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Dr. Fernando Chui Sai On, Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture and President of the Macau Grand Prix Committee, today (November 9, 2005) said that the FIA World Touring Car Championship (FIA WTCC), a new addition to this year’s Grand Prix, will definitely further boost Macau’s status in international motorsport. Accompanied by Engineer João Manuel Costa Antunes, Co-ordinator of Macau Grand Prix Committee and other Committee members, Dr. Chui visited the Grand Prix Building at noon to review preparation of the different aspects of the 52nd Macau Grand Prix. Dr. Chui stated in an interview that every aspect of the Grand Prix is ready and the ticket sales have been satisfactory. In addition, he also said that the Macau Grand Prix always puts the safety of the circuit as a high priority which fulfills the strict requirements of the FIA. Dr. Chui also pointed out that the FIA WTCC, a new addition to the 52nd Macau Grand Prix, will bring motorsport in Macau to a new level, and the Macau Grand Prix Committee has great confidence in running this world class event successfully. At 1pm in the Scrutineering Area of the Grand Prix Building, Dr. Chui hosted a traditional Chinese worshiping ceremony to bring good luck and smooth sailing for year’s event, which was attended by Engineer Costa Antunes, Ms. Davina Chu, Deputy Co-ordinator of Macau Grand Prix Committee and other Committee members. That evening Dr. Chui hosted a working conference with the Macau Grand Prix Committee at the Hotel Ritz Macau. After the conference, Dr. Chui invited Grand Prix Committee members, Sub-committee members, local drivers and the media to a dinner where Dr. Chui delivered a speech. During his address, Dr. Chui said that this year’s Grand Prix will be staged next week. In addition to the exciting races, the Food Festival (Nov 11 - 27), the Super Car display at the Macau Tower (Nov 14 - 19) and the Firework Display (Nov 12, 16 and 20) will again create a carnival atmosphere for the Grand Prix. Dr. Chui added that the SAR Government has long been supporting the China-Macau Motorsport Club in training local drivers and racing officials. There will be 93 Macau drivers competing in seven races in this year’s Grand Prix, and he wishes our drivers victory. Dr. Chui also expressed his gratitude to the media for their tremendous support.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service shows that in the third quarter of 2005, 800 companies were newly incorporated, with MOP191.49 million in registered capital. Compared with the third quarter of 2004, the number of newly incorporated companies and their registered capital increased 33.1% and 9.6% respectively. These newly incorporated companies were mostly in Wholesale and Retail sector (215), followed by Construction (175), Business Services (127) and Real Estate (118). On the other hand, 63 companies were dissolved in the third quarter of 2005, with MOP21.72 million in registered capital. Among them, most had engaged in Wholesale and Retail (21), followed by Business Services (16). Among the stockholders of the newly incorporated companies, 55.1% were Macao residents. In addition, newly incorporated companies with capital of MOP50,000 or less accounted for 62.1% (497 companies) of the total number, but their capital only made up 7.5% of the total. Meanwhile, 744 of the newly incorporated companies were limited companies. Based on the residence of the stockholders, the capital of the newly incorporated companies in the third quarter of 2005 mostly came from Hong Kong (MOP74.66 million), followed by Macao (MOP48.60 million) and Portugal (MOP26.01 million). Among the capital from the Pan-Pearl River Delta provinces, Guangdong province topped the list with MOP5.30 million. As regards the combination of the residence of stockholders, 658 of the newly incorporated companies were established by stockholders from a single country/region, the majority of which (362 companies) were established solely by Macao stockholders, followed by those from Hong Kong (202 companies). The number of the newly incorporated companies with stockholders from Macao and other countries/regions was 117, of which 59 were joint ventures of Macao and Hong Kong stockholders and 36 were of Macao and Mainland China stockholders. The newly incorporated companies with stockholders solely from countries/regions other than Macao totalled 25, of which 8 were joint ventures of Hong Kong and Mainland China and 5 were of Hong Kong and the British Virgin Islands.
