News

Starting tomorrow, 21 November, at 6:30 pm, in the Legal and Judicial Training Centre (Luso-International Bank Building, 18th floor), is a Seminar on “Mutual Legal Assistance – Criminal Matters – Transfer of Sentenced Persons”. Included in the Co-operation Programme in the Legal Field between the European Union and Macao, the training course will have as speaker Otto Lagodny, Professor at the University of Salzburg, in Austria, and will last until Friday, 25 November. During the five sessions of the seminar, that will take place daily, between 6:30 and 8:30 pm, will be discussed the following topics: “Basic structures of legal relations”, “Avoiding/circumventing transfer proceedings by applying expulsion procedures”, “The beginnings in Europe: European convention – CETS No. 51, 30 November 1964 and CETS No. 70, 28 May 1970”, “Development and common features of legal instruments on transfer of sentenced persons since 1983”, “Closely connected instruments of transfer” and “Combination of transfer of sentenced persons – instruments with other instruments”. The seminar is jointly organised by the Legal and Judicial Training Centre and the International Law Office and will be conducted in English. The seminar targets Law degree holders and will count on the participation of around thirty local participants. The Co-operation Programme in the Legal Field between the European Union and Macao, in which this seminar is integrated, has as its main objective the “Consolidation of the Macao Legal System”. Currently in its fourth year of execution, the Co-operation Programme will proceed until February 2007. The total budget for the programme is of 1.980.000 euros, shared in equal parts by the European Union and Macao. The co-ordination of the Co-operation Programme is at the responsibility of the International Law Office, being the organisation of the pertaining activities ensured by several other entities of the MSAR’s Government, namely the Legal and Judicial Training Centre, the Legal Affairs Bureau, the Economic Services and the Institute of European Studies, other than the International Law Office itself.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service shows that in the third quarter of 2005, construction of 26 buildings was started. They included residential, dual residential & commercial, commercial, industrial buildings and buildings for other uses. The gross floor area was 447,659 m². The total number of units was 1,456. In the first three quarters of 2005, the gross floor area was 1,545,766 m² and number of units of the buildings was 2,414, increased 222.2% and decreased 2.4% respectively in comparison with the same period of 2004. In the third quarter of 2005, 18 buildings were completed or extended. They included residential, dual residential & commercial buildings, commercial and buildings for other uses. The gross floor area of these buildings was 91,184 m². The total number of units was 833. In the first three quarters of 2005, the gross floor area was 180,254 m² and number of units of the buildings completed and extended was 900, went up 59.3% and 93.5% respectively in comparison with the same period of 2004. According to the information supplied by the Finance Services Bureau, 7,080 units, with a total value of MOP 4.47 billion, were transacted in the third quarter of 2005. The number of units decreased 15.2% and 36.4% in comparison with the third quarter of 2004 and second quarter of 2005 respectively. Among them, 4,525 were residential units, with a value of MOP 2.94 billion. Among all the building units transacted, 959 units were exempt from property tax (i.e. they were new buildings) with their value amounting to MOP 885 million. In the first three quarters of 2005, 26,565 units were transacted and their total value amounted to MOP 16.63 billion. In the third quarter of 2005, the average transaction price of residential units per square meter of usable area was MOP11,159, up 39.2% and 10.8% over the third quarter of 2004 and second quarter of 2005 respectively. Meanwhile, the average transaction prices of residential units in the Macao Peninsula and Taipa were MOP9,568 and MOP14,560 per square meter respectively, higher than