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In the last 3 centuries humanity has evolved throughout time based in 3 Industrial Revolutions, each one of them powered by a key motor, the 1st initiated with the Steam Engine (James Watt-1763), followed by the 2nd started with the inventions of Electrical Power Generation (Michael Faraday-1831) and the Combustion Engine (Siegfried Marcus-1864), until the 3rd kicked-off with the discovery of the Transistor (John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley-1947) that really marked the commencement of what is now known as the Information Technology Revolution, led by continuous and fast developments in Electronics, Computing and Telecommunications. Current state-of-the-art and most well-known information technology platforms and gadgets are, the internet, the mobile phone, the personal computer, the video game console, the media player, the global positioning system (GPS), all of which having at their core electronic microchips. Every year in February the world-showcase for electronic microchips happens in San Francisco, and it is designated as the International Solid-State Circuits Conference – ISSCC, where the most advanced state-of-the-art circuits are presented by the top companies, in particular Intel, Sun Microsystems, Analog Devices, NEC, IBM, Texas Instruments, Samsung Electronics, Qualcomm, ST-Ericsson, Toshiba, Broadcom, Nokia, TSMC, and top universities, like MIT, Stanford U, University of Tokyo, National Taiwan University, UCLA, UC Berkeley, ETH Zurich, among others. ISSCC is co-organized by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and its Solid-State Circuits Society (SSCS). The conference applies a strict standard in selecting papers that must contain forcibly prototype chip results, taking half from industries and the other half from universities, with merely 30 percent acceptance rate from among the most advanced chips designed in the front-line of CMOS nanotechnology. Recently, it was known that UM through the research results of its Analog and Mixed-Signal VLSI Laboratory - AVLSI Lab had 2 of its state-of-the-art chips accepted for presentation in ISSCC 2011, in February, in San Francisco. These chips, described in 2 technical papers, contained a Receiver Front-End for a Full-Band Mobile TV and a 400MS/s Analog-to-Digital Converter for Radar and Satellite Communication Systems, both designed in advanced 65nm CMOS technology, with this one receiving additionally the Silk-Road Award for a Ph.D. student in an emerging country, from Asia, Australia and the Pacific. With this result when benchmarked with top universities in the world UM will be placed in the top 15 that comprises the National Taiwan University, KAIST (from South Korea), University of Tokyo, CMU, MIT, University of Twente (The Netherlands), etc. And, among the top 5 universities in China that ever presented their chips results at ISSCC, namely, together with HKUST, Fudan University, Tsinghua University and Chinese University of Hong Kong. This important achievement by the AVLSI Lab of UM comes at a crucial moment of its life when a proposal for the elevation to the National status of State-Key Lab Partner Lab, submitted through the Macao Science and Technology Development Fund (FDCT) is under top-level scrutiny in the country by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST), from the Chinese Government. Within this scope, UM and AVLSI Lab were visited in October 25 by Vice-Minister Dr. Jianlin Cao that witnessed in loco the above mentioned results through the observation of the chips designed, by the laboratory researchers, under a testing environment. Vice-Minister Dr. Jianlin Cao has also attended a presentation by UM Rector, Prof. Wei Zhao, that exhibited the latest developments in the university, in particular the fast development of research through the growing number of publications and citations in top journals and conferences, as indexed by the world-top ISI – Web of Science, as well as the New Campus Project, in Hengqin Island. Furthermore, the Vice-Minister visited also the Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences (ICMS) that is also under evaluation for the elevation to State Key Lab Partner Lab in the Chinese Medical Sciences area in a local partnership with MUST. In the end, Vice-Minister Jianlin Cao mentioned that his visit was quite positive allowing him to know better the current level of development of both laboratories, being also very useful for the final decision that will be taken soon.