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Information from Statistics and Census Service indicated that there were 10,468 wholesale and retail outlets, including establishments, market stalls and fixed stalls on the street operating in 2004, an increase of 406 outlets compared with 2003; number of persons engaged totalled 29,694, up 10%. Total receipts and total expenditure amounted to MOP19.68 billion and MOP18.44 billion respectively, which increased by 17% and 18% compared with 2003. Gross value added and gross fixed capital formation were MOP2.94 billion and MOP277 million, up by 17% and 20% over 2003. There were 8,324 wholesale and retail establishments operating in 2004, an increase of 461 establishments compared with 2003, of which 643 establishments were in the sale of motor vehicles & automobile fuel, 2,848 establishments were in wholesale trade and 4,833 establishments were in retail trade. Number of persons engaged totalled 26,052, up by 12% over 2003. Sales and other receipts of the wholesale and retail establishments amounted to MOP18.80 billion, up by 18% compared with 2003. Analyzed by industry, receipts of wholesale trade reached MOP10.04 billion (53.4% of total), while retail trade accounted for MOP6.67 billion (35.4%). Furthermore, total expenditure of the wholesale and retail establishments increased by 19% over 2003 to MOP17.71 billion. Among the expenditure items, purchase of goods and commission paid amounted to MOP14.58 billion; operating expenses and compensation of employees were MOP1.86 billion and MOP1.27 billion respectively. Gross value added of the wholesale and retail establishments was MOP2.78 billion, an increase of 17% compared with 2003; gross fixed capital formation rose by 20% over 2003 to MOP277 million. Besides, number of operating market and street stalls decreased by 55 over 2003 to 2,144 stalls, among which 811 were market stalls and 1,333 were fixed stalls on the street. There were 3,642 persons engaged, down 3%. Receipts and expenditure amounted to MOP875 million and MOP738 million respectively, which increased slightly by 2% and 1% compared with 2003.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicates that, in September 2005, Macao’s total value of exports amounted to MOP2.08 billion, up 5.4% over the same month of 2004. Among this, the value of domestic exports increased 8.3% to MOP1.64 billion and the value of re-exports fell 4.4% to MOP437 million. Value of imports amounted to MOP2.93 billion, up 16.5% over the same period of 2004. A trade deficit of MOP851 million was recorded this month. During the period of January – September 2005, the value of total exports decreased 20.6% year-on-year to MOP13.37 billion. Among this, the value of domestic exports and re-exports decreased 26.4% and 1.5% respectively. Meanwhile, the value of imports amounted to MOP22.20 billion, up 8.6% over the same period of 2004. In the first nine months of 2005, Macao’s trade balance registered a deficit of MOP8.83 billion. During this period, the exports/imports ratio decreased from 82.4% in the corresponding period of 2004 to 60.2%. In the first nine months of 2005, the value of Textile & garment exports, which accounted for 76.6% of the total exports, decreased 24.2% over the same period of 2004. Moreover, the value of Non-textile exports also dropped 6.1%. As the major components of non-textile exports, Machines & apparatus, parts & accessories thereof expanded 9.2%, whereas Footwear fell 91.2% year-on-year. The USA and the EU remained as Macao’s major export markets, together making up 63.4% of the total value of exports. Among this, exports to the USA, which made up 49.3% of the total value of exports, decreased 19.7% over the same period of 2004; exports to the EU, which made up 14.1% of the total value of exports, also decreased 48.2% over the same period of 2004. During the period of January – September 2005, Macao’s total value of imports increased 8.6% year-on-year. In terms of broad economic categories, Fuels & lubricants, Capital goods and Consumer goods rose 36.5%, 22.9% and 6.1% respectively, whereas Raw materials & semi-manufactures registered a year-on-year decrease of 0.9%. Meanwhile, Macao’s main suppliers of imported goods still concentrated in the Asian region. Imports from Mainland China and Hong Kong together constituted 51.9% of the total value of imports. Compared with the same period of 2004, the value of imports from Mainland China and Hong Kong rose 2.6% and 1.5% respectively.