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The University of Macau’s (UM) English Debating Team recently won the third prize at the 19th FLTRP Cup National English Debating Competition, which was held at Beijing Foreign Studies University. Two debaters of the UM team, namely Jenny Wong Ka Kei and David Leong Ka Wai, were ranked No 2 and No 4, respectively, among all the 248 debaters in the competition. The FLTRP Cup National English Debating Competition is the largest and most influential English debating competition in China. This year’s event attracted 120 debating teams from 500 universities in China, including Tsinghua University, Peking University, Beijing Foreign Studies University, the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, and China Foreign Affairs University. After placing first in the eight rounds of preliminaries, the UM team proceeded to the octo-final and eventually won the third prize in the grand final. Other debating teams in the final came from Beijing Foreign Studies University, the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, and China Foreign Affairs University. Members of UM team included Jenny Wong Ka Kei, a fourth-year student from the Faculty of Social Sciences and Chao Kuang Piu College, and David Leong Ka Wai, a fourth-year student from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. The team leader was Lam Pek Kei, a third-year student from the Faculty of Social Sciences.
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The Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) released results of the Survey on Manpower Needs and Wages for the first quarter of 2016. Survey coverage for this quarter comprises Manufacturing; Hotels; Restaurants; Insurance; Financial Intermediation Activities; Electricity, Gas & Water Supply; Child-care and Elderly Care. This survey excludes the self-employed, as well as insurance agents and brokers not directly employed by insurance companies. At the end of the first quarter of 2016, Hotels had 49,606 full-time employees, up by 8.3% year-on-year; average earnings (excluding bonuses) of full-time employees in March fell by 0.5% to MOP16,350. Restaurants had 26,019 full-time employees, up by 3.0% year-on-year, with the average earnings rising by 3.2% to MOP9,130. Manufacturing had 9,074 full-time employees, a decrease of 3.5% year-on-year; average earnings in March fell by 3.1% year-on-year to MOP10,290. Electricity, Gas & Water Supply had 1,078 full-time employees, similar to a year earlier, and their average earnings increased by 1.6% to MOP28,970. Insurance had 513 full-time employees, up by 4.7% year-on-year; average earnings in March fell by 2.1% to MOP24,690. Financial Intermediation Activities had 397 full-time employees, an increase of 5.6% year-on-year, with the average earnings rising by 4.3% to MOP13,590. Child-care and Elderly Care had 1,197 and 661 full-time employees, up by 9.6% and 3.1% respectively year-on-year; average earnings in March increased by 8.4% and 13.9% respectively to MOP13,400 and MOP13,750. At the end of the first quarter, job vacancies in Restaurants (2,785) rose by 404 year-on-year, while those in Manufacturing (1,399) and Hotels (1,284) fell by 215 and 167 respectively. About 69.6% of the vacancies in Manufacturing and 65.0% of those in Restaurants merely required junior secondary education or lower. All of the vacancies in Financial Intermediation Activities required knowledge of Mandarin; meanwhile, 61.8% and 44.9% of the vacancies in Hotels required knowledge of Mandarin and English respectively. In the first quarter, the employee turnover rate (3.9%), the employee recruitment rate (3.4%) and the job vacancy rate (2.5%) in Hotels fell by 0.3, 0.7 and 0.6 percentage points respectively year-on-year, indicating that the manpower situation in the industry was relatively stable. In Restaurants, the job vacancy rate (9.7%) increased by 1.1 percentage points year-on-year, while the employee recruitment rate (6.5%) and the employee turnover rate (5.5%) were similar to a year earlier, implying that there were still vacancies available in Restaurants. In the first quarter, a total of 90,982 employee participants from the surveyed industries attended training courses provided by the establishment (including courses organized by the establishment or in conjunction with other institutions, and those sponsored by the employer), up substantially by 330% year-on-year. Hotels had 87,718 participants in vocational training, with the majority attending courses in Business & Administration (44.5%) and Services (42.9%); besides, 99.7% of the participants attended courses during office hours. Meanwhile, over 70% of the participants from most of the industries attended courses paid by the establishment, while the corresponding rate in Electricity, Gas & Water Supply and Child-care was 60.0% and 48.9% respectively.