the levels recorded in the third quarter of 2004 and second quarter of 2005. Moreover, the average transaction price of residential units in Coloane was MOP16,066 per square meter. In the third quarter of 2005, the average transaction price of industrial units per square meter of usable area was MOP3,352, up 37.0% and 2.8% over the third quarter of 2004 and second quarter of 2005 respectively. On the other hand, in the third quarter of 2005, the average transaction price of office units per square meter of usable area was MOP14,935, up 40.7% and 5.6% over the third quarter of 2004 and second quarter of 2005 respectively. Among the office units, the area of Baixa de Macau recorded the highest average transaction price per square meter, at MOP21,355, whereas the area of NAPE e Aterros da Baía da Praia Grande had the lowest average, at MOP14,148.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that per-capita spending of visitors in the third quarter of 2005 was MOP 1,419, which dropped by 5% over the same quarter of 2004. Per-capita spending of visitors from Mainland China topped the list with MOP 2,863 and visitors from Hong Kong spent an average of MOP 947. Besides, per-capita spending of tourists grew by 5% to MOP 1,982 and that of same-day visitors was MOP 508, a decrease of 2% over the same period of 2004. Per-capita non-shopping spending (excluding gaming expenses) of visitors was similar to that of the same quarter in 2004, at MOP 845, of which “food and beverage” and “accommodation” accounted for 40% and 35% of the total, respectively. In addition, per-capita shopping spending was MOP 574, a decrease of 12% compared with the same period of 2004. Shopping spending on “Chinese pastry, candy and food” and “clothing and fabrics” shared 30% and 17% of the total, respectively. Per-diem spending of visitors was MOP 1,236 in the third quarter of 2005, down by 9% over the same period of 2004. Mainland visitors had the highest per-diem spending, at MOP 2,005. The average length of stay of visitors (1.1 days) and same-day visitors (0.2_day) remained unchanged compared with the third quarter of 2004, while the average of tourists increased by 0.2 day to 1.7 days.
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A delegation of 10 members consisting of the Health Bureau, the Tourist Office and Venetian Macao Ltd headed for Bangkok to bid the hosting right for the 30th International Congress of the International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT) and won with great success. The working team had started preparing and working earnestly on the bid for the past two months. Under the auspices of the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, the Government Tourist Office, Venetian Macao Ltd., the President of Shanghai (Red Cross) Blood Center, coupled with the recommendation from the Regional Director of the Western Pacific Office for the World Health Organization Dr. Shigeru Omi and the Director-General of the Chinese Society of Blood Transfusion, Macao was nominated to host the 30th International Congress in 2008. Secretary-General of the ISBT said that they were deeply impressed by the presentation of the Director of the Health Bureau, the enthusiasm of the Macao Government SAR as well as the works and reputation of the Macao Blood Transfusion Center. They strongly believed that the Macao Government has the capability to host the 30th International Congress of the ISBT with a fruitful outcome. The International Congress of ISBT is held every 2 years while Macao is the first city ever in Asia which has been nominated the hosting right. It is expected that there will be around 4,000 professionals in the blood transfusion field partaking the International Congress in year 2008. During the 16th Regional Congress held in Bangkok on November 12 to 15, there were over 800 participants from 56 countries or regions around the world attending the event. The Congress featured new scientific developments and exhibited the latest technologies in the blood related area. The meeting indicated that there would be an extensive progress in the transfusion medicine, especially in the areas of blood testing methods and red cell blood grouping.