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that the implementation of various large-scale construction projects, all the principal indicators of the establishments operating in licensed construction works registered significant increases in 2004. Number of establishments was 1,097, up by 103.1% compared with 2003; gross output (sum of the total value of construction works performed plus other receipts) and gross value added were MOP9.085 billion and MOP1.443 billion, up by 54.2% and 35.5% respectively over 2003. Number of persons engaged totalled 10,477 (excluding sub-contractors and their employees that only provided labour services), up by 74.6% over 2003. In 2004, among the 298 general contractors (companies), 81 were engaged in the construction of buildings (whole or part) and civil engineering, with their census output amounted to MOP5.286 billion (75.4% of the total of all general contractors). Besides, 144 were engaged in the completion of buildings and their respective census output was MOP907 million, (12.9% of the total). Amongst the 828 construction projects licensed, 455 were government projects and 373 were private construction projects, which represented 57.3% (MOP5.116 billion) and 42.7% (MOP3.809 billion) of the total census output repectively. In terms of the location of construction, the Macao Peninsula topped with 666 operations (80.4% of the total) where the majority were located in the parish of Sé, with 278 (33.6% of the total). In terms of the end-use of the completed construction, 22 were sports facilities, while 39 were hotels, gaming and tourism facilities, which accounted for 27.7% and 25.1% of the total census output respectively. Total consumption of the establishments incurred in 2004 was MOP7.642 billion. Among the components, 58.5% were payments to fee sub-contractors; 35.0% were consumption of materials, supplies and maintenance services; the remaining 6.5% were rentals for buildings, machinery and equipment, as well as payments for architectural design, surveying, project management and other contractual services.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service shows that in the third quarter of 2005, the average daily nominal wage of construction workers was MOP426, of which the average daily nominal wage of skilled workers & semi-skilled workers was MOP459 and unskilled workers MOP270. The overall nominal wage index increased 8.8% compared with the second quarter of 2005. Nominal wage index of skilled workers & semi-skilled workers rose 8.1%, and that of unskilled workers went up 13.4%. The overall real wage index increased 6.5% compared with the second quarter of 2005. Real wage index of skilled workers & semi-skilled workers rose 5.9%, and that of unskilled workers went up 11.1%. Among the various occupations of skilled workers and semi-skilled workers, the real wage index of concrete mould and slab carpenters rose the most, up 15.7%, whereas that of iron workers registered the largest decline, down 6.3%. Compared with the third quarter of 2004, the overall real wage index increased 22.2% in the third quarter of 2005, of which the index of skilled workers & semi-skilled workers rose 21.8%, and that of unskilled workers went up 25.5%.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that number of licensed vehicles in Macao reached 151,060 at the end of September 2005, of which 51% (77,146) were motorcycles and 45% (67,370) were light vehicles. New registration of vehicles surged by 20% year-on-year to 13,273 in the first nine months of 2005, motorcycles and light vehicles accounted for 58% and 38% respectively of the new registrations. There were 9,966 cases of traffic accidents reported in the first nine months of 2005, an increase of 7% over the same period of 2004, resulting in 3,216 casualties and 14 of them were killed. Traffic flow by land between Macao and Mainland China increased by 11% to 2,290,022 vehicle trips. The Border Gate was the major passage that took up 77% of the total, the Checkpoint of CoTai recorded 527,826 vehicle trips. In the first three quarters of 2005, arrival and departure of commercial flights at the Macao International Airport totalled 31,652 up by 13% over the same period of 2004. Taiwan, China and Mainland China were the major routes that accounted for 53% and 36% of the total commercial flights to/from Macao. At the Outer Harbour, 12,283 helicopter flights were recorded (-9% year-on-year) between Macao and Hong Kong; besides, 2,139 flights were recorded between Macao and Mainland China. Passenger transport by sea between Hong Kong and Macao increased by 6% over the first nine months of 2004 to 59,832 ferry trips, while passenger ferry between Macao and Mainland China (8,124 trips) increased by 2% compared with the same period of 2004. Number of cargo vessel departures was 9,296, with a total capacity of 2,430,000 net registered tons, 68% (6,352) of the vessels were flying the Chinese flag. In the first nine months of 2005, total seaborne container throughput was 82,416 TEUs or 59,709 seaborne containers handled, which fell by 15% and 11% compared with the same period of 2004. Number of container flow by land showed a 10% year-on-year decrease to 6,962. In addition, gross weight of seaborne containerized cargo in the first eight months of 2005 decreased by 3% over 2004 to 188,414 tonnes, of which 57,510 tonnes were transshipment goods; meanwhile, gross weight of containerized cargo by land rose by 2% to 59,800 tonnes, including 46,255 tonnes of transit goods. Total weight of outward cargo handled at the Macao International Airport registered a year-on-year decrease of 10% to 63,939 tonnes in the first nine months of 2005; at the same time, respective weight of inward cargo also fell by 8% to 20,033 tonnes. At the end of September 2005, there were 174,159 fixed telephone lines, as well as 501,906 mobile telephone and stored value GSM card users in Macao. In addition, number of internet subscribers increased to 85,670 at the end of September 2005, while total hour of usage reached 56.34 million hours in the first nine months of 2005, up by 15% and 45% over the same period of 2004.