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Macao has a series of characteristic tangible and intangible cultural heritage. Since the inscription of the tangible heritage “Historic Centre of Macao” on UNESCO World Heritage list in 2005, the number of visitors to Macao increases day by day. Macao SAR Government pays high attention on how to develop Macao while preserving its cultural heritage sites. It has been the preoccupation of each State Party to the “Convention Concerning The Protection of The World Cultural and Natural Heritage” in guaranteeing the sustainable development of the heritage industry and to enhance the education and cultivation of the heritage preservation. Apart from protecting the heritages physically, the preservation of the peripheral perspectives is of the same importance. The Institute For Tourism Studies (IFT) hopes to raise the consciousness of the comprehensive preservation of the world heritage through providing courses and workshops of various sorts. Following the successful summer heritage workshop last year, IFT organises the second summer heritage workshop with the theme “Integrating Heritage: Public Spaces” from 17 to 26 July, in order to let the experts and students from different areas or countries such as Mainland China, Japan, Hong Kong and Macao probe into the preservation of the cultural heritage in Macao and the development of public spaces around them. The 10-day workshop is organised by IFT, co-organised by Macao Architects Association; University of Macau; Macau Inter-University Institute and IACM, with an aim to foster research collaboration in the area and solutions for improving the streetscapes and public spaces of Macao’s heritage. 32 experts and students of Master or Bachelor Degree in Architecture, Urban Design, Design and Tourism major from Mainland China, Japan, Hong Kong and Macao will form 6 project teams, after discussions regarding themes like “Integrated Conservation in the Urban Context”, “Heritage and Tourism in Macao”, “Ho Tung library, a case study of Heritage Integration”, “History and Development of Macao’s Historical Corridor”, “Macao’s Tourism Trend”, “General Information of Formation of Macao Heritage”, “Moorish Barracks Project” and “Sustainable Development and Scenarios of Macao”, the teams will compete for the “Best Design Award” by devising a streetscaping scheme for either Lilau Square or Camões Square. The findings of the workshop will be written as a report and submitted to the Government for consideration.
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The Macao Light Rail Transit System (LRT) would be equipped with sufficient facilities for the physically challenged, said the Secretary for Transport and Public Works, Mr Lau Si Io, at a luncheon with representatives from eight associations providing services for the physically challenged. Mr Lau has been presiding over a string of seminars to introduce the optimised plan for the LRT system to different sectors for collecting opinions. Mr Lau told the press that LRT would be designed with barrier-free facilities for the physically challenged. “The route of LRT passes through spots like airport, harbour, the Macao Cultural Centre and stadiums, which means that the physically challenged would have more opportunities to broaden their social communities and have easier access to workplaces,” he said. Mr Lau revealed that the Government would consider providing favourable ticket price for the physically challenged, and would also pay more attention on the barrier-free design of other means of transport connecting with LRT, as well as the parking space for Rehabus bus, a special bus which is dedicated to providing accessible transport services for the physically challenged.
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The Secretary for Transport and Public Works, Mr Lau Si Io, said the MSAR Government would refer to the experience from other neighboring regions for introducing corruption prevention mechanism in large-scale public infrastructure project. Being asked by the media how would the Government ensure the incorruptibility of any large-scale project, such as the Macao Light Rail Transit system (LRT), Mr Lau replied that Hong Kong and Beijing had lots of practical experience that was worthy for Macao to take as reference. He said he would assign the people who were in charge the project of LRT to those places for learning the effective corruption prevention mechanism, adding that they would also work closer with the Commission Against Corruption. Mr Lau said in his speech that the areas of transport and public works involved different levels connecting with people's living; hence, his team should serve the public and has responsibility over their work. He said that increasing the transparency of decision-making was one way to ensure citizens' rights to know. Therefore, he pledged to increase the transparency of his policies so that the public might watch over the government's work.
