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A Macau delegation is in Malaysia to learn more about the mechanisms in licensing and inspection of hotels, restaurants and other tourism infrastructures adopted in that country that might serve as case studies to the SAR. “While we are in the process of revising the licensing regime of hotels and Food and Beverage outlets in Macau, it is important to observe how other places deal with this issues, see what are the new trends in the tourism product development, and the technical solutions for licensing adopted by those places”, points out the head of delegation Inês Chan Lou, acting head of Licensing and Inspection Department of Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO). During the visit to Malaysia, the delegation will have meetings with officials from Kuala Lumpur City Hall licensing, urban planning, tourism and promotion departments. It is also planned site inspections to trendy food and beverage outlets, the entertainment complex Genting Highlands Resort, and to the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. All of them interesting study cases for Macau, given the new tourism infrastructures being planned locally. The one dozen-people delegation includes head of departments and staff from MGTO, Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau, Fire Services Bureau, Health Bureau and Land, Public Works and Transport Bureau. The group left Macau on Saturday and returns on Tuesday. This familiarization trip to Malaysia takes place just two weeks after the Macau SAR chief executive paid an official visit to the country, during which relations were strengthen, especially in the tourism area.
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Along with the rapid economic developments of Macao, the demographic characteristics of its population have changed considerably as well. The Statistics and Census Service conducted the By-census 2006 in August and September 2006 in order to obtain up-to-date and comprehensive information on the population of Macao. Following the release of the preliminary results at the end of 2006, the global results of By-census 2006 provided more details about the population of Macao, given as follows: Population growth accelerated in the last 5 years; growing concern over population ageing Resident population of Macao totalled 502 113 in late August 2006, up by 15.4% compared with the Census 2001. The annual rate of population growth during this 5-year period averaged 2.9%, higher than the 1.0% annual growth observed during the By-census 96 and Census 2001 period, signifying the acceleration in the rate of population growth over the last five years. As a consequence of the influx of immigrants and expatriates, the proportion of the elderly population (aged 65 and above) dropped slightly from 7.3% in 2001 to 7.0% in 2006. The median age of the resident population was 35.3, an increment of 2 years compared with 5 years ago. The ageing ratio, a gauge of population ageing that was the proportion of the elderly population to the youth population aged 0-14, had increased from 26.7% in 1996 to 33.6% in 2001, and surged further to 46.3% in 2006. The prolonged life expectancy and the comparatively low fertility brought about an ageing population in Macao as in many countries and territories worldwide. Higher elderly ratio in Coloane and São Lázaro, lowest in Taipa; nearly 40% changed residence In terms of number of residents by parish, Nossa Senhora de Fátima parish continued to lead with more than 200,000; it also had the largest proportion (16.7%) of youth population. As regards proportion of the elderly population, the highest was observed in Coloane Island and the São Lázaro parish that accounted for 10.0% each, whilst the lowest marked in Taipa Island (4.4%). During last 5 years, 38.2% of the resident population had changed residence (including immigration to Macao and internal migration within Macao). More than half of the population in Taipa Island had moved in during the last 5-year period; meanwhile, 70.6% of the population in Santo António parish did not change residence in the past 5 years, the highest among all the parishes. Slight rebound in population density Land area of Macao has expanded from 25.8 km2 in 2001 to 28.6 km2 in 2006 due to continuous land reclamation; nevertheless, population density rebounded as the rate of increment of land area (annual growth averaged at 2.1%) was lower than that of the population during the last 5-year period. In 2006, population density of Macao was 17,556/km2 in 2006, higher than the 16,870/km2 in 2001 but lower than the 19,352/km2 in 1996. Santo António parish continued to be the most densely populated area with more than 100,000/km2, whilst the lowest population density was in Coloane Island, with only 433/km2. Proportion of the never-married grew slightly Regarding the marital status of the resident population, the proportion of those never-married took up 42.7% of the total, up slightly by 0.7 percentage point over 2001. Number of never-married male aged 15-29, as well as those aged 60 and above exceeded the never-married female by nearly 1,500 whereas the number of never-married male aged 30-59 was less than the female by more than 1,400. Furthermore, the proportion of the separated/divorced went up by 0.7 percentage point compared with 5 years ago. Tendency toward smaller household; multi-households a rare scenario The average household size was 3 persons per household in 2006, down from 3.38 persons in 