News

World-renowned mathematician Prof. Shing-Tung Yau will give a talk on "string theory and the geometry of the universe' hidden dimensions", which is part of the 30th Anniversary Lecture Series, at the University of Macau (UM) next Saturday (3 December). Prof. Yau is recipient of the Wolf Prize Laureate in Mathematics in 2010 and the Fields Medal in 1982, which is the world's most prestigious prize in mathematics. String theory assumes that spacetime has ten dimensions overall. The three large spatial dimensions that we're familiar with, plus time, make up the four-dimensional spacetime of Einstein's theory. But there are also six additional dimensions hidden away in Calabi-Yau space. During the talk, Prof. Yau will introduce the audience to the history of geometry through his first-hand experiences in the field. He will discuss how mathematicians think and approach the world. He will help the audience realize that mathematics does not have to be a wholly abstract discipline, disconnected from everyday phenomena, but is instead crucial to our understanding of the physical world. He will also talk about how mathematics and physics can come together to the benefit of both fields, particularly in the case of Calabi-Yau spaces and string theory. Prof. Yau has made fundamental contributions to differential geometry, uncovering deep intrinsic geometric structures in an astonishingly wide range of scientific disciplines like differential geometry, algebraic geometry, topology, partial differential equations, general relativity and string theory. In 1976 he proved Calabi's conjecture on a class of manifolds now named Calabi-Yau manifolds, which has now become the geometric ground on which physicists build their string theory. His new method of studying global differential equations is so powerful that it has had a seminal influence on general relativity. Prof. Yau is recognized as one of the world's most influential mathematicians under the age of fifty. Prof. Yau received his graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley, where his advisor was Shiing-Shen Chern. He has received numerous international awards in mathematics. He is currently the William Caspar Graustein Professor of Mathematics and the chairman of the Mathematics Department at Harvard University. He is a foreign member of the National Academy of Lincei, Italy, the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Arts and Sciences in the U.S. He has received honorary doctorates from numerous universities, including Harvard, National Taiwan University, Zhejiang University, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and UM (in 2002). The talk will take place at UM's Cultural Centre on 3 December (Saturday) at 15:00. It will be conducted in Cantonese, with simultaneous interpretation into English. Please visit https://isw.umac.mo/styau/ for on-line registration. For enquiries, please call 83974339.
…

Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that inward foreign direct investment (FDI) amounted to MOP 22.63 billion in 2010, up by MOP 15.79 billion compared with the revised figure of MOP 6.85 billion in 2009, of which FDI in the Gaming Sector accounting for 69.0% of the total, at MOP 15.61 billion; FDI in the Wholesale & Retail (MOP 3.06 billion) and the Financial Sector (MOP 2.12 billion) took up 13.5% and 9.4% of the total respectively. Analyzed by investors' place of usual residence, FDI came mainly from Hong Kong (MOP 9.41 billion), the United States (MOP 5.48 billion) and the Cayman Islands (MOP 5.40 billion). Taking into account the disinvestment of MOP 2.50 billion of outward FDI by local enterprises, Macao registered a net FDI inflow of MOP 25.13 billion in 2010. In 2010, income earned by investors of inward FDI totalled MOP 28.33 billion, an increase of MOP 8.67 billion compared with the revised figure of MOP 19.66 billion in 2009. Meanwhile, Macao enterprises also recorded an income of MOP 735 million from outward FDI. At the end of 2010, stock of inward FDI reached MOP 109.01 billion, an increase of MOP 24.96 billion from 2009. Analyzed by industry, the majority was invested in the Gaming Sector, at MOP 70.28 billion, up by MOP 15.94 billion year-on-year; meanwhile, stock of FDI in the Financial Sector (MOP 23.16 billion) and the Wholesale & Retail (MOP 7.71 billion) shared 21.2% and 7.1% respectively. Analyzed by investors' place of usual residence, stock of FDI mainly came from Hong Kong (MOP 40.85 billion), the Cayman Islands (MOP 23.16 billion) and the United States (MOP 17.66 billion), up by MOP 9.08 billion, MOP 5.85 billion and MOP 5.07 billion respectively year-on-year. Furthermore, stock of outward FDI made by Macao enterprises amounted to MOP 5.45 billion at the end of 2010, down by MOP 2.34 billion from 2009. Outward FDI was mainly invested in Hong Kong, Mainland China and the British Virgin Islands. Direct Investment Statistics facilitate analysis of FDI profile between Macao and other economies. For statistical purposes, Macao and Mainland China are considered as two separate economies. Coverage of the Direct Investment Statistics included the major industries of Macao, namely Industrial Production; Construction; Wholesale & Retail; Hotels & Restaurants; Transport, Storage & Communications; Financial Services; Gaming; and Cultural, Recreational & Other Services. In 2010, Macao had 1,896 FDI enterprises, with 1,846 engaging in the Non-Financial Sector and 50 in the Financial Sector.
…