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Macao would continue to adopt the best intellectual property rights regime in line with international standards to further enhance its competitiveness in the region. The Secretary for Economy and Finance, Mr Francis Tam Pak Yuen, said this today in a speech at the opening ceremony of a forum on ''Intellectual Property Rights and Trade''. ''Intellectual property and its protection have always been recognised as a basis to development and commercialisation of new ideas, products and technologies,'' he said. ''As an independent WTO member, the Macao SAR is strongly committed to uphold the rule of law and fulfilling our obligations in Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). ''The SAR Government has taken a series of measures to improve IPR protection in recent years. We have fortified our legislation and strengthened our enforcement against IPR pirates. ''Reflecting all these, the Macao Customs Service was awarded the 'Sixth Annual Global Anti Counterfeiting Awards' by the Global Anti-Counterfeiting Group in 2003,'' he said. ''However, IPR piracy still remains a problem in the region, so it will be indispensable for the SAR Government to sustain our enforcement mechanism and for our tribunals to deliver convictions that will eradicate future criminal activity. ''At this juncture, our current agenda is to intensify regional cooperation in IPR protection, in order to foster a better environment for investment and trade. ''In an effort to further enhance our competitiveness in the region, the SAR Government will continue to adopt the best intellectual property right regime in line with international standards,'' he said. The forum, co-organised by the World Intellectual Property Organization and United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, is aimed at providing a platform for the international society to exchange ideas on intellectual property rights protection and how it affects international trade.
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T
o celebrate the Legislative Assembly Building Open Day, Macao Post announced that a Temporary Post Counter will be set up at our Philatelic Shop located at the Square of Legislative Assembly Building at 10H00 to 18H00 on 21st July 2007 providing the commemorative cancellation service for the “Legislative Assembly Building Open Day”. A commemorative envelope with stamp priced at MOP3.00 will be issued, together with the various philatelic products available for sale during the above activity. Welcome to visit and collect Macao Stamps.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that the Composite CPI for June 2007 rose by 1.02% over May to 114.37. The increment was mainly attributable to the increases in the price indices of Food & non-alcoholic beverages; Clothing & footwear and Housing & fuels. Compared with May 2007, the indices of Clothing & footwear; Food & non-alcoholic beverages; Recreation & culture; and Transport recorded notable increases of 2.89%, 2.35%, 0.66% and 0.62% respectively, on account of rising prices of men’s and women’s clothing, dearer prices of fresh vegetables after heavy rain, rising prices of fresh pork and frozen poultry, as well as higher charges for outbound package tours and air tickets near the Summer holiday period. On the other hand, the index of Communication was the only section that recorded a slight decrease of 0.03% as a result of lower prices of mobile phones. The Composite CPI for June 2007 registered a year-on-year increase of 5.30%. The average Composite CPI for the first half year went up by 4.73% compared with the same period of 2006. For the 12 months ended June 2007, the average Composite CPI rose by 4.63% over the previous period. For the second quarter of 2007, the Composite CPI rose by 4.89% over the same quarter of 2006, with notable increases in the indices of Housing & fuels (+8.29%), Food & non-alcoholic beverages (+6.25%) and Education (+6.07%). In addition, the CPI-A and CPI-B for June 2007 were 116.04 and 113.93, up by 1.20% and 0.94% respectively compared with May. The Composite CPI reflects the impacts of price changes on the general population. The CPI-A relates to about 49% of households, which have an average monthly expenditure of MOP 3,000 to MOP 9,999. The CPI-B relates to about 31% of households, which have an average monthly expenditure of MOP 10,000 to MOP 19,999.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that the number of visitor arrivals totalled 1,921,384 in June 2007, representing a year-on-year increase of 20.3%. Visitors from Hong Kong; Mainland China; and Taiwan, China rose by 27.4%, 13.5% and 4.1% respectively. Meanwhile, same-day visitors accounted for 52.8% of the total arrivals, at 1,013,661. The majority of the visitors came from Mainland China (51.8% of the total), Hong Kong (32.2%) and Taiwan, China (6.3%). Among the Mainland visitors, 41.4% travelled to Macao under the Individual Visit Scheme, at 411,781. In the first half of 2007, visitor arrivals reached 12,640,004, up by 21.3% over the same period of last year. Arrivals from Mainland China rose by 18.5% to 6,905,636, while those from Hong Kong and Taiwan, China went up by 23.9% and 3.1% respectively. Furthermore, same-day visitors made up 52.5% of the total arrivals, at 6,641,016. Analyzed by mode of transport, visitor arrivals by sea increased by 13.9% to 4,207,678 over the first half of 2006. Among them, 3,948,540 arrived at the Outer Harbour, with 62.1% from Hong Kong and 23.7% from Mainland China. Visitor arrivals at the Inner Harbour totalled 259,138 and 55.1% were from Mainland China. At the same time, visitor arrivals by land grew by 25.8% to 7,726,568, with 7,656,521 entering through the Border Gate; visitors from Mainland China and Hong Kong accounted for 73.5% and 19.1% respectively. Meanwhile, there were 67,881 visitors arriving through the Checkpoint of CoTai. In addition, arrivals by air totalled 705,758, an increase of 19.8% over the first half of 2006. Among the 699,205 arrivals at the Macao International Airport, visitors from Taiwan, China (45.5%), South East Asia (22.3%) and Mainland China (21.8%) were the major users.