1996 and 3.14 persons in 2001, revealing the tendency moving towards smaller household has continued. Meanwhile, the average number of household per housing unit also declined from 1.05 in 1996 to 1.02 in 2006, as the scenario of multi-households in a living quarter became a rare scenario, most of the living quarters (96.8%) comprised only one household. In addition, the proportion of one-person household ascended by 1.3 percentage points over 2001 to 18.4%. Educational attainment of residents showed advancement In 2006, proportion of resident population with primary or lower education was 43.0%, down by 11.6 percentage points over that of Census 2001; those with senior secondary education and above accounted for 32.4% of the total, an increase of 9.4 percentage points compared with 5 years ago. Most of the residents spoke Cantonese at home; about 40% were able to speak Mandarin Among the resident population aged 3 and above, 85.7% spoke Cantonese at home, 3.2% spoke Mandarin and 6.7% spoke other Chinese dialects. In Nossa Senhora de Fátima parish, 8.4% spoke Hokkien, while in Coloane Island, 11.9% spoke English. In terms of the language ability, 91.9% of the resident population aged 3 and above were able to speak Cantonese, 38.5% spoke Mandarin. Proportion of population with disability was 17 per thousand In By-census 2006, an individual with disability was defined “as a result of one’s physical, mental or emotional condition (not less than 6 months) that even with the help of auxiliary equipment, one still requires assistance from others in order to move around, communicate with others, take care of oneself and perform other daily activities”. In Macao, number of persons with disability totalled 8,298, sharing 1.7% of the total resident population, with 42.8% were male and 57.2% were female. Among the elderly population aged 65 and above, those with disability accounted for 13.4% of the respective age group. About 70% of the population with disability used services designated for the disabled, such as health rehabilitation services, special education services and financial assistance, etc. that were provided by government departments or other institutions. Growing proportion of tenant-households 72.9% of the households were owner-occupiers of their living quarter and 23.3% were tenants. Compared with 2001, the proportion of owner-occupiers declined by 3.8 percentage points whereas that of the tenants rose by 4.3 percentage points. Among the owner-occupiers, except the 71.0% that was mortgage free, the median monthly mortgage payment of the rest was MOP 2,642, a decrease of 5.6% compared with 2001. With respect to the rent payment of the tenants, the median monthly rent payment soared by 88.9% over 2001 to MOP 1,511. About 70% of households had computers; over half of the population used them The proportion of households with possession of computers surged from 44.9% in Census 2001 to 68.1% in By-census 2006. More than half of the resident population aged 3 and above used computer in the 3-month reference period, a remarkable increase of 1.4 times over the last 5 years. The highest proportion of computer-users marked in the population aged 15-24, accounting for 30.4% of the total computer-users. Regarding the using of Internet services, 46.4% of the resident population aged 3 and above accessed the Internet during the 3-month reference period. Purposes of accessing the Internet included searching for information, receiving and sending e-mail, reading newspapers and magazines, participating in chatroom/ICQ, etc. 30% of the employed went to work by bus; over half of households had motor vehicles By-census 2006 introduced additional questions on the hour of day leaving home to work and the means of transportation used by the employed population. Among them, 31.2% left home at 8 a.m.-9 a.m., while 12.5% at 8 p.m.-7 a.m. In terms of means of transportation used, 31.2% went to work by bus, 27.9% on foot, 21.6% by motorcycle and 13.7% by automobile. Regarding the possession of motor vehicles by households, 52.1% had motorcycle or private automobile, up by 7.7 percentage points over 2001. Among them, 73.5% had motorcycles and 57.0% had private automobiles. In Taipa Island, number of households possessing private automobiles accounted for 25.7% of the respective total in Macao. Participation of leisure activities In order to evaluate the leisure time-use of the resident population after work, school or doing housework, for the first time in By-census 2006, information on participation of leisure activities and outbound travel was collected from non-institutionalized resident population aged 14 and above. Among them, 98.0% had participated in recreational activities, using the Internet, etc. during the reference week. Analyzed by gender, the participation rate of self-learning, recreational activities, as well as voluntary and charity activities was higher for female, whereas that of sport activities and using the Internet was higher for male. Resident population aged 14-24 tended to participate more actively in different kinds of leisure activities, primarily in using the Internet, sports activities, etc. Meanwhile, 44.2% of the population aged 55 and above participated in sports activities. The median time used in leisure activities was 22.7 hours per week. Furthermore, 33.0% had travelled outbound during the reference week. Detailed results and information on the By-census 2006 is available on the website of Statistics and Census Service (http://www. dsec.gov.mo).