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The Chief Executive, Mr Edmund Ho Hau Wah said today in the 2006 policy address that there are various changes in the next few years and that we should grasp the valuable opportunities offered by these changes. Speaking in his seventh Policy Address at a plenary meeting in the Legislative Assembly, Mr Ho recalled that, in the past year, the Government had not only place high value on the latest economic and social developments, but also launched large-scale infrastructures projects to co-ordinate the allocation of resources needed in the market. Meanwhile, the Government also stepped up the services for the minorities and commenced preparations to lift the quality of life of the people of Macao. Mr Ho also urged officials at all grades to enhance their faiths when faced with various changes brought about by rapid economic development. Looking forward on economic developments, the Chief Executive said that the Government would continue to strengthen the competitive advantages of Macao’s tourism and gaming industry. Mr Ho said the Government would promote the healthy development of the gaming industry through fostering the administration in the legal and financial environment, as well as to gaming promoters. Moreover, it would consolidate its monitoring of the casino concessionaires, especially in fulfillment of their investment projects according to their contracts. As for developing the tourism industry, Mr Ho said Macao would blend its advantages as a city of heritage, entertainment and a venue for staging international fairs. Regarding the stability of its financial system, Mr Ho said the Government would spare no efforts to enhance its monitoring of the banking institutions, as well as facilitating the financial legal system to combat money laundering. In order to alleviate the shortage of human resource in a various industries, with the assurance that locals would be employed first, the Government would promote the introduction of import workers, especially those with specialised talents that are lacking in Macao. And as a means to streamlining Macao's economic structure, the Government would continue its support of industries such as Chinese medicine, aviation logistics, and trade and services intermediation and other related emerging industries. Furthermore, the Government would continue its support for the exhibition and conference industry, said Mr Ho, and to start operations of research institutions, which focus on the industry and incentive tourism. Speaking on the co-operation with neighboring regions, Portuguese-speaking countries and overseas Chinese businessmen, Mr Ho said the Government would continue to forge its role as a trade and service platform through harnessing Macao’s advantage in languages, business networks and historic factors. The Government would also strengthen this role by enhancing its relation with Southeast Asian countries, Japan, Korea and European Union countries. On legal reform, Mr Ho said that the Government would focus on laws that are urgently needed. He said that it would draft laws to enhance the accountability of public servants, and to introduce a ''transition period'' for Government officials considering to enter private sector after serving the public. On constitutional development, Mr Ho said that the Government would enhance its development in accordance with the Basic Law. He said that the Government would review its existing consultation system to perfect the function of these existing agencies and to form a new consultation system that could extensively represent the public from all sectors and levels. On infrastructure, he said the Government would re-formulate housing policy to enhance the supply of public housing and review the allocation system of Home-Ownership Scheme housing and public rental housing. The Government has set up the Urban Renovation Committee, which should speed up the plan to renovate urban area. The following policies are to be implemented in the Fiscal Year 2005-2006: To continue with tax cuts and social welfare relief measures, including: 25% discount on salaries tax; Abolition of business tax; 500 patacas discount on property tax; Abolition of signage fee; Abolition of tourism tax on restaurants sales; Abolition of licence fee for street stalls; Abolition of wet market stall rent; Abolition of stamp duty on insurance policies, with the exception of life insurance; Abolition of stamp duty on interests and commissions for bank loans and commissions for other bank services; Old-age subsidies Continue and intensify support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) Perfect the current SMEs finance support plan, increasing the cap on loans in order to ease difficulties faced by SMEs in financing. Speed up the administrative process and provide better support in information, training and technology. Initiate the renovation of older districts after one year of study and preparation in order to provide better business environment. Increasing investment in education: Extending free education to kindergarten;
Subsidising additional fees collected by private schools and eventually eliminating such fees in 2006/2007 school year. Releasing a subsidy of 5,000 patacas to each senior secondary student and complete the study on the extension of free education to senior secondary classes, in pursuit of the implementation of 15 years free education in the 2009/2010 school year. These subsidies will increase the Government’s budget in education by 50% to a total of 880 million patacas. Providing better medical services: Restructuring of public hospital; Enhance triage in emergency service and shorten the waiting time. Enhance equipment in public hospital and expand the emergency service. Co-operate with WHO and the Central Government on the prevention of Avian Influenza and make the health and safety of residents a priority. Improvement of social welfare Study the minimum livelihood index and increase subsidies to those who rely on the subsidies. All the social welfare payments will be amended to reflect the updated index. To be attentive to the needs of the elderly and minorities who might be disadvantaged. Easing the housing difficulties of the disadvantaged minorities and facilitating the lively development of the real estate market Taking the initiatives to introduce Government-built public housing. Building 4,000 public rental housing units within three years and 6,000 in five years. Research on a tax cut relating to property transfers to help first-time homebuyers who would not be allowed to sell their flats within a certain period. Study reclamation that suits the long-term needs of Macao to bring the healthy development of the real estate market and solve the traffic problem Enhance the drafting of real estate related regulations. Increasing employment and easing the pressure on the lack on human resources To continue the “Yes to jobs, no to charity” policy to help the unemployed and introduce a subsidy-related ''Positive Life and Services Scheme''. Study the introduction of extra fees for employing import workers and urge enterprises to employ local people The fees collected for employing import workers will be invested in the re-training of the unemployed and in subsidies to the SMEs that employ locals.
