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So as to implement its environmental protection and energy-saving policies and fulfill the emission-reduction commitments made by Macao under the , the MSAR Government will progressively focus on the study of natural gas and ethanol as alternative fuels for vehicles, capitalize on hybrid electric vehicles and research the feasibility of using electric vehicles in Macao in order to reduce vehicle emissions and improve the air quality in the Region. Furthermore, electricity will continue to be generated through natural gas in order to reduce emissions; however, the long-term plan is to promote the use of solar energy to target this problem. Director of the Office for Development of the Energy Sector (GDSE), Mr. Arnaldo Ernesto dos Santos, stated that transportation is one of the main sources of emissions in Macao. For this reason, the MSAR Government has already set up rules for vehicle emissions and restricted the import of two-stroke engine vehicles. On the other hand and in regards to the generation of electricity, after the introduction of natural gas, which is considered to be a clean energy-source, as the fuel for electricity generation in Macao in 2008, the overall emissions from this activity decreased over 30% compared with 2007. Mr. Arnaldo Santos also pointed out that awareness for environmental protection and energy-saving has increased among the international community and that much more attention is being paid to the research, development and usage of clean and new energy sources. Regarding the reduction of motor vehicle emissions, clean fuel is replacing old and dirty fuel sources and reducing vehicle emissions has already become a development trend everywhere. Similarly, Macao must also find and implement suitable alternative fuel sources for vehicles, such as natural gas and ethanol, so as to reduce road traffic vehicle emissions, as well as adopt new technologies like hybrid electric vehicle and research the feasibility of introducing electric vehicles to reduce vehicle emission and improve the air quality in Macao. Moreover, Mr. Santos expressed that improving awareness of energy-saving and emission-reduction amongst the community is very important. For this reason, the GDSE has carried out different kinds of promotional activities and professional training exercises at different levels within the community such as in schools, companies and professional bodies of all levels during the past few years. In addition, the Government has taken the initiative to implement a Government energy-saving plan. Sixty-three Government departments initially implemented this scheme as a test, with the aim of reducing energy consumption by 5%. An average reduction of 4.4% was verified during the first half year, which can be considered a remarkable success. As for energy saving in private companies, the application of energy-saving products will be promoted in the long-term. Energy-saving and the reduction of emissions have become an inevitable trend in global development. The MSAR Government will continue to promote emission-reduction, energy saving, along with environmental protection and social harmony projects in order to ensure sustainable development. The 2009 Macao International Environmental Co-operation Forum & Exhibition (MIECF) will be held from the 2nd to the 4th of April. One of the events in this forum will be the “Energy-Saving, Emission-Reduction and Carbon Trading Symposium” in which 8 talks will be given to participants on the latest energy-saving and emission-reduction projects by 8 speakers from China, the European Union, Portugal, Hong Kong and Macao.
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Macao endorsed the transparency and information exchange standards of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2005 at the OECD Global Forum meeting in Melbourne and is now proposing legislative changes to implement those standards. Macao has proposed to modify its domestic legislation so as to enable the exchange of banking information on request by another jurisdiction. The modifications will be introduced before the end of 2009, and following the amendments, Macao will negotiate agreements to exchange information for tax purposes. As commented by Orieta Lau, the Director of the Financial Services Bureau of the Government of Macao Special Administrative Region during a press interview recently held, “These steps are being taken as part of Macao’s ongoing efforts to meet international standards to combat all forms of abuse of the financial system. We have already made substantial improvements to our anti-money laundering legislation and the present steps are designed to meet the tax cooperation standards of the 21st century.”
