at dinner), a Macau Grand Prix Simulator with the Guia Circuit raceway and Portuguese traditional games such as pole climbing, bigfoot game, tug of war and sack racing, as well as activities for children (children can ride on Irish ponies in about 1-meter height and take photographs, participate in group games for children and workshops) and a table-football competition (for under 15 and over 16 years of age in two categories). A radio station will also be installed on site to broadcast Portuguese music throughout the day. The 19th Lusofonia Festival features will be held from 7pm to 10pm on 21 October (Friday), from 12pm to 11pm on 22 October (Saturday) and from 12pm to 10pm on 23 October (Sunday) at the Taipa Houses-Museum, featuring singing, dancing, games and gastronomy in three consecutive days. In this 19th edition, the Festival further demonstrate the vibrancy of Macao as a tourism city through a diversified programme and continues to pass on rich Portuguese-inspired local culture. For more information, please access the IC’s website at www.icm.gov.mo or call IC through tel. no. 8399 6699, during office hours.
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A delegation from Guangzhou Medical University (GMU), led by the university’s president Wang Xinhua, recently visited the University of Macau (UM). During the visit, the two universities signed an agreement on increasing collaboration in health sciences and training medical professionals. The agreement was signed by Wang and UM Rector Wei Zhao. This is the second collaborative project between the two institutions. Earlier in March, a delegation from UM visited GMU’s State-Key Laboratory of Respiratory Disease, while in July the two universities signed a Letter of Intent. After the signing ceremony, the delegation visited the laboratories of UM’s Faculty of Health Sciences and the State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine to learn more their developments and achievements. The guests also exchanged ideas with the researchers from the two facilities. Wang praised UM for its faculty and lab equipment and expressed hope that the two institutions will work closely together to achieve breakthroughs in research and talent development.
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Organised by the Macao Museum under the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC), the exhibition “The Enchanting Red Boat – An Episode of the Cantonese Opera Culture” has been enthusiastically received by residents and tourists. In order to meet the public demand, the organiser will extend the Exhibition period until 27th November. Cantonese Opera, a performing art stylistically inspired in Lingnan culture, was inscribed on the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2009. Many of the early Cantonese operas originated in zaju (variety show) during the Yuan Dynasty, and its contents focused mainly on the ancient emperors and key officials of the central plains of China. Cantonese Opera has been prevalent since it appeared in Guangdong and Guangxi Provinces during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and flourished tremendously in the Pearl River Delta in the late Qing Dynasty. In the 1930s, following efforts and reforms made by members of the sector, the contents of Cantonese Opera were diversified and catered to the style of the public. As a result, Cantonese Opera has become popular and has been highly sought, more than in the past. The Exhibition features nearly 100 artefacts, including the most representative artefacts of the Macao Museum related to Cantonese Opera, and other materials, photos and collections provided by Cantonese Opera associations and organizations, illustrating the history and development of Cantonese Opera in Macao. In order to enrich the exhibition, a series of activities including a talk and a workshop have been held. In addition, Crosswords Prizes are held until 9th October. Interested individuals can obtain a registration form on site or download it at the Macao Museum website (www.macaumuseum.gov.mo), and return the form to the “Crosswords Collection Box” on the third floor of the Macao Museum during the exhibition period. The Macao Museum will announce the list of winners and prize redemption procedures on its website on 25th October 2016. The extension of the exhibition period allows residents and tourists to have enough time to visit the exhibition and develop an in-depth understanding of Cantonese Opera, thereby promoting this traditional art deeply rooted in the Lingnan culture. Schools and community organisations are welcome to reserve docent services for students and the elderly. For enquiries, please call Ms. Leong, staff member of the Macao Museum, through tel. 8394 1218, during office hours. The Macao Museum is open daily from 10am to 6pm (no admission after 5:30pm; closed on Mondays). For details about the aforementioned exhibition and activities, please call the Macao Museum through tel. no. 2835 7911, during office hours, or visit Macao Museum website (www.macaumuseum.gov.mo).
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According to statistics released today by the Monetary Authority of Macao, money supply continued to grow in August. As total deposits increased at a faster pace than total loans, the overall loan-to-deposit ratio of the banking sector dropped from a month earlier. Concurrently, the non-performing loan ratio, an indicator for bank asset quality, kept virtually stable. Money supply Currency in circulation dropped 0.1% while demand deposits grew 4.2%. M1 thus increased 3.2% from one month earlier. Meanwhile, quasi-monetary liabilities rose 2.4%. The sum of these two items, i.e. M2, increased 2.5% to MOP503.7 billion. On an annual basis, M1 and M2 grew 9.9% and 5.3% respectively. The shares of Pataca (MOP), Hong Kong Dollar (HKD), Chinese Yuan (CNY) and United States Dollar (USD) in M2 were 30.5%, 52.3%, 6.2% and 8.7% respectively. Deposits Resident deposits increased 2.6% from the preceding month to MOP490.5 billion and non-resident deposits grew 1.2% to MOP279.0 billion. Concurrently, public sector deposits with the banking sector decreased 0.5% to MOP156.3 billion. As a result, total deposits with the banking sector increased 1.7% from a month earlier to MOP925.8 billion. The shares of MOP, HKD, CNY and USD in total deposits were 20.6%, 47.8%, 7.9% and 21.1% respectively. Loans Domestic loans to the private sector increased 1.6% from a month ago to MOP408.4 billion. Among which, MOP119.0 billion was MOP-denominated, MOP265.0 billion was denominated in HKD, MOP2.3 billion was denominated in CNY and MOP19.3 billion was denominated in USD, representing 29.1%, 64.9%, 0.6% and 4.7% of the total respectively. External loans grew 0.3% to MOP370.3 billion; of which, loans denominated in MOP, HKD, CNY and USD accounted for 1.8% (MOP6.8 billion), 27.5% (MOP101.8 billion), 12.6% (MOP46.8 billion) and 51.5% (MOP190.6 billion) respectively. Operating ratios At end-August, the loan-to-deposit ratio for the resident sector edged down 0.1 percentage point from the previous month to 63.1%. The ratio for both the resident and non-resident sectors dropped 0.6 percentage points to 84.1%. The one-month and three-month current assets to liabilities ratios stayed at relatively high levels of 61.6% and 59.5% respectively. Furthermore, the non-performing loan ratio was 0.2%, virtually unchanged from one month earlier and up slightly by 0.1 percentage point from one year ago.
