News

Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the total number of licensed motor vehicles reached 224,146 at the end of September 2013, up by 5% year-on-year, of which motorcycles and light private cars accounted for 53% and 41% respectively. New registration of motor vehicles increased by 6% year-on-year to 13,945 in the first three quarters of 2013, with light private cars and motorcycles sharing 50% and 44% of the total. In the first nine months of 2013, number of traffic accidents totalled 11,228 cases, up by 2% year-on-year, resulting in 3,951 victims and 14 of them were killed. Cross-border vehicle traffic by land between Macao and Mainland China reached 3,446,796 vehicle trips in the first three quarters of 2013, up by 5% year-on-year, of which vehicle traffic through the Border Gate accounted for 82%. Meanwhile, passenger ferry between Macao and Hong Kong and between Macao and Mainland China totalled 104,455 ferry trips, a decrease of 497 ferry trips year-on-year, with those between Macao and Hong Kong sharing 79% of the total. Commercial flight movements at the Macao International Airport increased by 18% year-on-year to 33,224 in the first nine months of 2013, on account of the significant increase in flight movements to and from Mainland China; Taiwan, China; and Thailand. Helicopter flights between Macao and Hong Kong and between Macao and Mainland China totalled 12,268, down by 10% year-on-year, with those between Macao and Hong Kong accounting for 81% of the total. In the first three quarters of 2013, seaborne container throughput totalled 90,352 TEU, equivalent to 65,172 containers handled, up by 3% and 1% respectively year-on-year. Gross weight of seaborne containerized cargo decreased by 6% to 143,977 tonnes, with 4,921 tonnes of transshipment goods. Gross weight of containerized cargo by land dropped by 11% year-on-year to 21,412 tonnes, including 6,943 tonnes of transit goods. In the first nine months of 2013, outward (10,687 tonnes) and inward air cargo (4,608 tonnes) decreased by 11% and 2% respectively year-on-year. Transit air cargo increased marginally by 1% to 3,555 tonnes. At the end of September 2013, number of mobile telephone users increased by 2% year-on-year to 1,556,994, whereas fixed-line telephone users decreased by 3% to 159,245. As regards internet services, number of subscribers totalled 250,743 and the cumulative duration of usage reached 597 million hours in the first nine months of 2013, up by 12% and 21% respectively year-on-year.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the average daily wage of construction workers increased by 4.1% quarter-to-quarter to MOP628 in the third quarter of 2013, and the average daily wage of local construction workers amounted to MOP776, up by 5.1%. The average daily wage of skilled & semi-skilled workers was MOP635, an increase of 3.4% quarter-to-quarter, and that of unskilled workers was MOP375, down by 1.1%. Analysed by occupation, average daily wage of painters and concrete formwork carpenters was MOP588 and MOP644 respectively, up by 10.3% and 8.1% quarter-to-quarter; however, average daily wage of structural iron erectors decreased by 3.6% to MOP697. After discounting the effect of inflation, wage index of construction workers (89.9) increased by 2.7% quarter-to-quarter in real terms, on account of rising wage indices of carpenters (+16.2%) and concrete formwork carpenters (+6.5%). Meanwhile, wage index of local construction workers (107.6) increased by 4.2% quarter-to-quarter in real terms. As regards construction materials, average price of concrete increased by 13.8% quarter-to-quarter to MOP586 per cubic metre, due to the increasing demand for concrete in construction projects in Cotai; on the contrary, average price of spiral & round reinforcing steel bars decreased by 5.2%, at MOP4,984 per tonne. The price index of construction materials for residential buildings stood at 123.6 in the third quarter of 2013, up by 2.1% quarter-to-quarter, of which that of concrete (192.0) rose by 15.4%.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that total merchandise export for September 2013 amounted to MOP678 million, down by 9% year-on-year; value of re-exports (MOP544 million) and domestic exports (MOP134 million) decreased by 5% and 22% respectively. Total merchandise import reached MOP6.51 billion, up by 7% year-on-year. Merchandise trade deficit amounted to MOP5.83 billion for September 2013. In the third quarter of 2013, total value of merchandise export (MOP2.14 billion) dropped by 3% year-on-year, but that of merchandise import (MOP20.50 billion) rose by 15%, resulting in a trade deficit of MOP18.36 billion. In the first three quarters of 2013, total value of merchandise export increased by 9% year-on-year to MOP6.73 billion, of