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Every year, on 23 March, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), its 188 countries and territories Members, as well as the worldwide meteorological communities, celebrate World Meteorological Day. This Day commemorates the entry into force, in 1950, of the Convention that created this specialized agency of the United Nations System, after the meeting of Meteorological Services Directors in September 1949. The International Meteorological Organization is the forerunner of the present-day World Meteorological Organization founded in 1873 in Vienna. For the year 2008 was chosen the theme “Weather, climate and the air we breathe”. Such a theme is particularly appropriate at a time when communities around the globe are struggling to attain the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, especially in terms of health, food, water security and poverty alleviation, as well as to increase their effectiveness in preventing and mitigating natural disasters, of which 90 per cent are directly related to weather, climate and water hazards and thereby fall within World Meteorological Organization mandate. Moreover, scientists and medical professionals are increasingly aware of the critical linkages between weather, climate, the composition of the air we breathe and their effects on human health. Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau (SMG) has been organizing a set of activities in order to remind the population of the different areas of human activities in which meteorology plays an important role, in general, and, in particular, as the activities undertaken by SMG which contribute for the sustainable development of the Macao Special Administrative Region. The commemoration activities of the “World Meteorological Day 2009”, start with a celebration ceremony which will focus on the air quality in Macao, entitled “Macao’s air quality in the last 10 years”, with an objective to understand aspects related to the air we breathe in Macao in the last ten years and its impacts on our health.
The history has taught us that the hydrometeorology warning is very important for the population. So, starting from today, one more service of weather warning will be launched, namely the “Automatic weather information service - InfoMet”. This service consists of disseminating warnings from this Bureau and through an automatic installation of a program in user’s computer, the warnings issued will be automatically up-dated. With this new method of extreme weather warning dissemination, population could know in real-time the situation and can make the necessary precautions. A celebration ceremony will be held at SMG headquarters, on 23 of March at 10:00 a.m. in Taipa Grande with the presence of the Secretary for Publics Works and Transportation, Eng. Lau Si Io.
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The Chief Executive, Mr Edmund Ho Hau Wah, today officiated at the swearing-in ceremony of the members of the Election Commission of the Legislative Assembly. The Chairman of the Commission, Mr Fong Man Chong, said the Commission would work closely with related bureaux and organise the election on the basis of integrity, legitimacy, fairness, openness and offering convenience to the people. The four other members of the Commission are the President of Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau, Mr Tam Vai Ma; the Director of Public Administration and Civil Service Bureau, Mr José Chu; the Director of the Financial Services Bureau, Ms Lau Ioc Ip; and the Deputy Director of Government Information Bureau, Ms Ho Wai Heng. Speaking to reporters, Mr Fong said the revised electoral law for the Legislative Assembly provided greater power to the Commission and related bureaux to crack down on any irregularities and even crimes committed during the election process. The Commission would issue precise and detailed guidelines for candidates, he said. As the society continued to advance, he said, more and more voters were aware of the importance of their ballots. With the concerted efforts of the entire community, he said he expected the election would be well-organised. The Legislative Assembly Election is scheduled to be held on 20 September.
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Information released by the Statistics and Census Service indicated that the population of Macao was estimated at 549,200 as at 31 December 2008, down by 8,100 from end-September, on account of a substantial decrease of non-resident workers in the fourth quarter. The rate of population growth for 2008 was 2.0%, representing an increase of 11,100 year-on-year. As regard the gender ratio, 50.9% were female and 49.1% were male. In terms of age distribution, the youth population (aged 0-14) accounted for 12.8%, the adult population (aged 15-64) and the elderly population (aged 65 and over) shared 80.0% and 7.2% respectively. In the fourth quarter of 2008, there are 1,327 live births and 441 mortality cases. For the whole year of 2008, total number of live births went up by 4.0% year-on-year to 4,717 and mortality cases increased by 13.7% to 1,756. The top three underlying causes of death were “Neoplasms”, “Diseases of the Circulatory System” and “Diseases of the Respiratory System”. Number of Notifiable Disease was 1,136 cases in the fourth quarter of 2008, bringing the annual total to 3,079 cases, which consisted mainly of “Varicella (chickenpox)” (909 cases), “Enterovirus Infection” (804 cases) and “Tuberculosis of Lung” (420 cases). Regarding marriage registration, 607 cases were recorded in the fourth quarter, with the annual total rising significantly by 35.7% over 2007 to 2,778 cases. In 2008, the median age of first marriage was 25.8 for female and 28.0 for male. In addition, 429 Chinese immigrants with One-way Exit Permit moved to Macao in the fourth quarter, bringing the annual total to 2,280, with 67.8% coming from the Guangdong Province. Meanwhile, 431 illegal immigrants were repatriated in the fourth quarter and the total number for 2008 decreased by 9.6% year-on-year to 1,424. The end-year number of non-resident workers was 92,161 and the total number of persons authorized to reside in Macao was 7,917 in 2008, up by 6,954 and 1,802 year-on-year respectively. In 2008, total number of non-institutionalized households rose by 3.6% from 2007 to 177,000 households.