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that the total number of licensed vehicles reached 193,966 at the end of September 2010, a year-on-year increase of 4%, of which 54% (104,857) were motorcycles and 39% (75,386) were light private cars. New registration of motor vehicles decreased slightly by 0.1% year-on-year to 12,005 in the first nine months of 2010, with motorcycles and light private cars accounting for 58% and 38% respectively. From January to September 2010, total number of traffic accidents rose by 6% year-on-year to 9,831 cases, resulting in 3,953 victims and 6 of them were killed. Cross-border vehicle traffic by land between Macao and Mainland China increased by 8% year-on-year to 2,809,194 vehicle trips in the first three quarters of 2010, with vehicle traffic through the Border Gate taking up 83% of the total. Commercial flight movements at the Macao International Airport dropped by 6% year-on-year to 26,010 in the first nine months of 2010. The major routes were Taiwan, China (38% of total commercial flights); Mainland China (28%); Thailand (9%); and Malaysia (8%). Helicopter flights between Macao and Hong Kong decreased by 5% year-on-year to 11,116 while those between Macao and Mainland China had an increase of 12 flights to 2,466. Passenger transport by sea between Macao and Hong Kong totalled 90,081 ferry trips in the first nine moths of 2010, up by 9% year-on-year, with that of the Outer Harbour (65,596) and the Provisional Ferry Terminal in Taipa (24,485) sharing 73% and 27% of the total respectively. Ferry trips between Macao and Mainland China totalled 19,537, up by 23% year-on-year. From January to September 2010, seaborne container throughput increased by 2% year-on-year to 66,780 TEU, corresponding to 47,964 containers handled, similar to that of a year earlier. Gross weight of seaborne containerized cargo rose by 2% year-on-year to 133,485 tonnes, with 10,014 tonnes of transshipment goods. Gross weight of containerized cargo by land dropped by 18% to 34,701 tonnes, including 13,521 tonnes of transit goods. Outward air cargo grew by 28% year-on-year to 23,425 tonnes in the first three quarters of 2010. The main destination was Taiwan, China that accounted for 72% of the total. Concurrently, inward air cargo increased by 21% to 10,605 tonnes, with those from Taiwan, China taking a predominant share of 84%. However, transit air cargo fell significantly by 46% year-on-year to 4,738 tonnes. At the end of September 2010, number of mobile telephone users rose by 10% from a year earlier to 1,107,066 whereas fixed-line telephone users decreased by 2% to 169,054. As regards internet services, number of subscribers reached 163,830 and the cumulative duration of usage totalled 308 million hours in the first nine months of 2010, up by 19% and 24% respectively.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the value of total merchandise export for September 2010 decreased by 28.7% year-on-year to MOP496 million, with value of domestic exports falling by 21.2% to MOP181 million and that of re-exports dropping by 32.4% to MOP314 million. The value of total merchandise import amounted to MOP3.87 billion, up by 15.0% year-on-year. A trade deficit of MOP3.38 billion was recorded for September 2010. In the third quarter of 2010, total value of merchandise export (MOP1.66 billion) dropped by 11.6% year-on-year, but that of merchandise import (MOP11.50 billion) rose by 18.5%, resulting in a trade deficit of MOP9.84 billion. In the first nine months of 2010, total value of merchandise export fell by 8.4% year-on-year to MOP5.29 billion, of which the value of domestic exports declined by 26.5%, but that of re-exports expanded by 4.4%; meanwhile, total value of merchandise import grew by 19.7% to MOP31.89 billion. The trade deficit from January to September 2010 widened by 27.5% year-on-year to MOP26.61 billion; the exports/imports ratio went down by 5.1 percentage points year-on-year to 16.6%. Analyzed by destination of exported goods, in the first nine months of 2010, value of merchandise export to Hong Kong (MOP2.26 billion) rose by 5.0% year-on-year and that to Mainland China (MOP844 million) remained unchanged; value of exports to the USA (MOP626 million) and the EU (MOP306 million) decreased substantially by 43.5% and 40.7% respectively. Exports of Textile & garment amounted to MOP1.24 billion, down by 39.6% year-on-year to account for 23.5% of the total merchandise export; however, value of Non-textile exports (MOP4.04 billion) grew by 8.9%, with that of Copper & articles thereof and Clocks & watches rising notably by 60.9% and 51.3% respectively. Regarding the country of origin of imported goods, in the first nine months of 2010, value of merchandise import from Mainland China (MOP9.91 billion) and the EU (MOP7.02 billion) expanded by 17.2% and 26.8% respectively year-on-year. The value of imports of Consumer goods rose by 36.4% year-on-year, with that of Motor cars & motorcycles growing significantly by 94.1%; nevertheless, the value of imports of Capital goods and Raw materials & semi-manufactures fell by 4.3% and 0.8% respectively. From January to September 2010, total value of merchandise import and export amounted to MOP37.18 billion, up by 14.7% compared with MOP32.41 billion in the first nine months of 2009.