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In celebration of International Museum Day on May 18th, a series of activities including open day of museums, issuance of postal products, distribution of souvenirs, exhibitions, seminars, game booths, and competitions will be held. This year’s theme “Museums and Universal Heritage” seeks to arouse worldwide museums’ awareness to redefine their roles in the preservation of heritage. Representatives of various museums and exhibition halls at a joint press conference today (April 27) announced details of the celebrations. Admission to all museums, memorial houses and exhibition halls will be free on May 18th and some will offer additional free admission days for visitors and locals. The Macau Post Office will issue a special souvenir cover for “Macau International Museum Day” while the Communications Museum will provide date stamp service. Major joint activities this year include the “Tic-Tac-Toe” Game and “Exposing the Museums in Macau” Digital Videography Competition. For details, please visit http://macao.communications.museum/2007imd. In addition, to actively promote Macau’s multi-cultural characteristics to Hong Kong and the Guangdong province while, at the same time, strengthen cultural exchange among museums in the three regions, the Macau Museum will organize representatives from various local museums to visit Hong Kong and Guangdong, to celebrate International Museum Day. Starting May 18th, both residents and visitors could redeem ‘Macau International Museum Day’ souvenir cover and enter a lucky draw simply by completion of the ““Tic-Tac-Toe ”Game with stamps from various museums. The draw to be held in June will give out fabulous prizes such as the Macau World Heritage Tour and Guangzhou One-Day Tour. The newly organized “Exposing the Museums in Macau” DV Competition is to encourage local residents to participate in museum-related activities while fostering their creativity in making DVs. The videos will have to show the characteristics of museums in Macau by filming images of the museums themselves, their facilities or the exhibits. Museums providing stamps for the “Tic-Tac –Toe” Game include Natural and Agrarian Museum, Grand Prix Museum, Museum of the Holy House of Mercy, Heritage Exhibition of a Traditional Pawnshop Business, Fire Services Museum, Maritime Museum, Communications Museum, Wine Museum, Museum of Taipa and Coloane History, Handover Gifts Museum of Macao, Lin Zexu Memorial Museum of Macao, Museum of the Macao Security Forces, Macao Tea Culture House, Macao Museum, Macao Museum of Art, Taipa Houses-Museum, Dr. Sun Iat Sen’s Memorial House in Macao. For further details of the activities, please contact (853) 3941209, 7984181 during office hours or visit the website http://macao.communications.museum/2007imd
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According to the results of the Employment Survey released by the Statistics and Census Service, the unemployment rate for January - March 2007 was held stable at 3.2%, same as that in the previous period (December 2006 - February 2007), but down by 0.8 percentage point year-on-year. The underemployment rate stood at 0.7%, which remained unchanged over the previous period, down by 0.3 percentage point over the same period of 2006. About 900 unemployed persons were searching for their first job, representing 9.2% of the total unemployed population, up by 0.8 percentage point over the preceding period. Meanwhile, the unemployment situation improved in the Manufacturing and Construction sectors, but the situation was less favourable in Hotels, restaurants & similar activities; and the Wholesale & retail trade. Total labour force was estimated at 293,000 in January - March 2007, among them, 284,000 were employed and 9,300 were unemployed. Labour force participation rate was 67.0%, down by 0.1 percentage point over December 2006 - February 2007, but up by 2.1 percentage points over the same period of 2006.
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Macao and Singapore exchanged views in the prevention of avian flu and in enhancing co-operation in matters of health when the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Mr Chui Sai On, led a delegation of health officials to Singapore on Monday for a meeting with the city state's Minister for Health, Mr Khaw Boon Wan. According to a statement released by the Office of the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture today, Mr Chui, on behalf of the Macao SAR Government, thanked Mr Khaw for Singapore's support on health personnel training, technical support and information exchange in public hygiene area. Mr Chui also briefed Mr Khaw on Macao's measures in preventing avian flu, which were put in place to collaborate with the World Health Organization’s effort to fight the possible pandemic. The Director of the Health Bureau, Mr Koi Kuok Ieng, and Deputy Director, Mr Lei Chin Ion, also attended the meeting. In October 2005, on behalf of their respective governments, Mr Chui and Mr Khaw signed the Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in the Field of Health between Singapore and Macao, which facilitated personnel training and pandemic information exchange between the two places. Mr Khaw had also led a delegation of health officials to Macao in January 2006, at the invitation of Mr Chui.
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Trade and tourism are priorities for partnerships between Macao and provinces in central China, the Chief Executive, Mr Edmund Ho Hau Wah, said today at the opening of the Expo Central China 2007. He said that Macao's tourism sector had grown significantly in recent years. As more and more global enterprises invest in Macao, which prompted healthy competition and boosted investment, the image of Macao has been greatly promoted and strengthened. Mr Ho pointed out that the authorities and communities of Macao and provinces in central China had increased exchanges, and that Macao could co-operate with these provinces in planning tour routes and international tourism promotions. On the subject of trade, he said Macao's conference and exhibition business would welcome a major boost in the second half of this year, which would further facilitate Macao’s function as a business hub and platform. The exposition was also attended by the Vice Premier of the State Council, Ms Wu Yi; Minister of Commerce, Mr Bo Xilai, and the Chief Executive of Hong Kong SAR, Mr Donald Tsang. Mr Ho also visited the pavilion set up by the Macao Government and Macao's businesspeople, and attended a business forum, as well as a reception hosted by the Ms Wu.