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The Statistics and Census Service released the results of the Survey on Manpower Needs and Wages for the fourth quarter of 2008. The survey covered Wholesale & Retail Trade; Transport, Storage & Communications; Security Activities and Public Sewage & Refuse Disposal Activities, but excluded own-account workers. The survey results were extrapolated according to the information collected from 893 statistical units successfully interviewed. At the end of the fourth quarter of 2008, Wholesale & Retail Trade had 26,012 paid employees, up by 8.0% year-on-year, with 15,665 working in Retail trade. In December 2008, the average earnings (excluding bonuses and allowances) for full-time employees amounted to MOP8,603, up by 6.9% year-on-year, with the average earnings of Sales representatives and Salespersons amounting to MOP10,037 and MOP7,505 respectively. Transport, Storage & Communications took on 7,816 paid employees, up by 6.4% over the fourth quarter of 2007. In December 2008, the average earnings for full-time employees increased by 5.2% year-on-year to MOP14,925. Drivers of Passenger/cargo transport by land earned an average of MOP12,930. Security Activities had 3,910 paid employees, up by 5.6% over the fourth quarter of 2007. The average earnings for full-time employees in December 2008 rose by 17.6% year-on-year to MOP7,482, with Security guards earning MOP 7,110 in average. Public Sewage & Refuse Disposal Activities had 658 paid employees, up by 6.1% compared with the fourth quarter of 2007. The average earnings for full-time employees in December 2008 increased by 2.4% year-on-year to MOP11,243. At the end of December 2008, Wholesale & Retail Trade reported to have 1,728 vacancies, Transport, Storage & Communications and Security Activities had 313 and 476 vacancies, down significantly by 57.6%, 72.6% and 32.7% respectively. In terms of recruitment prerequisites, 57.6% of the vacancies in Wholesale & Retail Trade and 63.2% in Transport, Storage & Communications required working experience; 66.9% and 65.3% of the vacancies in the above-mentioned sectors required junior secondary education or higher, while 96.2% of those in Security Activities required primary education only. Besides Cantonese, Mandarin (61.4%) was the more preferable language skill for the vacancies in Wholesale & Retail Trade.
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Organized by IAPCO (International Association of Professional Congress Organizers) and hosted by the Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO), the “IAPCO & Macau Regional Seminar on Organizing Congresses” is opened today (March 16) at the Four Seasons Hotel, Macau. About 100 MICE industry professionals from Macau and other regions in Asia participated. This regional seminar aims to provide an educational opportunity for people in the MICE industry to further develop their event planning skills and raise the standards of customer service. This will be IAPCO’s only seminar specifically on professional conference organizing in Asia in 2009. About 100 professional congress organizers (PCOs), convention and visitors bureaus, events management companies and other meetings industry representatives from Macau, the Mainland, Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand take part in the four-day seminar and each participant will receive a certificate of attendance from IAPCO & MGTO. Three internationally renowned speakers who are experts in the congress industry are invited to share their knowledge and experience on a broad range of topics like Creating the Project Plan, Promotion of a Destination and Bidding to Win, Financial Planning & Budgets, Venue Management, Program Management & Abstract Handling, Congress Registration and On-Site Arrangements and Accountability & Crisis Management. Philippe Fournier, Vice President of IAPCO, is the managing director of MCI in Europe. He has been in the industry organizing congresses in France and all over the world since 1984. Roslyn McLeod, IAPCO Council Member, is the managing director of Tour Hosts Pty Ltd. in Australia. A frequent speaker at regional seminars, Roslyn was awarded Medal of the Order of Australia for her contribution to the meeting industry. Sarah Storie-Pugh, Chairman of Concorde Services Ltd in London, has involved in over 350 events of various scales. She was awarded the meetings industry Personality of the Year Award in 2004.