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A price check on canned foods and beverage items has been conducted by Consumer Council earlier (27th October). Stability in prices of canned food items is shown in this survey as six of the surveyed items record price drop and canned fish from mainland China and Portugal record a price decrease of about 10 per cent. Significant price drop is also observed in ‘Narcissus Brand Spiced Pork Cubes (142g)’, where prices are decreased by 15 per cent and 10 per cent respectively in two retail outlets. No price increase has been observed in the current survey on canned foods. For beverages, average prices of most products have dropped in the past three months. Only three items in the current survey record an increase in price, ‘Carlsberg All Malt Premium Beer (can)’ record a price rise of almost 10 per cent in two retail spots. Consumers are advised to check with the reports for the most updated prices in different retail stores to save time and money, for selling prices differ in various outlets. Prices of ‘Vita Lemon Tea (250ml x6)’, for example, vary significantly for over 90 per cent in the 22 surveyed retail spots. The Council will continue to monitor local price trend of both beverages and canned foods. The above-mentioned reports are now available online at the Council’s official website (http://www.consumer.gov.mo). For enquiries, please call 8988 9315.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the slow economic recovery and sluggish external demand caused the Value of Industrial Production & Other Receipts of Macao to post a protracted decline of 26.5% year-on-year to MOP10.69 billion in 2009. Gross Value Added that measures the sectoral contribution to the economy amounted to MOP3.18 billion, down by 11.4% year-on-year; besides, Intermediate Consumption decreased by 31.5% to MOP7.51 billion, and Gross Fixed Capital Formation fell by 32.3% to MOP993 million. In 2009, there were 1,008 establishments operating in industrial production, a decrease of 44 over 2008; total number of persons engaged dropped by 23.1% to 19,289. Value of Industrial Production of the Manufacturing sector amounted to MOP7.62 billion in 2009, down by 33.0% year-on-year. Manufacture of Wearing Apparel and Textiles, the two major traditional export-oriented industries slackened off, with Value of Production decreasing by 42.4% and 37.1% from 2008 to MOP3.53 billion and MOP1.03 billion respectively. On the contrary, Value of Production of some new emerging industries saw year-on-year increase, of which that of Manufacture of Food Products & Beverages rose by 5.9% to MOP672 million, and Publishing & Printing went up by 2.6% to MOP562 million. In addition, Gross Value Added of the Manufacturing sector dropped by 22.2% year-on-year to MOP1.67 billion, and Intermediate Consumption registered a decrease of 34.2%. Meanwhile, Value of Industrial Production of Electricity, Gas & Water Supply totalled MOP2.89 billion in 2009, down by 6.7% year-on-year; Intermediate Consumption dropped by 16.7% to MOP1.39 billion; while Gross Value Added rose by 4.9% to MOP1.50 billion.
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The Blood Donor Award Ceremony 2010 will be held on 29th October, at 7:30 p.m. at 4/F Grand Hall of Macau Tower Convention and Entertainment Centre. To express the MSAR Government’s respect and gratitude to blood donors and organizations, the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Cheong U and officials from the Health Bureau will attend the ceremony and present awards to them. A total of 1,299 blood donors who have accumulated five donations or multiples of five donations throughout the year of 2009 have been invited to the ceremony. 22 organizations and individuals who have made more than 30 donations will receive their awards on stage at the ceremony. Blood donors who have been invited to the ceremony are advised to attend the ceremony as scheduled with the invitation letter.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the unemployment rate for July-September 2010 remained unchanged from the previous period (June-August 2010) at 2.9%; the underemployment rate rose by 0.1 percentage point to 1.6%. Total labour force was 329,600 in July-September 2010 and the labour force participation rate stood at 71.8%, up by 0.4 percentage point from the previous period. The employed population increased by about 2,700 over the previous period to 320,200, in which employment of the Gaming Sector and Wholesale & Retail Trade saw increase, while that of Restaurants & Similar Activities registered a decrease. Number of the unemployed held stable at 9,400, with 19.0% being fresh labour force entrants searching for their first job, up by 1.8 percentage points over the previous period. In comparison with July-September 2009, the labour force participation rate, the unemployment rate and the underemployment rate decreased by 0.2, 0.8 and 0.4 percentage point respectively. In the third quarter of 2010, the unemployment rate of local residents stood at 3.5%, up by 0.1 percentage point quarter-to-quarter; meanwhile, the labour force participation rate of local residents rose by 0.2 percentage point to 67.3%.