which value of re-exports (MOP5.23 billion) increased by 19%, but that of domestic exports (MOP1.50 billion) decreased by 14%. Total value of merchandise import grew by 13% to MOP58.74 billion. Merchandise trade deficit widened to MOP52.01 billion for the first three quarters of 2013. From January to September 2013, merchandise export to Hong Kong (MOP3.59 billion) and Mainland China (MOP1.22 billion) increased by 14% and 24% respectively year-on-year, while export to the USA (MOP269 million) and the EU (MOP208 million) decreased by 30% and 15% respectively. In addition, exports of Non-textiles (MOP6.08 billion) expanded by 14% year-on-year, of which exports of Electronic components (MOP753 million) and Diamond & diamond jewellery (MOP472 million) surged by 83% and 154% respectively. Exports of Textiles & garments (MOP653 million) decreased by 20%, of which exports of Knitted or crocheted garments (MOP220 million) declined by 30%. By country of origin, merchandise import from Mainland China (MOP19.20 billion) and the EU (MOP13.55 billion) increased by 13% and 11% respectively year-on-year in the first three quarters of 2013. Imports of Consumer goods rose by 18% to MOP37.63 billion, with imports of Gold jewellery (MOP6.95 billion), Watches (MOP4.49 billion) and Beauty, cosmetic & skin-care products (MOP1.90 billion) increasing by 26%, 20% and 71% respectively. Imports of Construction materials (MOP1.94 billion) grew by 40%. External merchandise trade reached MOP65.47 billion in the first three quarters of 2013, up by 12% compared with MOP58.25 billion a year earlier.
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Consumer Council conducted its 'Supermarket price survey' for October on 30th October for the implementation of Section 2b), Article 10, Law 4/95/M of 12th June. Surveyed locations included 11 supermarkets in Taipa area. The latest 'Supermarket Price Survey' is now available on Consumer Council's website (www.consumer.gov.mo), and the 'Supermarket Price Information Platform' iPhone and Android apps. 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 six 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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Participating in regular exercises is part of the training programme for the personnel in Macau International Airport. Through organizing different types of exercise, the airport aims to enhance the capacity in dealing with emergencies of the government entities and the operators involved in the airport search and rescue. The yearly full-scale emergency exercise was carried out this morning (31 October 2013) in Macau International Airport with the scenario of an unknown gas attacking the airport personnel during the x-ray security screening of checked baggage. The airport emergency plan was immediately activated to deal with the accident. The scenario of this exercise was different from those that have been adopted in previous years which mainly focused on the handling of emergencies associated with aircraft accident. In the simulation of today, the ground handling personnel were suddenly attacked by a pungent smell while loading the checked baggage of an arrival flight on to the x-ray machine in the make-up area for security screening. The personnel in the vicinities felt suffocating and their throat was severely affected with burning symptoms. Some of the personnel fainted. When the accident was reported to the airport authorities, the airport emergency operations centre was immediately activated to take charge of the accident. When the airport fire services arrived at the make-up area, an explosion occurred on scene and led to a fire, causing a number of injuries. With the assistance provided by and the cooperation between the participating entities involved in search and rescue, the dangerous goods in the cargo consignment were eventually handled in a proper manner. The injured were sent to hospital for medical treatment. The exercise was carried out from 07:00 to 09:00 this morning. The Administration of Airports Ltd. was the coordinator of this drill. Other participating entities were Unitary Police Force, Macao Customs Services, Public Security Police Force, Judiciary Police, Fire Services Bureau, Security Coordination Office, Health Bureau, Marine and Water Bureau, Civil Aviation Authority, CAM-Macau International Airport Company Ltd., Air Macau Co. Ltd., Macau Jet International Co. Ltd., Macau Security Company Ltd. (airport security) and Menzies Macau Airport Services Ltd. About 100 people participated in this exercise. The whole exercise was deemed smooth and met the target result. Two other exercises were carried out in Macau International Airport earlier this year, the fuel farm exercise in March and the unlawful seizure of aircraft exercise in July.