Director of MGTO João Manuel Costa Antunes pointed out in his welcome speech that the seminar has received overwhelming response, with around 100 meetings industry representatives from Macau, Pearl River Delta and other regions in Asia. He expressed that though the global economic downturn is hitting hard the business tourism industry, the trade must not be discouraged. “We should take this opportunity to strengthen our fundamentals and be well equipped with necessary trainings to turn challenges into business opportunities,” he stressed. He believed that from the valuable insight of the speakers and interactions with participants, the local business tourism trade could enhance their competitiveness and standards of service. MGTO hopes that through hosting this regional seminar, it will work closer with IAPCO and establish a long term relationship, which will become a very powerful and effective promotional tool to show more industry professionals what Macau as an appealing and competitive MICE destination has to offer. IAPCO is a non-profit organization founded in 1968 that represents professional organizers and managers of international congresses, conventions and special events. IAPCO is committed in raising the standards of service amongst its members and other sectors of the meetings industry by means of continuous education and interaction with other professionals. To stimulate regional business tourism in the markets currently served by local carriers, MGTO and Air Macau jointly invited representatives from major MICE publications to come to Macau and learn about the development of the MICE industry and visit MICE facilities. The media familiarization group also took part in the opening ceremony of the “IAPCO & Macau Regional Seminar on Organizing Congresses” to generate extensive coverage on the event.
The 17 media representatives are from professional convention and exhibition publications based in the Mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Korea and the United Kingdom.
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2009 Macao International Environmental Co-operation Forum & Exhibition (2009MIECF) will be held on 2-4 April at The Venetian Macao-Resort-Hotel. The Organizing Committee (OC) has already received from all over the world more than 440 environmental projects for business matching, an increase of almost seven times over the previous year. The event is believed to provide valuable business opportunities for participating enterprises. The OC has received environmental initiatives focusing on areas such as sewage management, recycling and treatment of solid refuse, production of renewable energy, air purification technique, energy savings plan, eco building and construction, solar and wind powers, and environmental engineering and management, etc. Participating regions include Macao, Mainland China, Hong Kong, Brazil, England, Canada, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Korea, and Belgium, etc. 2009MIECF is hosted by the Macao SAR Government and co-organized by Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute and Environment Council. The event is also fully supported by China’s Central Government and the extensive support by the Pan-PRD 9+2 provinces / regions and other regions. This year the MIECF has prepared a series of Green Matching and negotiation activities for participating enterprises from all over the world, helping them seek suitable partners through a series of activities such as professional recommendation symposiums and forums. Concurrently, the Green Matching Zone will also provide a one-stop service for business operations in Macao, global market information, and Mainland and local legal consulting services, etc. Green Business Matching for Exploring Development Opportunities
The OC has invited and connected global green industry to participate in the exhibition and forums. Further business opportunities will also be provided to participants, through a series of on the spot recommendation and matching activities, as well as pre-organized and pre-arranged business matching, etc. At present, the OC is collecting information on co-operation intentions from local and overseas business and investments organizations, assisting project providers to utilize Macao as a commercial trading service platform for seeking co-operating partners. More than 440 environmental projects have been received so far. Meanwhile, in order for exhibition and forum participants to fully utilize Macao as a commercial trading service platform for expanding customer network and seeking suitable co-operating partners, the OC has arranged several opportunities for on the spot matching and representative matching, including the “Green Business Co-operation Day” jointly organized by the Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute, the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and other international chambers of commerce, and the Green Dot on 3 April: Environment-Business-Connection – “Green Properties Exchange Symposium”, etc. Online Business Matching for Early Opportunities
In line with this year’s series of MIECF activities, the OC has introduced the online business matching service platform with the latest business matching information uploaded. Enterprises can browse through the most updated project details without leaving the office, as well as register in advance Business Matching. This online platform will continue assisting enterprises to seek suitable partners even after the exhibition, maximizing its full effectiveness. Pre-Matching for the Most Effective Results
To date, the OC has already arranged for more than 140 pre-matching sessions. Meanwhile, walk-in matching will also be registered at the “Green Matching Zone”. Pre-registration of Green Matching is now open for Macao industrial and commercial sectors and local enterprises. Please visit the online Green Matching service platform (http://bm.ipim.gov.mo) or contact the OC’s matching specialist (Tel: 853 2872 8328, Fax: 853 2872 7506, Email: matching@ipim.gov.mo) for details, registration and getting the latest green matching information for more business opportunities.
