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Today (9 October 2010) the University of Macau (UM) Congregation 2010 was held at the Tap Seac Multi-Sports Pavilion. Dr. Chui Sai On, Chief Executive of Macao SAR and Chancellor of UM, presided over the ceremony. More than 1000 bachelor’s and master’s graduates received their degrees and graduation certificates from UM Rector Wei Zhao, and PhD graduates received their degrees and certificates from Dr. Chui Sai On. Dr. Chui said at the congregation that Macao SAR government will increase input in education and UM should stick with its established long-term goals and strive to become a world-class university and produce high-calibre graduates. UM Rector Wei Zhao said that UM has formulated a new “‘4-component-based’ structure” as the university’s new pedagogical model, with a view to “providing a unique holistic education” and nurturing outstanding graduates that can serve as “the driving force for the development of society”. More than 2000 people, including UM’s top management University Council Dr. Chair Tse Chi Wai, Rector Prof. Wei Zhao, Vice Rector (Academic Affairs) Prof. Simon Ho, Vice Rector (Research) Prof. Rui Martins, and Vice Rector (Administration) Dr. Alex Lai, as well as members of the University Assembly and University Council, UM staff, government officials, community leaders and students’ parents, attended the congregation, joyful in the knowledge that this milestone event signals the start of a new chapter in the students’ lives. In his speech Dr. Chui said that Macao SAR government will adhere to the guiding principle of “invigorating Macao through education” and will increase input in education to improve teaching environment, support educational institutions, accelerate the training of professionals in various fields for the local community, and enhance the cultural quality and overall competitiveness of Macao. He said that the government is studying the feasibility of establishing a higher education fund and will continue to provide postgraduate scholarships for permanent Macao residents to create favorable conditions for people who wish to pursue further education. He said the aim of doing so is to create a society committed to lifelong learning. He noted that the construction of the new UM campus will be completed in three years, and that UM should stick with its established long-term goals and strive to become a world-class university with distinctive regional features and constantly seek to enhance the quality of its graduates. In his speech UM Rector Wei Zhao said that “disciplinary education”, “general education”, “research and internship education”, and “community and peer education” are all essential components indispensable to the growth of students, and that UM has formulated this new ‘4-component-based’ structure” as the university’s new pedagogical model with a view to nurturing graduates who, “with integrity and aspiration, can live up to the maxim of ‘love China, love Macao; learn extensively, practice earnestly’ and be the driving force for the development of the society”. He said that for years UM has been holding on to this education mode and has accumulated rich experience in this respect. He said the excellent performance of the graduates further strengthens UM’s “determination and faith to bring our ‘4-component-based’ model to perfection”. In closing, Rector Wei Zhao congratulated students on entering a new stage of their lives and reminded students to always bear in mind that their great responsibilities for Macao, China and the world, saying that such responsibilities “are best discharged by the contributions” they make to the alma mater and society. Student representative Ms. Mak Hio Wa said in her speech that UM has all along been committed to nurturing excellent graduates for society and has attained marked progress over the years. She said that she believes the new campus will offer a better learning environment for students and will allow UM to make greater contribution to society by nurturing more outstanding graduates. She expressed hope that several years from now all students present at today’s ceremony can reunite to celebrate new milestones of their alma mater. In closing she wished UM a brighter future. This year UM produced 1107 bachelor’s degree graduates, 276 master’s degree graduates, six doctoral degree graduates and 133 graduates of postgraduate certificate programmes. At the congregation, UM granted numerous academic awards and scholarships to students with academic excellence.