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Information from the first survey on the Gaming Sector conducted by Statistics and Census Service indicated that 8 enterprises were granted concession to operate in the gaming sector in 2004. Total receipts amounted to MOP 44.07 billion and total expenditure reached MOP 22.85 billion. Gross value added and gross fixed capital formation accounted for MOP 23.51 billion and MOP 3.11 billion respectively. Among the total receipts of MOP 44.07 billion, receipts from gaming services shared 99.0% of the total, with MOP 43.63 billion; interest and other receipts contributed 433 million. Total expenditure of the gaming sector amounted to MOP 22.85 billion, of which purchase of goods and commission paid took up MOP 16.24 billion (71.1% of the total); operating expenses and compensation of employees accounted for MOP 4.33 billion and MOP 1.91 billion respectively.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that in September 2005, visitor arrivals in package tours totalled 194,339, up 7.0% over September 2004. Visitors from Mainland China (150,643) increased 13.3% year-on-year; visitors from Taiwan, China (19,348) decreased 30.6% and those from Hong Kong (8,025) increased 3.6%. In the first nine months of 2005, arrivals in package tours grew 7.1% over the same period of 2004 to 1,929,909. Number of Macao residents travelling in package tours totalled 24,075 in September 2005, a year-on-year surge of 94.3%. Mainland China, Taiwan, China and Thailand were the three more popular tour itineraries, which accounted for 83.3%, 4.6% and 4.6% of the total respectively. In the first nine months of 2005, Macao residents travelling in package tours surged 48.1% compared with the same period of 2004. Meanwhile, 28,947 Macao residents travelled under own arrangements with the assistance of travel agencies, an increase of 20.4% over September 2004; Mainland China (39.1%), Hong Kong (23.0%) and Taiwan, China (15.7%) were the major destinations. In the first nine months of 2005, Macao residents travelling under such arrangements rose 6.6% compared with the same period of 2004. At the end of September 2005, there were 10,679 rooms available in hotels and similar establishments, an increase of 1,574 rooms (+17.3%) over September 2004. In September 2005, a total of 325,719 guests checked into hotels and similar establishments in Macao, up 9.6% over September 2004. The average hotel occupancy rate fell by 4.3 percentage points to 67.0% compared with the same month of 2004; the highest average hotel occupancy rate was in 3-star hotels, at 78.5%. The average length of stay of hotel guests showed a decrease of 0.01 night over September 2004 to 1.17 nights. The majority of the guests came from Mainland China (56.4%), Hong Kong (28.2%) and Taiwan, China (3.7%). In the first nine months of 2005, number of hotel guests recorded a year-on-year increase of 2.4% to 2,994,932. In the first nine months of 2005, hotel guests (excluding Macao residents) accounted for 42.8% of the total number of tourists, which was lower than the 45.8% recorded in the same period of 2004.