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service shows that in the third quarter of 2005, price indices rose in most of the surveyed construction materials, compared with the second quarter of 2005. Among them, aluminium, sand, concrete, lime, timber, red bricks, ceramic products, glass, paint, cement and electric wires rose between 0.2% and 15.5%. However, the price indices of steel, aggregates, pipes and sanitary articles fell between 0.2% and 4.7%. Among the above changes in price indices, sand recorded the largest increase of 15.5%, whereas steel decreased the most, down 4.7%. Compared with the third quarter of 2004, price indices rose in most of the surveyed construction materials, with the biggest increase in electric wires, up 43.8%, followed by sand, up 41.2%.
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The Vice-Premier, Ms Wu Yi, tonight officially opened the 4th East Asian Games, before an audience of some 2,000 athletes and more than 10,000 spectators. The opening ceremony started at 8:00 p.m. at the Macao Stadium. After all the athletes had entered the stadium, the President of the Macao Olympic Committee, Mr Laam Wah Ying, and the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the 4th East Asian Games Organising Committee, Mr Manuel Silvério, delivered the welcoming speech and the opening speech respectively. Mr Laam said that with the 12 new venues built to house the 4th East Asian Games, “Macau has equipped itself with a series of top quality facilities and a pool of experienced personnel, and has become a city ready to host more international events in the future!” Mr Silvério said the Games was an inspiring project for Macau that has gifted the city with many invaluable legacies to prepare our city and youths to meet the challenges of the 21st century. The ceremony came to a climax when Ms Wu announced “The 4th Asian Games is now open”, with the raising of the national flag and the regional flag of the Macao SAR, followed by the raising of the Asia Games Flag and the entry of torches. The ceremony continued with a cultural performance entitled "Light of East Asia -- Symphonic Poem of Macau", which was divided into : "Sunrise Sonata"; "Serene Sea Nocturne"; "Homeward Voyage Concerto"; "Macau Symphony" and "New Era Rhapsody". Ms Wu and the Central Government delegation returned to the Mainland after soon after the ceremony.
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The Vice Premier, Ms Wu Yi said today that the 4th East Asian Games was more than a sporting event: it was a platform to promote Macao’s link with other countries in the region. Ms Wu was speaking at a banquet hosted by the Macao SAR Government before officiating at the opening ceremony of the Games in Macao. She said the Games also demonstrated Macao’s achievements in the six years since its reunification with the motherland, encouraged solidarity among Macao people and raised their spirits. The delegation sent this time was the largest and most competitive ever for the Asian Games, and it demonstrated the support of the Central Govrnment for the Macao SAR, said the Vice Premier. “I believe that with the ledership of the Chief Executive and the SAR Government, and the support of Macao’s people, this year’s Asian games will be a very successful event,” she said. The Chief Executive of the MSAR, Mr Edmund Ho Hau Wah, extended the warmest welcome to Ms Wu and other guest on behalf of the Macao SAR and the people of Macao, and said he was very honoured to have Ms Wu officially opening the Games. He said the hosting of the Games was a trial to Macao’s capability of overall development and evidence of the success of the “One Country Two Systems” principle. He pledged that the Macao SAR would do its best to accomplish the mission. Mr Ho said that high-level exchanges in sports and culture enabled Macao to further develop links and achieve higher standard and broader visions. Before the banquet, Ms Wu met with the Olympic committees delegates and Chefes de Mission of the countries and regions participating the Games. The Chief Executive, Mr Ho, accompanied her during the meeting. Representatives of the East Asian Games Association and the East Asian Games Organising Committee were also present at the meeting.
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