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the economy of Macao contracted by 13.3% year-on-year in real terms in the first quarter of 2016, mainly due to the continuous decline in exports of services and decrease in investment. External demand showed no sign of improvement, exports of goods and services fell by 24.6% and 13.7% respectively, of which exports of gaming services dropped by 17.1%. Domestic demand slackened, private consumption expenditure declined by 2.3%; investment and imports of goods shrank by 31.4% and 19.9% respectively whereas government final consumption expenditure rose by 1.5%. Meanwhile, the implicit deflator of GDP that measures changes in prices rose by 1.9% year-on-year. Private consumption expenditure receded. Despite the prevailing favourable employment conditions, pay growth remained subdued, dragging down private consumption expenditure by 2.3% year-on-year, with a notable decline in expenditure on durable goods. Household final consumption expenditure in the domestic market fell by 2.3% while that abroad rose by 3.9%. Government final consumption expenditure, the only expenditure component that registered growth, expanded by 1.5% year-on-year. Compensation of employees rose by 3.1% while net purchases of goods and services dropped by 1.0%. Investment declined apparently. Gross fixed capital formation, the gauge of investment, contracted by 31.9% year-on-year, owing to the substantial decline in private investment. Private investment in construction and equipment diminished by 35.0% and 18.9% respectively, bringing total private investment down by 33.0%, which was attributable to the slowdown in construction of major tourism and entertainment facilities, as well as the high comparison base last year driven by construction. On the other hand, government investment decreased by 5.5% year-on-year, of which public construction investment fell by 6.5% while equipment investment grew by 91.1%. Merchandise trade continued to deteriorate. Slowdown in investment, as well as decline in private consumption and visitor spending, drove imports of goods down by 19.9% year-on-year; meanwhile, exports of goods dropped by 24.6% year-on-year. Service trade stayed weak. Exports of services contracted by 13.7% year-on-year, of which exports of gaming services dropped by 17.1%; besides, decrease in visitor spending brought exports of other tourism services down by 11.0%. Total exports of services declined year-on-year, while imports of services shrank by 4.8%.
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Published by the Cultural Affairs Bureau and produced by 100 Plus Cultural Creative Development Ltd., the fifteenth issue of C2 magazine will be launched this Wednesday, 1 June. In recent years, there has been a rapid increase in the number of documentary film productions from the Cross-strait four regions. More and more exchange activities and video production competitions have been launched, promoting numerous of talents. In this edition, pioneers of the industry in Hong Kong and Macao are invited to share their visions and discuss the trends of the documentary film industry. In the column “Feature”, C2 interviews five producers of documentary films from Hong Kong and Macao. Local film producer Lam Kin Kuan organised the 1st Macao International Documentary Film Festival presenting documentary films from Macao and other places around the world to the public. Albert Chu, head of the Audio-Visual CUT Association and the co-organiser with the Macao Cultural Centre of the programme “Local View Power”, is pleased to see that the programme has promoted a number of local film talents. Local scholar Cheong Kin Man, whose production A Useless Fiction was shortlisted in some overseas film festivals. Recently, he has been coordinating the participation of local productions in international film festivals. James Jacinto is the director of Efficient Production, a company that produced a number of documentary films themed on Macao. Jacinto believes that the biggest challenge for local documentary filmmakers is to seek distribution channels for their works. Hong Kong director Cheung King Wai won Best Documentary prize at the Taipei Golden Horse Awards with his work KJ: Music and Life. He shares his interests in filming documentary in this column. The column “Opinion” invites Jose Tang Kuan Meng, a veteran practitioner in the fashion industry in Macao. He believes local talents are ready for success and that exploring the market is the strategy for this industry. “Extravaganza” highlights Hong Kong’s Art Basel. The trading in this art fair was active, creating a trend of visual arts activities. “Around the Globe” introduces the Hong Kong International Film and TV Market (FILMART). This year, the Macao Government Tourism Office and the Cultural Affairs Bureau joined hands to set up the “Macao Pavilion” in the event. They also organised the participation of a delegation of the film and television industry from Macao in FILMART. “Blogs” columnists, Joe Tang, Ho Ka Cheng, Yi-Hsin Lin, Yap Seow Choong, Ron Lam, Ashley Chong and Cheong Sio Pang, give more perspectives on the development of the cultural and creative industries. C2 is a trilingual magazine (in Chinese, Portuguese and English). Readers are welcome to browse or download the magazine at www.c2magazine.mo. C2 is a bimonthly magazine issued on the first Wednesday every two months. The next issue will be launched on 3 August 2016. The email subscription function is now available. Please simply click the “subscribe” button on the right corner of our webpage and enter your email address to subscribe to C2 magazine. For the latest updates, you may also visit the magazine’s page on Facebook at www.facebook.com/c2magazine.macau, or on WeChat, by clicking “add friend” and inputting “c2magazine” in the ID column. For enquiries, please send an email to c2magazine.macau@gmail.com.