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Included in the Co-operation Programme in the Legal Field between the European Union and Macao and starting tomorrow, November 14, at 6:30 pm, in the Legal and Judicial Training Centre (Luso-International Bank Building, 18th floor), is a Seminar on Refugee Law. The training course will have as speakers Guy S. Goodwin-Gill, Professor of International Law at the University of Oxford and Senior Research Fellow at the All Souls College, and Sharon Rusu, Independent Humanitarian Affairs Consultant in Ferney-Voltaire, France. The seminar will take place daily, between 6:30 and 8:30 pm, until Friday, November 18. Throughout the five days the approached subjects will be “International Law, International Organisation and the Refugee”, “ Who are Refugees?”, “Asylum and Non-Refoulement”, “Understanding the causes of Refugee Displacement”, “Research and the Use of Country of Origin Information in Applying the Refugee Definition” and “International Organisations and the Challenges of Displacement”. The seminar is organised by the Legal and Judicial Training Centre, will be conducted in English and addresses to law degree holders. The Co-operation Programme in the Legal Field between the European Union and Macao, in which this seminar is integrated, has as its main objective the “Consolidation of the Macao Legal System”. Currently in its fourth year of execution, the Co-operation Programme will proceed until February 2007. The total budget for the programme is of 1.980.000 euros, shared in equal parts by the European Union and Macao. The co-ordination of the Co-operation Programme is at the responsibility of the International Law Office, being the organisation of the pertaining activities ensured by several other entities of the MSAR’s Government, namely the Legal and Judicial Training Centre, the Legal Affairs Bureau, the Economic Services and the Institute of European Studies, other than the International Law Office itself.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service shows that there were 1,274 industrial establishments operating in 2004, an increase of 38 units (+3.1%) compared with 2003. Total number of persons engaged was 37,594, a decrease of 4.7% over 2003. Gross output and gross value added amounted to MOP16.819 billion (+5.1%) and MOP3.93 billion (+2.5%) respectively compared with 2003. In the manufacturing sector, the number of establishments and the persons engaged were 1,270 units and 36,576 persons, which represented an increase of 3.2% and a decrease of 4.7% respectively over 2003. In terms of size of establishments, 975 establishments (76.8% of the total) with less than 30 persons engaged, employed 16.4% of the total workforce, with 5,999 persons. In contrast, 94 establishments (7.4% of the total) with 100 or more persons engaged absorbed 51.4% of the total workforce, with 18,800 persons. Gross output of the manufacturing sector registered an increase of 4.8% to MOP 14.164 billion over 2003; gross value added amounted to MOP2.591 billion, an increase of 4.1%. Manufacture of wearing apparel and manufacture of textiles accounted for the biggest shares of the manufacturing sector, with gross output reaching MOP8.808 billion (up 2.1%) and MOP2.836 billion (up 6.8%) and gross value added amounting to MOP1.547 billion (down 2.1%) and 402 million (up 9.5%) respectively. There were 3 electricity, gas and water supply establishments operating in 2004, the number of persons engaged was 992, a decrease of 2.9% over 2003. Gross output increased by 7.1% to MOP2.636 billion, but gross value added amounted to MOP1.327 billion, a decrease of 0.6%.
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The Secretary for Security, Mr Cheong Kuok Va, said today the police would enhance the collection of intelligence and continue to watch for out crimes, especially burglary and fraud, which had see an increase in the first nine months of this year. Disclosing crime statistics for the first three quarters of the year, the Mr Cheong said the 17.6% increase (up 626 cases to 4,194 cases) in property-related offences was the main reason for the 8.2% rise in the total number of crimes (7,774 cases) reported compared with the same period last year. Among property-related offences, Mr Cheong said, more significant increases were seen in burglary (+239 cases, 125.1%) and fraud (141 cases, 114.6%). In response to this rise the police had launched a series of operations and neutralized a number of syndicates. Despite the increase in the total number of crimes, he said, the number of violent crimes saw a drop of 12.3% (-80 cases), most significantly in extortion, which dropped by 34.9% (-22 cases), though robbery had increased slightly, by 4.2% (+11 cases). He said the authorities were very concerned with these crimes, which could affect the daily lives of residents and Macao's image as a tourist attraction, and that the authorities would step up its efforts to combat crime. Mr Cheong said a total of 1,773 cases of offences against the person were recorded in the first three quarters, with a slight increase of 1.4% (+24 cases), but serious physical offences had dropped significantly, by 55.6% (-15 cases). In the category of offence against social life, a total of 645 cases were recorded, with 266 cases of forgery (up 2.7%, +7 cases) and 248 cases of passing counterfeit currency (up 12.2%, +27 cases). Illegal gambling had also increased by 38 cases (79.2%) while drug trafficking and drugs taking had dropped by 23.1% (-15 cases) and 24.1% (32 cases) respectively. In the same period the police had repatriated 6,987 people from Macao, among which 345 illegal immigrants from the Mainland (+28 cases), 4,475 Mainland overstayers (+447 cases), and 465 foreign overstayers (-81 cases), Mr Cheong said.
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