Owing to the prevailing unstable situation in Syrian Arab Republic, Macao Post announced that all postal services (including Correspondence, Printed Matters, Small Packet and Parcel) from Macao to Syrian Arab Republic are subject to delay until further notice. Thank you for your kind attention.
…

The Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) released results of the Survey on Manpower Needs and Wages for the third quarter of 2011. Survey coverage comprised the Manufacturing sector; Hotels & Restaurants; the Insurance sector; Financial Intermediation Activities and the Electricity, Gas & Water Supply sector, excluding own-account workers, as well as insurance agents and brokers not directly employed by insurance companies. At the end of the third quarter of 2011, the Manufacturing sector had 11,809 paid employees, down by 13.2% year-on-year, with those working in Manufacture of Wearing Apparel (4,528) and Manufacture of Textiles (804) and decreasing significantly by 29.1% and 28.7% respectively. In September 2011, average earnings (excluding bonuses and allowances) of full-time employees rose by 7.1% year-on-year to MOP6,940, with Sewing machine operators earning MOP3,480 in average. Hotels & Restaurants took on 58,088 paid employees, up by 17.2% year-on-year, with 38,165 working in hotels. In September, average earnings of full-time employees rose by 5.2% year-on-year to MOP10,750. Waiters/waitresses of hotels earned an average of MOP7,310, while those of restaurants earned MOP6,260. Housekeeping staff earned MOP6,760. The Electricity, Gas & Water Supply sector had 1,067 paid employees, down slightly by 0.1% year-on-year. Average earnings of full-time employees increased by 4.3% over September 2010 to MOP23,430. The Insurance sector took on 459 paid employees, up by 1.5% year-on-year. Average earnings of full-time employees in September rose by 6.6% year-on-year to MOP19,300. Financial Intermediation Activities had 389 paid employees, down by 4.7% year-on-year. In September, average earnings of full-time employees increased by 11.7% year-on-year to MOP12,990.
At the end of the third quarter of 2011, the Manufacturing sector reported 1,202 job vacancies; Hotels & Restaurants had 7,425 vacancies, while both the Insurance sector and Financial Intermediation Activities had 19 vacancies. In terms of recruitment prerequisites, more than 50% of the vacancies in these five industries required working experience. As regards educational attainment, 70.4% of the vacancies in the Manufacturing sector required junior secondary education or lower; meanwhile, all of the vacancies in the Insurance sector and 77.8% of those in the Electricity, Gas & Water Supply sector and a required senior secondary education or higher. Besides Cantonese, all the vacancies in Financial Intermediation Activities required knowledge of Mandarin and English; the respective percentages for those in Hotels & Restaurants were 72.7% and 62.9%; meanwhile, 84.2% of the vacancies in the Insurance sector required knowledge of English. With respect to the indicators that measure inflow and outflow of human resources, as well as staffing needs, Hotels & Restaurants had the highest employee recruitment rate (9.9%) and job vacancy rate (12.0%), up by 0.6 and 2.9 percentage points respectively year-on-year. The Manufacturing sector had the highest employee turnover rate of 7.9%.
…