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St Augustine’s Church would be closed for a thorough inspection and conservation work following a partial collapse of the building’s wooden ceiling and some roof tiles. The Cultural Affairs Bureau immediately activated an emergency response plan following the incident on Sunday (29 May). Restoration work has started today. Before the end of the day all debris will be removed and bamboo scaffolding will be put up on a temporary basis to protect the building. No one was injured in Sunday’s incident. The affected area – away from the main body of the church where worshippers sit – is mostly comprised of a corridor connecting parts of the building that are not accessible to the public. It is possible that the recent rainstorms and turbulent weather conditions were a factor in the incident. The Government conducts regular checks on Macao buildings deemed to have significant cultural value. This conservation measure has been in place since 2008. The Government conducted in May 2015 a scheduled inspection of the walls and roof of St Augustine’s Church, and carried out necessary conservation work in September last year. In view of the approaching rainy season, the Cultural Affairs Bureau will strengthen its monitoring of the city’s cultural heritage sites and the buildings within them. The Government always pays great attention to the protection of the city’s cultural heritage. It will put more resources into monitoring the buildings that are part of that heritage. St Augustine’s Church is a part of the Historic Centre of Macao, which is included on the World Heritage List of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The Church was built in 1591, and is one of the oldest churches in Macao.
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The University of Macau (UM) today (28 May) held its Congregation 2016 to present graduation certificates to more than 1,000 graduates. Chui Sai On, chief executive of the Macao SAR and chancellor of UM, said while attending the ceremony that UM’s quality of education is continuously improving and is showing a good momentum in nurturing talent for the Macao society by relying on its improved ‘hardware’ and ‘software’, adding that the university has created necessary conditions for achieving the goal of becoming a world-class university. Chui Sai On presided over the ceremony in the company of Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Tam Chon Weng; UM’s University Council Chair Lam Kam Seng; UM Rector Wei Zhao; Vice Rectors Lionel Ni, Rui Martins, Haydn Chen, and Kou Mei. Nearly 4,000 people attended the ceremony, including members of the University Assembly, University Council, and Senate; government officials; prominent community members; parents of the graduates; and UM faculty and staff. In his speech, Chui Sai On said, ‘As the university continues this year to strive for excellence in teaching, academics and research on the one hand, as well as introduce measures to optimise campus development and management on the other, we are seeing a UM that is constantly perfecting itself and enjoys greater recognition, not least for the academic influence it yields. This year, as was in the past, another cohort of graduates are soon ready to serve our society.’ He added, ‘As an important tertiary academy in Macao, UM is instrumental in making Macao more competitive and speeding up its economic diversification. The road for the UM may not be all that smooth though. There will be difficulty lying ahead. However, as long as it stays committed to pursuing excellence, at the end of the day, we shall overcome – with our passion, with our determination. For whatever difficulty there may be, it is just a passing cloud before light shimmers yonder, and I trust that the university will be able to blaze a trail that leads it to the goal of ranking itself in the league of world class universities.’ Rector Wei Zhao congratulated all the graduates and advised them to remember the university motto. ‘Let’s not forget though on this joyous day what our university’s motto – Humanity, Integrity, Propriety, Wisdom and Sincerity— means to us,’ he said. ‘It’s noteworthy that these five points of goodness start with “Humanity”. To cut it short, “Humanity” is what it takes to build a harmonious society. Dear graduates, from today on, whatever course of life you take: either pursuing further studies or launching a career, always do these: understand others, feel for others, share with others. It is time to say goodbye. I wish you a prosperous and blissful life and sincerely hope that you will follow the motto of your alma mater. Enrich yourself by getting wiser and more dynamic and building a harmonious relationship with others. Last but not least, be prepared to give back to your community and love your nation. Then, you are designing your life towards the rainbow of hope.’ Jessica Lei, the representative of this year’s graduates, said in her speech, ‘This is my lucky year. This September, I am going to Columbia University for my master’s degree.’ She recalled how the four years at UM have changed her life and the lives of her fellow students. ‘We are no longer the shy and self-centered students in high school who cared only about exam results. Macao has taken good care of us, and now, we are ready to take care of Macao,’ she said. Buddy Lam, the representative of the alumni also gave a speech. ‘To me, knowledge has never been just about grades. Knowledge is about experience – experience which makes me flexible, makes me confident and makes me strong,’ he said. ‘I was fortunate to be one of the first UM students sent on exchange to the United States. I vividly remember the time I spent with foreign exchange students learning about their cultures. Visiting some of their native countries opened my eyes to the many human values and lifestyles that exist in our world. The improvement in my Putonghua and English skills and the cultivation of my interest in and openness to other cultures have been critically important to my career.’ He also offered words of encouragement for his fellow students, ‘When I was your age, I received the following piece of advice: “When you stumble, make it part of the dance.” No matter what meandering course you chart, keep your sails up – you are stronger than you think.’ This year, UM graduated nearly 1,400 students of bachelor’s degree programes, from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Faculty of Business Administration, Faculty of Education, Faculty of Health Sciences, Faculty of Law, Faculty of Science and Technology, and Faculty of Social Sciences. Among them 46 have also completed programmes of the Honours College.