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The Government is considering an increase in the number of grades in 'general service scheme' to provide more promotion opportunities for civil servants, the Secretary for Administration and Justice, Ms Florinda Chan, said today. Ms Chan told the press that revisions of a number of rules and regulations governing civil servants were in progress and some of these would be proposed to the legislature this year, including the 'general service scheme', the 'general rules for bureau directors, department heads, division chiefs and supervisors', and the service schemes for public security forces, nurses and assistants working in health departments. Regarding the 'general service scheme', Ms Chan said since a considerable number of civil servants had reached the highest grade and rank of the scheme a few years ago, the Government is considering all kinds of initiatives, such as an increase in the number of grades, to provide them more promotion opportunities in their public service careers. She said that terms for promotion would be clarified in the revisions: academic background, experience and training history of civil servants would all be taken into account. Other purposes of the revision of the 'general service scheme' included integrating different kinds of contracts in the recruitment of civil servants and eliminating inequality between the promotion of staff with or without permanent tenure. She said that the principles for revising the 'general service scheme' would be adopted in the revision of various 'special service schemes', which was expected to begin after the completion of the former scheme. In the revision of 'general rules for bureau directors, department heads, division chiefs and supervisors', Ms Chan said that it would introduce measures to facilitate job rotation, enhance accountability and eliminate the phenomenon of department heads in acting status. Ms Chan also disclosed that an incentive programme, to be in line with the existing appraisal scheme, was expected to be introduced in the second quarter of this year.
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High-level officials from Macao and Henan Province would work further to enhance relationship between the two places. This was reaffirmed today as Macao's Chief Executive, Mr Edmund Ho Hau Wah, met with the Secretary of the CPC Henan Provincial Party Committee and the Governor of Henan in the central China province. Mr Ho arrived in the city of Zhengzhou this morning, for Expo Central China 2007 which opens tomorrow. Soon after his arrival, Mr Ho met with the Secretary of the CPC Henan Provincial Party Committee, Mr Xu Guangchun. Mr Xu praised Macao's rapid development under Mr Ho's leadership in recent years and thanked him for his presence at the Expo Central China 2007. Mr Ho told Mr Xu at the meeting that many Macao business people were looking for opportunities in Henan through the exposition, which was doing better than some had expected. At a meeting with the Governor of Henan Province, Mr Li Chengyu, Mr Ho said that Henan had enormous potential and he believed that the trade forum to be held tomorrow would boost co-operation between the business circles of the two places. Moreover, Macao could act as a business platform for the Portuguese-speaking countries to enter markets of Henan and other central China provinces, making co-operation between Macao and Henan mutually beneficial, Mr Ho said. Mr Ho and his delegation also visited the Henan Provincial Museum, as well as the venue for the Expo Central China 2007 and the booths set up by the Macao Government and business people.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service showed that in the first quarter of 2007, price indices for most of the surveyed construction materials increased over the fourth quarter of 2006. Among them, the indices for steel, aluminium, sand, lime, aggregates, timber, red bricks, ceramic products, glass, pipes, sanitary articles and cement rose between 0.5% and 8.9%. Conversely, the price index for electric wires fell the most by 6.1%, ending the continuous upward trend in the past nine quarters; decreases were also registered in concrete and paint, down 1.0% and 0.5% respectively. Compared with the first quarter of 2006, price indices for all of the surveyed construction materials, except concrete, moved up. The index for electric wires rose the most by 54.1%, followed by aluminium and red bricks, up 14.6% and 13.9% respectively.
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The Chief Executive, Mr Edmund Ho Hau Wah, has arrived in Henan for tomorrow’s opening of the Expo Central China 2007. With more than 60 Macao business leaders participating in the exposition, Mr Ho said he believed this opportunity would enhance exchanges with the province and bolster co-operation and trade between the two places, he told the press at the airport before his departure. He said the purposes for his visit were to encourage partnerships in trade and tourism sector with Henan and other provinces in central China, and promote Macao’s role as service platforms for neighbouring regions and between China and the Portuguese-speaking countries. The Secretary for Economy and Finance, Mr Francis Tam Pak Yuen, who is in Mr Ho’s delegation, said that other than partnerships with provinces in the pan-Pearl River delta, Macao also attached much attention to co-operation with provinces in central and western China. He envisaged bright prospects for further co-operation between Macao and other provinces, especially in tertiary sector, and said he welcomed further exchanges with corporations from the Mainland.
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