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From yesterday 5 p.m. until 5p.m. today (Oct 9) the Cross-departmental Working Team sealed one premise suspected to provide accommodation illegally. An illegal immigrant was found in the premise and handed over to the police for investigation. Since the law on "Prohibition of Providing Illegal Accommodation" took effect on August 13, a total of 652 premises were checked, of which 76 premises suspected to provide accommodation illegally were sealed, while 65 were normal residences. Ensuing investigations on the rest of the premises have been launched. Among the checked premises, some were vacant or unoccupied. Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO) and the Public Security Police Force (PSP) will continue investigation on unanswered doors, which are suspected to be used to provide accommodation illegally. Meanwhile, during investigations to other cases, PSP has found eight premises suspected to provide accommodation illegally and informed the Cross-departmental Working Team to handle the cases. To date, the operations involved more than 644 occupants, among whom 328 were occupants of premises suspected to provide accommodation illegally and were investigated, including 12 operators, 9 touts, 9 persons who manage the premises that provide accommodation illegally (management staff) and 4 occupants who failed to fulfill their duty of cooperation (among the four occupants who failed to fulfill their duty of cooperation, one has paid the fine). Among the occupants, there were 14 overstayers and 12 illegal immigrants. Following the raid to premises suspected to provide accommodation illegally, MGTO began sanction proceedings on involved operators, touts and managing staff, and adopted provisional measures to cut the supply of water and electricity to the concerned premises and sealed the doors. According to the new law, operators and person who manage the premise that provide accommodation illegally (management staff) incur a penalty up to 800 000 patacas, touts can be fined up to 100 000 patacas and occupants who fail to cooperate are fined 3 000 patacas. Public can also call 2833 3000 to report suspected premises. MGTO and Legal Affairs Bureau remind travelers that, according to the law on "Prohibition of Providing Illegal Accommodation", occupants found in premises suspected to provide accommodation illegally have the obligation to provide information or will be fined 3,000 patacas for violating the duty of cooperation. Occupants providing false information need to bear criminal responsibility. Non-residents who fail to pay the fine by due date might be denied reentry into Macau in the future.
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As the National Day Golden Week holiday comes to an end, preliminary figures show that visitor arrivals to Macau surpassed 680,000, an increase of nearly 13% compared to the same period of last year. Among the total arrivals, more than 470,000 were from the Mainland, a surge of 12.38%. Total visitor arrivals during the National Day Golden Week holiday period this year (1-7 October) reached 685,056, 12.94% more than the figure during the National Day Golden Week holiday period last year. 630,000 visitors came from Greater China with a 14% growth, among which, close to 480,000 were from the Mainland, an increase of 12.38%, while visitors from Hong Kong exceeded 140,000, a significant growth of 22.27%. International visitors also surpassed 480,000, with a slight increase of 0.32%. Performance of the hotel industry of Macau was satisfactory during the National Day Golden Week holiday. Average occupancy rate of three-to-five-star hotels reached 90%, a 2.7 percentage points increase compared to the same period of last year. The daily average number of occupied rooms of three-to-five-star hotels was 17,236, increasing by 14.89%. The average room rate of three-to-five-star hotels was 1,422 patacas, up 16% on the Golden Week period of last year. The average occupancy rate of hotels saw a rise during the National Day Golden Week holiday. The average occupancy rate of three-star hotels hit 91.36% (+1.23 percentage points), while that of four-star hotels reached 86.86% (+4.54 percentage points) and five-star hotels hit 91.77% (+2.32 percentage points). The average room rate of different categories of hotels and guesthouses in Macau also increased, with the average room rate of guesthouses in these seven days registering 272 patacas (+16%), two-star hotels 506 patacas (+4.56%), three-star hotels 1,226 patacas (+18.63%), four-star hotels 1,087 patacas (+20.91%) and five-star hotels 1,954 patacas (+11.92%). From October 1 to 7, Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO), together with Guangdong Provincial Tourism Administration and Fujian Provincial Tourism Administration operated the tourism notification system, which together with the close collaboration among various departments and the support of tourism and related entities, helped to enhance the hospitality of the city to welcome visitors during the Golden Week. During the golden week period, MGTO inspectors intensified surveillance at Macau's most visited sites and border checkpoints, as well as carried on with the operations against illegal accommodation. MGTO and Legal Affairs Bureau (DSAJ) cooperated in a new promotion and education campaign against illegal accommodation, launched on October 1. Besides distributing flyers of the new campaign at MGTO information counters and immigration counters, MGTO received the support of Guangdong Provincial Tourism Administration for promotion and education initiatives in the source market, to safeguard the rights of the visitors. Macau Consumer Council also carried out promotions on the topic with its Mainland counterparts. During the Golden Week holiday, MGTO information counters and the tourism hotline 28 333 000 continued to operate. The tourism hotline was attended by operators around the clock. This press release is available at: www.macautourism.gov.mo