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The University of Macau’s (UM) Class of 2016 today (28 May) planted a jacaranda tree on the Alumni Avenue on the campus, to express their gratitude to the alma mater. On the same day, the UM (Hong Kong) Alumni Association presented an inscribed stone tablet to the university, in an effort to encourage students to read. UM University Council Chair Lam Kam Seng; UM Rector Wei Zhao; Vice Rectors Lionel Ni, Rui Martins, and Haydn Chen; as well as other distinguished guests attended the tree-planting ceremony together with the students. Mathew Lam Chun Yat, president of the Graduation Committee, gave a speech at the tree-planting ceremony. ‘UM has produced a large number of outstanding graduates over the years,’ he said. ‘Today marks the end of our journey in college, but our journey into another stage of life is just beginning. No matter where we go in life, we will always use our knowledge and experience learned from UM to give back to society.’ The UM (Hong Kong) Alumni Association presented an inscribed stone tablet to the alma mater, in an effort to encourage students to read extensively to expand their knowledge. Rector Wei Zhao gave a speech at the unveiling ceremony, in which he thanked the UM (Hong Kong) Alumni Association for its support for the alma mater over the years, which he said has made it possible for UM to make a contribution to the development of the Macao society. Guests attending the unveiling ceremony for the inscribed stone tablet included Rector Wei Zhao, Vice Rector Haydn Chen, and members of the UM (Hong Kong) Alumni Association.
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The award ceremony of “Promoting Honesty” video contest for secondary school students was held today (28th May) by the CCAC at the hall of the Luso-Chinese Technical and Vocational School. The Commissioner Against Corruption, Cheong Weng Chon, stated in his opening speech that the CCAC attaches great importance to youth education on honesty, integrity and compliance with the law, and hoped that the secondary school students, when producing their video clips, could reflect and establish in their minds a proper understanding of the importance of these values. The contest featured two categories of participants, namely Junior Secondary Group and Senior Secondary Group, and the creative videos were subordinated to the themes of “Fair Competition”, “Values of Money”, “Honesty and Loyalty”, “Incorruptibility” or “Trustworthiness”. As the contest received overwhelming response, a total of 89 entries from 18 schools were collected. The jury was composed of Professor of Department of English at the University of Macau, Tan See Kam, the Chairman of the supervisory board of the Audiovisual CUT Association, Ho Ka Cheng, art and culture professional, Joe Tang,local young director, Ao Ieong Weng Fong, and the Head of Education and Awareness Division of the CCAC, Ao Man Wa. The jury selected 15 videos from each group based on the theme expression, creativity and inspiration, as well as filming techniques, and subsequently awarded the winner, 1st runner-up, 2nd runner-up and the works of merit of each group. All of the award-winning videos have already been uploaded to the dedicated page of the CCAC’s website (www.ccac.org.mo) for free viewing.
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Consumer Council conducted its latest ‘Supermarket price survey’ in May on 27 May for the implementation of Section 2b), Article 10, Law 4/95/M of 12 June. Surveyed locations included supermarkets in São Lázaro and São Lourenço Parishes. 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. Consumers may also access the resources through WAP channels on their mobile phones. 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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In order to provide diversified training opportunities for industry professionals and enhance management quality of the local service industry, Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT) and Cornell University School of Hotel Administration co-orgainsed an Executive Development Programme on “Leadership and Motivation” on 26 and 27 May. The course addressed the real-world complexities faced by front-line leaders and their teams. During the course, participants gained insights about their personal leadership style and developed skills that promoted effective teamwork that had a lasting effect in their workplaces. The programme attracted 21 professionals of local hotels and mega resorts. IFT had the honour of inviting Prof. J. Bruce Tracey from faculty of the School of Hotel Administration to give the lecture. Prof. Tracey acquired his Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Albany. In addition to Cornell, he has taught in a variety of degree programmes in Finland, Singapore, France and Switzerland. He has also facilitated numerous executive education courses throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Focusing on human resources strategy and management, Prof. Tracey’s research has examined a wide range of strategic and operational-level HR topics including the impact of training initiatives on individual and firm performance, employee turnover, employment law and leadership. Through the programme, participants gain insights and skills to effectively leverage talent and organisational resources that are necessary for achieving long-term success. Topics include:  Gain key insights about their personal leadership style and the most effective means for enhancing performance;  Identify obstacles to team performance and methods for overcoming them;  Acquire skills for optimising team creativity and innovation;  Create opportunities for facilitating a positive and supportive team culture. IFT is always striving to enhance its teaching and research so as to contribute to the industry and the society. By organising seminars and workshops, IFT constantly shares with the industry the most updated information and research findings about the future development of Macao’s tourism industry and ways to enhance it.
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