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Creative Savings Box Construction Contest A total of 44 works from full-time primary and secondary students of Macao have been received for the Creative Savings Box Construction Contest, organized by Postal Savings and Communications Museum. The participants have constructed and submitted their unique 3 dimensional savings box under the theme “Future Pillar-Boxes”. The awards ceremony will be held in the museum auditorium on 06/10/2016. International Science Centres & Sciences Museum Day 2016 In response to the International Science Centres & Sciences Museum Day 2016 as promoted by UNESCO, ICOM and ASPAC, Communications Museum will organize a free workshop “Construction of a Bone Conduction Headphone” for a maximum of 25 participants at the museum’s E-Lab in the afternoon on 05/11/2016. From now on, students of Form 3 or above are welcomed to register for the workshop on the museum’s web. In addition, the museum will be open to the public free of charge on 10/11/2016. Please take the chance to visit “The Voice” exhibition that is going to end in mid November. Science and Arts Activity for Primary Students Organized by the Macao Society of Biomedical Engineering and Communications Museum, the online registration of the Science and Arts Activity for Primary Students can be done at the museum website, from now till 16/11/2016. Participants will use different electronic components and simple tools to create a 2 or 3-dimensional object. This year there will be Groups A, B & C for student participants of Primary 4, 5 and 6. The activity will be held on 03/12/2016. Winners of the each category will be awarded attractive prizes. Electronic Device Construction Competition 2017. In order to encourage local secondary school students to employ their theoretical scientific knowledge on practical experiments, Communications Museum and the IEEE Macao will organize the Electronic Device Construction Competition 2017. This year the theme is “The Tower of Hanoi”. The online registration can be done at the museum website, from now till 23/11/2016. Full-time students of local secondary schools can compete individually or in groups. The competition is divided into two categories: Junior Secondary Group and Senior Secondary Group. The winners of each category will be awarded trophies, winning certificates & book coupons. The explanatory session will be held in the museum auditorium in the afternoon on 12/11/2016. Reservations can be made by phone or email. Snapshot! Postal Facilities Photo-taking Contest The Stamp Festival will be launched in December. Snapshot! Postal Facilities Photo-taking Contest will be the first “warm-up” activity. We would like to invite all local residents, who are 6 years old or above to creatively record the outdoor postal facilities of Macao Post, like pillar boxes, kiosks, stamp vending machines, postal vans or post office buildings, etc., with their mobile phones or cameras. Photos can be submitted from now till 11/11/2016. The way of expression is not limited. Each participant can submit one colored or black-and-white photo to the designated mailbox. Besides the three winners that will be selected by the judges and awarded gift coupons and set of mini postal models, there will also be an online voting among qualified photos. The photo that receives the highest number of votes will win the “Best Popularity Award”. All voting participants will automatically enter the Grand Lucky Draw! For details of the activities above mentioned, please refer to the Museum website (http://macao.communications.museum).
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Respond to the Universal Postal Union for the celebration of the World Post Day, the Postal Administration achieves various activities relative to this event. Macao Post announced that a Temporary Post Counter will be set up at our Philatelic Shop located at Macao Post Headquarters at 9:00 to 17:30 on 9th October 2016 providing the commemorative cancellation service for the “World Post Day – UPU”. 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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The interest for Magic Squares is transversal in Chinese and Western Cultures. For this reason, a Philatelic Book “Science and Technology – Magic Squares” will be issued by Macao Post on 6th October, 2016. Macao Post intends not only to promote this theme in scientific and cultural terms, but to also create a unique product in the history of Philately. This Philatelic Book consists of 2 stamp issues, which includes: “Science and Technology – Magic Squares I” issued on 9th October, 2014 and “Science and Technology – Magic Squares II” issued on 12th November, 2015. The price for this Philatelic Book is MOP250.00 and is available for sale at the Philatelic Shop of Macao Post Headquarters, Rua do Campo Post Office, Maritime Ferry Terminal Post Office, Airport Post Office and the Communications Museum.
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For the implementation of Section 2b), Article 10, Law 4/95/M of 12 June, Consumer Council on 5 October collects prices of fresh pork from wet markets and supermarkets for consumers’ reference. The mentioned data collected during 28 September to 4 October are used for comparing the average selling price of the same products from 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 HK and Macao. For enquiry, please call 8988 9315.
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To celebrate the “Exposição sobre as Realizações de Inovação em Ciência e Tecnologia do 12˚ Plano Quinquenal”, Macao Post announced that a Temporary Post Counter will be set up at Venetian Macao Convention & Exhibition Center during 7th to 12th October 2016 providing the commemorative cancellation service for the “Exposição sobre as Realizações de Inovação em Ciência e Tecnologia do 12˚ Plano Quinquenal”. Opening hours as follow: 07-12/10 10:00 – 20:00 Venetian Macao Convention & Exhibition Center 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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