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From yesterday 5 p.m. until 5p.m. today (Oct 8) the Cross-departmental Working Team sealed one premise suspected to provide accommodation illegally. Since the law on "Prohibition of Providing Illegal Accommodation" took effect on August 13, a total of 644 premises were checked, of which 75 premises suspected to provide accommodation illegally were sealed, while 65 were normal residences. Ensuing investigations on the rest of the premises have been launched. Among the checked premises, some were vacant or unoccupied. Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO) and the Public Security Police Force (PSP) will continue investigation on unanswered doors, which are suspected to be used to provide accommodation illegally. Meanwhile, during investigations to other cases, PSP has found eight premises suspected to provide accommodation illegally and informed the Cross-departmental Working Team to handle the cases. To date, the operations involved more than 640 occupants, among whom 326 were occupants of premises suspected to provide accommodation illegally and were investigated, including 12 operators, 9 touts, 9 persons who manage the premises that provide accommodation illegally (management staff) and 4 occupants who failed to fulfill their duty of cooperation (among the four occupants who failed to fulfill their duty of cooperation, one has paid the fine). Among the occupants, there were 14 overstayers and 11 illegal immigrants. Following the raid to premises suspected to provide accommodation illegally, MGTO began sanction proceedings on involved operators, touts and managing staff, and adopted provisional measures to cut the supply of water and electricity to the concerned premises and sealed the doors. According to the new law, operators and person who manage the premise that provide accommodation illegally (management staff) incur a penalty up to 800 000 patacas, touts can be fined up to 100 000 patacas and occupants who fail to cooperate are fined 3 000 patacas. Public can also call 2833 3000 to report suspected premises. MGTO and Legal Affairs Bureau remind travelers that, according to the law on "Prohibition of Providing Illegal Accommodation", occupants found in premises suspected to provide accommodation illegally have the obligation to provide information or will be fined 3,000 patacas for violating the duty of cooperation. Occupants providing false information need to bear criminal responsibility. Non-residents who fail to pay the fine by due date might be denied reentry into Macau in the future.
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The 18th Incentive Travel & Conventions, Meetings Asia (IT&CMA 2010) was held in Bangkok Convention Centre in Thailand from 6 to 7 October this year. Joined by 25 local trades, the Macau Business Tourism Centre of Macau Government Tourist Office participated in the trade show to promote the latest MICE products and offerings of Macau. IT&CMA is the region’s premier meetings and incentive travel tradeshow and has attracted thousands of international buyers and delegates to participate each year. It is at the same time a platform for promoting the Asia-Pacific region as a MICE destination as well as a source for MICE visitors. The number of Macau trades participating in the leading international MICE trade shows has been increasing over the years, which does not only imply that more new offerings are being launched in Macau’s MICE market every year, but also signifies a rise on the level of confidence from the local trades to promote and support Macau to continue to develop as a premier MICE destination in the Asia-Pacific region. Taking the convenience of time and location, MGTO held jointly with Thailand Convention & Exhibition Bureau a mini mart and networking luncheon named MICE Macau & Thailand Seminar, on 8 October after IT&CMA. The seminar brought together more than 50 representatives from corporate companies, travel-related agents and event organizers from Thailand with 25 representatives from Macau, for service and products update and business discussion. On a sideline of the IT&CMA 2010, the Association of Convention and Visitor Bureaus (AACVB) held the “Press Conference on the 4th Asia for Asia Summit: Challenges and Opportunities of the Meetings Industry in the Next Decade” at the Bangkok Convention Centre on 6 October, to update the international media with the latest news and projects of the association.
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The Chief Executive, Mr Chui Sai On, today continued his visits to hear complaints, views and suggestions on improving the quality of residents in the various districts. After visiting the older Northern district such as Iao Hon yesterday, Mr Chui today went to the older Ha Wan and San Kio districts, which often suffered from flooding in heavy rain. The Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Mr Cheong U, Secretary for Transport and Public Works, Mr Lau Si Io and the Chief-of-Cabinet of the Office of the Chief Executive, Mr Tam Chon Weng accompanied Mr Chui on the visit. During the inspection, residents told the Chief Executive and his team of hygiene and flooding problems. Meanwhile, Mr Chui also talked to shop owners and asked them about business and human resource difficulties that they faced. The officials afterwards sat down with the representatives of the districts to hear their grievances and discussed possible solutions to their problems. Mr Chui said the Government highly valued residents’ opinion and pledged to study their suggestions carefully. Mr Cheong said he had a better idea in developing tourism after collecting concrete suggestions from the residents during the three-day local districts visit. He said the Government would divert more flow to the districts by them connecting to the normal visitors’ routes. The Government had also planned to increase health care centres and homes for the elderly, he added. Mr Lau said in the meeting that an inter-governmental group would look into beautifying the older districts to improve living conditions as well as to attract tourists to visit. On escalating property prices, Mr Lau said the Government’s long-term policy on housing was to build public rental housing and home-ownership scheme housing for those who could not afford to buy property on the open market. He stressed that the Government had sufficient land reserved for future public housing.