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Construction of the first phase of the Macao Light Rail Transit (LRT) System would create more than 3,000 jobs, the Secretary for Transport and Public Works, Mr Lau Si Io, said today. Mr Lau was speaking to the press after hosting a briefing session to introduce the proposed system, which was in a public consultation process, to members of the Macao Chamber of Commerce. Mr Lau said the Government estimated that construction of the proposed first phase of the system, estimated to cost 4.2 billion patacas, could take four years and create more than 3,000 jobs. Meanwhile, he reiterated that the scope of the first phase would cover communities of about 200,000 people, serving more people than other routes.
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To cope with practical needs arising from commercial activities between Macao and Hong Kong, the financial regulators of Macao and Hong Kong have worked closely to facilitate cross border funding which culminates in the launching of “Cross Border Settlement of Hong Kong Dollar Cheques between Macao and Hong Kong” on 6 August. The mechanism will provide swift, convenient and secure services to clients of banks operating in Macao in collecting their funds arising from Hong Kong Dollar cheques. The Monetary Authority of Macao (AMCM) has invited Bank of China Macao Branch (BOCM) to provide clearing services to banks who join the scheme. It will be the clearing bank for Macao in the arrangement. BOCM has started the preparatory work and has engaged express delivery agents to ensure that the cheques in question shall reach Hong Kong on time for clearing. On 18 July, AMCM, Hong Kong Interbank Clearing Ltd, BOCM and Bank of China (HK) held the co-operation agreement signing ceremony in the office of AMCM. Teng Lin Seng, chairman of AMCM, Vitus Tai, General Manager of Hong Kong Interbank Clearing Ltd, Ye Yixin, General Manager of BOCM and Lin Guangming, General Manager (Enterprise and Institution Banking) of Bank of China (HK) executed the co-operation agreement. The ceremony was attended by representatives from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the above mentioned institutions.
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The consultation paper on the second phase of the Macao Light Rail Transit (LRT) System would be released in mid-2008, immediately after construction on the first phase on the project has started. The Secretary for Transport and Public Works, Mr Lau Si Io, revealed today when he spoke to the press after a meeting. Mr Lau said after preliminary analyses, the Government has concluded that the second phase is necessary for the territory. Last Friday, the Government kicked off a 45-day public consultation on the first phase of the railway system. In response to suggestion that construction of both phases could be carried out at the same time, Mr Lau said that this would bring unbearable pressure to Macao’s traffic, as the two phases would account for about 10% of Macao’s total roadways, and most of them were the territory’s main arteries with heavy traffic. Moreover, the road network around the new Border Gate Checkpoint building, which would possibly be a station for both phases, was heavy with traffic. Taking the forthcoming expansion projects of the new Border Gate Checkpoint building and the Border Gate Square into account, constructing the two phases simultaneously would be a big pressure on Macao’s transport network. On suggestions that the second phase should be built first rather than the first phase, Mr Lau explained that the first phase would cater for some densely populated communities in north-eastern Macao, so the Government opted to build this first. Mr Lau reaffirmed that the Government would continue to listen to public opinion regarding the LRT System.
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