Macau Government Tourist Office is concerned with the tourism disputes which occurred recently and will meet with the local tourism sector to learn about the situation and notify the Mainland tourism authorities. Another incident of visitor complaint took place yesterday and according to preliminary investigations by MGTO, a Mainland tour group of 19 people arrived Macau in the morning and were distributed the day's itinerary by the local tour guide. In the evening, the tour group requested to stay in a hotel in Macau and started an argument with the tour guide who informed them that the itinerary did not include accommodation in Macau. Members of the tour group then complained about the attitude of the tour guide and demanded Macau's travel agency to pay a compensation of MOP5,000 each, which was then lowered to MOP1,000. In the course of the dispute, the tour group missed the border crossing time, and eventually the travel agency arranged for them to stay in a hotel in Macau and paid MOP300 to each visitor, who finally agreed to leave for the hotel. The visitors refused to fill in a complaint form requested by MGTO who was assisting at the site. The visitors also could not concretely explain the attitude of the tour guide whom they were complaining against. MGTO noticed that recent tourism disputes mainly involved discrepancies between the itineraries of the Mainland tour operators and Macau travel agencies. For instance, the itinerary agreed between the Mainland tour operator and the local travel agency did not include accommodation in Macau, while the itinerary given to the visitors by the Mainland tour operator stated an overnight stay in Macau. Some cases involved Mainland visitors joining tour groups by way of discount vouchers obtained from shopping in the Mainland. MGTO is aware of this new issue and will meet with local tourism organizations to discuss the problem, while at the same time notify the Mainland tourism authorities to exchange views on ways to combat this new situation. MGTO urges the travel trade in Macau to observe the "Key points for Contracts between Travel Agencies and Tour Operators Handling Mainland Tour Groups to Macau", be attentive to service quality and strictly comply with regulations when receiving tour groups, so as to uphold the image of Macau as a tourism destination and realize the goal of building Macau into a World Center of Tourism and Leisure.
…

The Seminar on "Legal Framework for Financing Cultural and Creative Industries: Comparative Perspectives", being part of the 2nd EU-Macao Co-operation Programme in the Legal Field, will take place from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on November 28th and from 9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on November 29th, in the Macao Cultural Center, located at Avenida Xian Xing Hai, NAPE. It is jointly organized by the Institute of European Studies of Macau and by the Law Reform and International Law Bureau. This activity aims at providing a platform that shares the experience of Europe and China in establishing legal regimes of financing or supporting the formation and development of the Cultural and Creative Industries that brings together different experts and legal professionals from the region to share their professional legal knowledge on this important contemporary theme. This event will focus on the following topics: I) EU / China Partnership on Culture and Creative Industries; II) The Development of Business and Protecting of E-Copyright in the Digital Age: take China as a case; III) When and how should Creative Industries in Macao be supported?
IV) The experience of CreativeMacau- The pioneer CCI organization in Macau;
V) Legal Framework of Taiwan for Financing Cultural and Creative Industries; VI) Cultural industries, clusters and urban organisation. The seminar will feature six round table exchange sessions / discussions as well as experts coming from China, Macau, Taiwan, Portugal and Belgium. This initiative will be conducted in English, with simultaneous translation into Mandarin. The 2nd EU-Macao Co-operation Programme in the Legal Field, which incorporates this seminar, has as its main objective the "Consolidation of the Macao Legal System" and will take place until December 2012. The execution of this Programme is organised by the Law Reform and International Law Bureau, with the participation of several other MSAR's entities and public departments, namely, the Legal and Judicial Training Centre, the Legal Affairs Bureau, the Economic Services, the Financial Services Bureau and the Institute of European Studies of Macao.
…

Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that total visitor arrivals increased by 13.6% year-on-year to 2,376,643 in October 2011. Same-day visitors (1,333,204) accounted for 56.1% of the total, with 838,787 coming from Mainland China. Analyzed by place of residence, visitors from Mainland China surged by 30.5% year-on-year to 1,466,545 (61.7% of total), mostly from Guangdong Province (755,354), Fujian Province (88,077) and Hunan Province (50,919); Mainland visitors travelling to Macao under the Individual Visit Scheme totalled 577,691, up by 20.5% year-on-year. Visitors from Japan (32,595) and the Republic of Korea (27,391) increased by 10.0% and 24.9% respectively; on the contrary, those from Hong Kong (558,687); Taiwan, China (95,922) and Malaysia (26,989) decreased by 11.2%, 2.8% and 1.7% respectively. Total visitor arrivals reached 23,038,796 in the first ten months of 2011, up by 11.4% year-on-year. Visitors from Mainland China (13,219,375), Hong Kong (6,335,931) and the Republic of Korea (329,921) increased by 20.9%, 1.6% and 21.7% respectively, while those from Taiwan, China (1,039,664) and Japan (315,819) decreased by 4.7% and 7.5% respectively. In the first ten months of 2011, same-day visitors accounted for 53.8% of the total, at 12,405,209. Analyzed by mode of transport, visitor arrivals by sea totalled 9,024,300 in the first ten months of 2011, up by 6.5% year-on-year. Visitors arriving at the Outer Harbour increased by 10.0% to 5,797,439, while those arriving at the Provisional Ferry Terminal in Taipa decreased by 2.7% to 2,834,825. Visitor arrivals by land registered an increase of 16.4%, at 12,621,317 in the first ten months of 2011, with 11,671,142 arriving through the Border Gate. Visitor arrivals by air increased by 2.4% year-on-year to 1,393,179. Visitors arriving at the Macao International Airport increased by 2.2% to 1,371,920, with the majority coming from Mainland China (37. 8%); Taiwan, China (34.7%); and Malaysia (5.8%).
…

Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the rate of usage of Information Technology (IT) in the business sector stood at 48.7% in 2010, up by 2.4 percentage points from 2009. Analyzed by industry, usage of IT is fully adopted in the Gaming Sector; the rate of usage in Travel Agencies and the Service Sector was 98.9% and 82.5% respectively, while Restaurant Sector had a rate of 31.8% only. In addition, Construction (74.9%) and Wholesale & Retail (44.2%) registered significant progress in IT usage, up by 7.9 and 3.8 percentage points respectively year-on-year. Analyzed by size of establishment, the rate of IT usage reached 99.4% in large enterprises engaging with 100 or more workers, while that of the small establishments with less than 10 workers was 43.6%. With regard to Internet usage, 79.6% of the enterprises using IT also had Internet connection and the major purposes included information search (35.6%), purchasing (18.0%) and sales (16.3%). In 2010, there were 82.8% of households possessed IT devices (e.g. desktop computer, portable computer and Smart mobile telephone etc.), up by 4.0 percentage points year-on-year. For the population aged 3 or above, 56.3% used computers and 53.8% had access the Internet in 2010, same as 2009. Analyzed by age group of IT users, those aged 15-24 had the highest rate of computer usage (95.5%) and Internet usage (93.7%). In respect of the location of accessing the Internet, accessing the Internet at home (95.5%) and at work (25.6%) increased by 2.3 and 1.6 percentage points respectively in comparison with 2009; moreover, major purposes of accessing the Internet were information search and online services (85.0%), communication (78.5%) and e-Government (39.0%). Coverage of usage of IT in the business sector includes Industrial Production; Construction; Wholesale & Retail Trade; Travel Agencies; Hotels; Restaurants; Gaming; Transport, Storage & Communications and the Service Sector (Real Estate Management; Security Services; Cleaning Services; Advertising and Conference/Exhibition Organizing Services). Besides, data on IT usage in households were collected from individuals aged 3 or above of the Employment Survey in the fourth quarter of 2010.
…

The Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) released results of the Employment Survey for the third quarter of 2011, of which principal indicators such as the labour force participation rate (72.5%) and unemployment rate (2.6%) were published in October. Total labour force was 344,000 in the third quarter of 2011, comprising 335,000 employed and 8,900 unemployed. Compared with the second quarter of 2011, both the labour force and number of employed registered an increase of 6,200; meanwhile, number of unemployed held stable as the previous quarter. Analyzed by industry, the majority of the employed were engaging in Recreational, Cultural, Gaming & Other Services (24.7%), and Wholesale & Retail Trade (13.9%). In terms of occupation, Clerks (including croupiers, floorpersons, betting service operators, etc.) and Service & Sales Workers accounted for 26.9% and 23.6% of the total respectively. Median monthly employment earnings of the employed stood at MOP10,000 in the third quarter of 2011, and that of local residents amounted to MOP11,000, up by MOP400 and MOP1,000 respectively quarter-to-quarter. Number of the underemployed totalled 3,600, with the majority (72.7%) working in Construction and 9.0% in Transport, Storage & Communications. In respect of the unemployed, 83.4% were searching for a new job and 16.6% were fresh labour force entrants searching for their first job. With regard to educational attainment, 23.6% had primary education or lower, 32.6% had junior secondary education and 23.6% had senior secondary education. For the unemployed that were searching for a new job, analyzed by industry previously engaged, 20.7% had worked in Recreational, Cultural, Gaming & Other Services and 17.8% in Construction. Analyzed by previous occupation, 26.6% were Clerks and 25.0% were Service & Sales Workers.
…

Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that value of retail sales for the third quarter of 2011 reached MOP 10.59 billion, up by 38% year-on-year. Retail sales of Watches, Clocks & Jewellery amounted to MOP 2.70 billion (25% of total), which was followed by retail sales of Goods in Department Stores (16%), Leather Goods (11%) and Adults' Clothing (9%). Value of retail sales for the third quarter of 2011 increased by 8% compared with the revised figure (MOP 9.82 billion) of the second quarter, with notable increase being observed in sales of Motor Vehicles (+32%), Automotive Fuels (+23%), Goods in Department Stores (+17) and Communication Equipment (+17%). In the first three quarters of 2011, value of retail sales totalled MOP 30.43 billion, up by 39% compared with MOP21.89 billion from a year earlier. After removing the effect of price changes, volume of retail sales for the third quarter of 2011 rose by 25% year-on-year, of which sales of Communication Equipment soared by 77%, Leather Goods by 46%, Goods in Department Stores by 43%, Cosmetics & Sanitary Articles by 41% and Adults' Clothing by 40%. Volume of retail sales increased by 7% quarter-to-quarter, with significant increase in sales of Motor Vehicles (+31%), Communication Equipment (+22%) and Automotive Fuels (+22%); however, sales volume of Watches, Clocks & Jewellery registered a decrease of 5% quarter-to-quarter. In respect of the comments of the retailers, about 68% stated that sales volume in the third quarter of 2011 held stable or increased over the previous quarter, up by 10 percentage points compared with those holding the same sentiment in the second quarter; however, 32% reported a decrease in sales volume. In terms of the retail prices, about 60% reported stable prices, 27% stated an increase and 13% reported a decrease. In comparison with the third quarter of 2010, about 75% expressed that the stock level was normal in the third quarter of 2011, while 14% indicated that the stock level was low. As regards the business outlook for the fourth quarter of 2011, about 75% anticipate that sales volume will increase or remain stable quarter-to-quarter, 25% expect a decrease. Concurrently, about 32% predict an increase in retail prices, 57% expect stable prices and 11% expect a decrease.
…