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The Chief Executive, Mr Chui Sai On, will deliver his Policy Address for the Fiscal Year 2014 on 12 November (Tuesday) at 3 pm in the Legislative Assembly. This will be followed a press conference at the Government Headquarters at 5 pm where Mr Chui will answer questions from the press. The following day, from 3 pm to 6 pm, Mr Chui will attend the plenary meeting of the Legislative Assmbly to explain his policy blueprint to legislators and to answer their questions. The Address will be broadcast live on the Portal Website of the Macao SAR (http://www.gov.mo), the website of the Office of the Chief Executive (http://www.gce.gov.mo), the website of the Government Information Bureau (http://www.gcs.gov.mo) and the website of the Legislative Assembly (http://www.al.gov.mo). Teledifusão de Macau (TV and radio) will broadcast live the Policy Address, the press conference and the plenary session.
Chinese and Portuguese versions of the Policy Address for download will be available on these websites. The Chief Executive has met with representatives of different associations and groups to hear their views in preparation for Policy Address for the financial year 2014.
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The Chief Executive, Mr Chui Sai On, today visited several old districts and services centres for the mentally-challenged to hear more opinions of members of the community. In the morning, Mr Chui strolled through Rua de Cinco de Outubro where the Hong Kung Temple is located, as well as San Kio and other old districts. On the way, he chatted with residents and representatives of local organisations and listened to their concerns and views about policies on different subjects, as well as learning more about the current development of the districts, especially about transportation, cultural preservation and urban reconstruction. Mr Chui took some refreshments at a Cantonese-style restaurant and chatted with its customers and owners. Afterwards he attended a seminar to learn more about the views of organisations, business owners and residents. During a seminar, members of the community voiced their opinions about their livelihood, public hygiene, business environment, transport, parking, flooding, elderly services, wet market and revitalisation of the old districts, and urged the government for support. Mr Chui responded that he had learned that residents were concerned with issues about the infrastructure and revitalisation of old districts, and he pledged that the government would pay attention to these issues in the next policy address. He also said that he had taken note of the business environment of the commercial zone of Rua da Emenda and the government would make necessary adjustment to its renovation and management, after studies and communications with the residents. In the afternoon, the Chief Executive visited two rehabilitation centres to learn more about their daily operation. He said the government has the responsibility to take care of the needy and pledged to provide better services for the physically-challenged when he met with the staff from the centres after the visit. The people in charge and staff of the centres told Mr Chui that it was difficult to expand services due to the lack of human resources, places, and the increased rent. Mr Chui thanked the staff who have provided professional services to their clients. He stressed that the government would create good conditions for the service centres. Meanwhile the Social Welfare Bureau will implement a three-year plan to enhance rehabilitation facilities for the mentally-challenged, he said.
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Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO) organized the event "Macau Night" jointly with InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG) in Guangzhou yesterday (29 October) to showcase Macau as a fascinating travel destination to local media and enterprises. The event is expected not only to extend Macau's promotion network but also to enhance regional cooperation in tourism and attract high-end visitors from Southern China and across the country. MGTO always highly values the Mainland market. In particular, Guangdong province prevails as Macau's largest tourism market in Mainland China. Since January to September 2013, Macau has welcomed over 6.1 million visitors from Guangdong Province, which amounts to 44% of total visitor arrivals from the Mainland and ranks the first among other provinces and autonomous regions. MGTO has long been actively promoting Macau together with the tourism sector while striving to consolidate Macau's image as a travel destination. By organizing the Macau Night, the Office can extend its local network through IHG's connections with various enterprises in Guangzhou. MGTO also presented Macau's latest tourism trends as well as the upcoming events and festivals, entertainment shows and business tourism products to the local press and enterprises during the press conference and evening banquet for this event. MGTO Director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes and Head of Destination Marketing Department, Betty Fok joined this event in Guangzhou together with travel industry partners from Macau. Director Senna Fernandes and Area General Manager of IHG in Guangzhou, Foshan and Huizhou, Samuel Tsang officiated the aforementioned event. Senna Fernandes remarked that Macau and Guangzhou are both widely popular destinations for leisure and business travel. Considering that both cities overflow with diverse tourism resources in close geographic proximity, MGTO will continue to promote multi-destination tours through cooperation schemes which encourage Mainland citizens and foreigners to visit both destinations in one trip to the region in order to facilitate their mutual tourism development. Representatives of the consulate of