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In order to encourage local secondary school students to employ their theoretical scientific knowledge on practical experiments, the Electronic Device Construction Competition, the Communications Museum of Macao and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers will launch this month an Electronic Device Construction Competition. This year the proposed subject will be Rope Climber Express Device. Full-time students of Macao secondary schools can compete individually or as part of a group (maximum of 4 members), divided into two competing categories: Junior Secondary Group or Senior Secondary Group. Each of the top three winners will be presented with trophies, winning certificates, book coupons and attractive prizes. All entries will be displayed at the Museum. An explanatory session in Cantonese will be held in the Communications Museum Auditorium at 14:30, October 23, 2010. Reservations can be made through the phone lines 28718570 / 28718063 or email to info@macao.communications.museum
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While observing school group visits, we have come to notice that many students from areas such as arts and economy also are interested in learning sciences and seek the opportunity to participate in the interactive workshops, in addition to the science students who quite enjoy attending our “brains-on, hands-on” activities. Therefore, the Communications Museum will organize 4 special workshops under the theme “Construction and Control of Direct Current Motor” to teach them about the construction of a direct current motor and the proper technique to control it. All secondary students of arts, economy and science are welcome to register for the workshops to be held on November 6 & 13, respectively.
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According to statistics released today by the Monetary Authority of Macao, broad money supply continued to grow in August. The overall loan-to-deposit ratio bounced back slightly from a month earlier driven by the increase in nonresident loans.
Money supply
Currency in circulation dropped modestly by 0.1% whereas demand deposits increased by 0.8%. M1 thus rose 0.6% when compared with the previous month. Meanwhile, as quasi-monetary liabilities surged merely by 0.9%, M2 grew at a slower pace of 0.8%, amounting to MOP230.2 billion. On an annual basis, M1 and M2 rose 17.3% and 10.8% respectively. The share of Pataca (MOP) in M2 stood at 28.7%, up 0.6 percentage points over a month ago or 0.4 percentage points from a year earlier. Concurrently, the share of Hong Kong Dollar (HKD) in M2 was 53.9%, down 0.6 percentage points month-to-month or up 0.4 percentage points year-on-year.
Deposits
Resident deposits grew at a significantly slower pace. Their value increased by 0.9% from the previous month to MOP225.1 billion. Of which, MOP deposits and other foreign currency deposits increased at respective rates of 3.2% and 1.0%, while HKD deposits fell slightly by 0.3%. Concurrently, non-resident deposits dropped 1.0% to MOP71.5 billion whereas public sector deposits with the banking sector grew continuously by 5.9% to MOP20.0 billion. As a result, total deposits with the banking sector grew 0.7% from the previous month to MOP316.7 billion. The shares of MOP and HKD in total deposits were 24.3% and 46.0% respectively.
Loans
Domestic loans to the private sector were stable. Their value grew modestly by 0.1% on a monthly basis to MOP116.8 billion. Among which, MOP36.0 billion was MOP-denominated and MOP73.0 billion was denominated in HKD, representing 30.8% and 62.5% of the total respectively. Meanwhile, external loans increased 2.4% to MOP110.7 billion; of which, loans denominated in MOP and HKD accounted for 0.8% (MOP0.9 billion) and 41.2% (MOP45.6 billion) of the total respectively.
Loan-to-deposit ratios
As the growth pace of resident deposits (including public sector deposits) was faster than that of domestic loans to the private sector, the loan-to-deposit ratio for the resident sector at end-August 2010 contracted by 0.6 percentage points from a month ago to 47.7%. The ratio for both the resident and non-resident sectors was 71.9%, up 0.3 percentage points from the previous month.
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(Macao—6 October 2010) The Chief Executive, Mr Chui Sai On, today inspected the old Northern district and collected opinions on improvement to the quality of life for the people there. Accompanied by the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Mr Cheong U and the Chief-of-Cabinet of the Office of the Chief Executive, Mr Tam Chon Weng, Mr Chui firstly went to a housing estate situated in Areia Preta to inspect the illegal parking and hygiene problems in the area. Mr Chui also visited Iao Hon district where he was briefed on how drug addicts and prostitutes affected people living in that area. He also asked hawkers about their business. Afterwards, Mr Chui met with the district residents and heard their complaints and opinions on public health, security, transportation, imported labour and other issues. He told them that the Government would carefully study residents’ suggestions to improve the living conditions in the area. Mr Cheong U said in the meeting that the Government would spend more resources to revive the old Northern district, such as sponsoring the district to hold more festive celebrations. He told them the Government had plans to build five more health centres in the next 10 years to meet the needs of the people.
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