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The Public Security Police Forces today refused the entry of five Hong Kong residents, in accordance with the Internal Security Law, according to a press statement issued by the Forces. With a view to safeguarding Macao’s social stability and public order, the Public Security Police Forces, which is the bureau responsible for regulating the entry and exit of people into and out of Macao , may turn down the entry requests by non-Macao residents who fail to meet the entry criteria, according to the statement.
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The Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Macao S.A.R. Government will organize an Academic Research Lecture in the Cultural Affairs Bureau Auditorium (Edifício do Instituto Cultural, Tap Seac Square, Macao) at 6:30pm on Thursday March 19. Dr. George Bryan Souza, adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Texas, will give a lecture on “Commerce and Consumption: Merchants and Opium at Batavia over the 18th Century”. This presentation introduces and discusses an anatomy of commerce and consumption of opium at Batavia, on Java, and throughout the Indonesia Archipelago over the long eighteenth century (c.1684-1796). The anatomy of this commerce is introduced by outlining and identifying the importance of the trade in opium to different locally based, indigenous and foreign merchants and their networks. Based upon archival work on the Dutch materials held in Jakarta, Indonesia, this presentation focuses upon all of the major merchant groups, with emphasis upon Chinese in particular, that purchased, distributed, and sold opium to end consumers. The merchant’s families, identities, backgrounds, occupations, and networks are described and explored with the purpose of determining the overall significance of these merchant groups and the relationship of opium and its commerce to the political economic development of Java, in particular, and over a broader geographical space in Southeast Asia, during the 1740s and until the late 1780s – the beginning of a period from 1740 to 1840 that has been claimed as a Chinese century. George Bryan Souza is an adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Texas, San Antonio. Educated at Stanford University (B.A. with Departmental Honors in History), the School of Oriental and African Studies, at the University of London (M.A. in Southeast Asian Area Studies), and Trinity College, Cambridge University (D. Phil. in History), he is the author of The Survival of Empire: Portuguese Trade and Society in China and the South China Sea, 1630-1754, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986 and numerous articles. Over the past few years, he has received support for his research interests in global maritime economic history, the history of European expansion, and cross-cultural contact and exchanges in the early modern period from the following institutions: affiliated fellow, IIAS, Leiden University, the Netherlands; IANTT/FLAD research grants, Lisbon, Portugal; Bernardo Mendel fellowships, at the Lilly Library, Indiana University; research grant from the American Institute for Sri Lankan Studies; Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore; Visiting Research Fellow at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Kyoto University and is in Macao on a Fulbright grant. Upon completion in April 2009, Souza will take up his invited appointment as a Mercator Guest Professor at Tubingen University in Germany. The lecture will be given in English with Mandarin, Cantonese and Portuguese simultaneous interpretation. Entrance is free. For further details, please contact Ms. Chu of the Macao Historical Archives of the Cultural Affairs Bureau at 85986537.
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