different countries in Guangzhou and the chambers of commerce were invited to join the event of Macau Night. Aside from tourism-related businesses including travel agencies, airlines and exhibition companies, the invited guests represent a range of enterprises from over 20 different sectors. The event night welcomed 400 participants in total. MGTO took part in China (Guangdong) International Tourism Industry Expo 2013 which was held in Guangzhou from late August to early September. During the Expo, the Office promoted Macau to industry partners and Guangzhou citizens. Through the Macau Night, different sectors were again updated on the latest trends of Macau tourism, which helped to promote Macau's attractions and positioning as a World Centre of Tourism and Leisure. In early November, MGTO will visit Qingyuan for Guangdong International Tourism Culture Festival 2013, dedicated to carrying out promotion through a variety of ways, angles and channels. Upon the invitation of Zhongshan Municipal Tourism Bureau, MGTO visited the latest tourism attractions and facilities in Zhongshan together with 21 travel agencies and 5 media agencies today (30 October). Director Senna Fernandes met with Deputy Director of Zhongshan Municipal Tourism Bureau, Dong Zuwen in the morning. During the meeting, both parties exchanged their perspectives on marketing strategies and discussed future opportunities to promote regional tourism in collaboration. The tourism offices of Zhongshan, Zhuhai and Macau signed the "Cooperation Memorandum in Tourism among Zhongshan, Zhuhai and Macau" in 2006 and since then joined hands to encourage visitations to the three cities in one trip. The three tourism offices jointly promoted multi-destination tours in Wuhan, Nanjing, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Taiwan, Portugal, Spain, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and so on in different occasions to further extend the tourism market together.
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Consumer Council conducted its 'Supermarket price survey' for October on 28th October for the implementation of Section 2b), Article 10, Law 4/95/M of 12th June. Surveyed locations included 12 supermarkets in Sé Parish. The latest 'Supermarket Price Survey' is now available on Consumer Council's website (www.consumer.gov.mo), and the 'Supermarket Price Information Platform' iPhone and Android apps. 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 six 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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Building up regional cooperation to share resources has always been an objective that the Civil Aviation Authority of Macao SAR (AACM) aims to achieve. The aeronautical authorities of mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao have collaborated with each other on Joint Maintenance Management since 2002. The three parties met again in Beijing on 29 October 2013 to sign the "Cooperation Arrangement on Mutual Acceptance of Approval of Aircraft Maintenance Training Organizations", an arrangement which no longer requires the three aeronautical authorities to conduct redundant audits and inspections and hence reduce the operational costs of the industry resulting from the said redundancy. In accordance with the Cooperation Arrangement, the audits conducted on the approved maintenance training organizations by the aeronautical authorities of one party should also be deemed effective by the aeronautical authorities of the other two parties; the approval made by the aeronautical authorities of one party on the training system of the approved maintenance training organizations, including training courses and certificates, should also be deemed effective by the aeronautical authorities of the other two parties. From now on, the three aeronautical authorities will share resources and no longer engage themselves in redundant audits and inspections, which will help to reduce a lot of administrative work. Meanwhile, the industry will also benefit from cost efficiency resulting from the elimination of redundant audits and inspections to be carried out on them. In addition, the Cooperation Arrangement will enhance the establishment and the maintenance of a high level of audit standards among the three places. In 2007, a task force was set up by the three aeronautical authorities of whom members met on a regular basis to discuss and study on the mutual acceptance of maintenance training organizations. The task force compared the regulations of the three places, went on site inspections and improved their own procedures based on the opinions made by the other members. After five years of work, the regulations, the requirements, the practices, the procedures and the systems in what regards the approval process and the monitoring process in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao have reached the same standards. The three parties therefore agreed to go for mutual acceptance and hence signed the Cooperation Arrangement. The signing ceremony was convened in the headquarters of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). The signatories were Mr. Wan XiangDong, Director-General of Flight Standards of CAAC, Mr. Lo Shung-man, Director General of Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department, and Mr. Chan Weng Hong, President of AACM. The Deputy Administrator of CAAC, Mr. Li Jian, presided at the ceremony as guest of honour. The mutual acceptance projects between mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao cover approval of aircraft maintenance organizations, airworthiness certification, approval of aircraft repair modifications and approval of maintenance training organizations. Presently, over 100 maintenance organizations in the three places have obtained the approvals granted by the Joint Maintenance Management.
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