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Coverage of the 2009 Service Sector Survey included Real Estate Management; Security Services; Cleaning Services; Advertising; and Conference & Exhibition Organizing Services. In 2009, there were 171 Real Estate Management establishments, an increase of 6 over 2008; number of persons engaged decreased by 8.2% to 4,525. Total Receipts amounted to MOP 844.75 million, down slightly by 0.9% year-on-year; Total Expenditure rose by 3.1% to MOP 659.72 million. Gross Value Added that measures the sectoral contribution to the economy was MOP 504.53 million, a year-on-year decrease of 8.2%; however, Gross Fixed Capital Formation surged by 9.8 times to MOP 40.65 million. Establishments of Security Services increased by 4 over 2008 to 15; number of persons engaged was 4,630, up by 20.4%, with 4,529 working in the 11 establishments with 100 or more workers. Total Receipts (MOP 603.08 million) and Total Expenditure (MOP 532.70 million) grew by 10.1% and 19.4% respectively year-on-year; in addition, Gross Value Added (MOP 489.00 million) increased by 2.6%, while Gross Fixed Capital Formation (MOP 3.40 million) decreased by 64.0%. Meanwhile, there were 96 establishments providing Cleaning Services, a decrease of 4 over 2008; number of persons engaged rose by 18.1% to 3,336. Analyzed by number of persons engaged, the 11 large-scale establishments (with 50 persons or more) had 2,403 workers (72.0% of total). Total Receipts and Total Expenditure stood at MOP 302.59 million and MOP 264.79 million, up by 9.5% and 10.2% respectively year-on-year. Gross Value Added increased by 9.1% year-on-year to MOP 244.96 million; Gross Fixed Capital Formation dropped by 8.4% to MOP 3.97 million. Number of Advertising agencies registered a year-on-year increase of 26 to 348 in 2009, engaging a total of 950 persons, down by 2.7%, with the percentage share of paid employees just accounted for 62.1% of the total persons engaged. Number of small establishments engaging with 5 or less workers totalled 312 (89.7% of total). Total Receipts rose by 8.8% year-on-year to MOP 333.84 million, of which receipts from advertising services amounted to MOP 199.46 million and receipts from conference & exhibition organizing services totalled MOP 120.46 million, up by 7.3% and 6.3% over 2008 respectively. Total Expenditure increased by 8.2% year-on-year to MOP 301.14 million. Gross Value Added totalled MOP 100.22 million, down by 2.6% year-on-year, while Gross Fixed Capital Formation rose by 25.9% to MOP 10.62 million. Establishments of Conference & Exhibition Organizing Services increased by 4 over 2008 to 20, engaging a total of 85 persons. Total Receipts grew by 45.7% year-on-year to MOP 76.79 million, with receipts from provision of conference & exhibition organizing services amounted to MOP 64.77 million, an increase of 30.2% over 2008; receipts from advertising services soared by 3.3 times to MOP 8.60 million. Total Expenditure increased by 53.5% year-on-year to MOP 74.76 million, with Compensation of Employees (MOP 12.93 million) rising notably by 102.4%. Gross Value Added stood at MOP 14.96 million, up by 44.0%; Gross Fixed Capital Formation decreased by 24.0% to MOP 273,000.
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The distribution of cheques of 2010 Wealth Partaking Scheme has been successfully carried out. Residents with cheque in hand can proceed to any bank where they have an account to deposit it not later than 31 December 2013. Since July when the Scheme was launched, 87,442 beneficiaries have received the cash premium by means of bank transfer, accounting for MOP522,290,400, while 487,297 crossed cheques have been issued, which summed up to MOP2,755,429,200. Among the crossed cheques, 423,022 were withdrawn, representing 86.8% of the total number of cheques written out, and 377 were void. Out of the 63,898 unpresented cheques, 4,638, or 7.3% could not be delivered due to improper address or other reasons and these have been returned to the Identification Services Bureau. This has resulted in 59,260 cheques to be further handled. To provide enquiries and deal with procedures related to the cash disbursement, the government of the Macau SAR has set up a Support Centre for Wealth Partaking Disbursement. Public enquiries can be brought forward in person, by telephone or email. During its operation period, i.e., from 13 July to 22 October, some 38,067 enquiries had been entertained. Majority of the enquiries were made in person, proportion of 64.1% of the total, summing up to 24,408 and the second most popular channel was telephone enquiry which stands for 35.3% or 13,449. Personal visits to the Centre were mainly for re-issuance of cheques, which totaled 7,505 cases, whereas 1,336 were for the purpose of alteration of address. Please read attachment. As the distribution of cheques came to an end, the reception volume of the Support Centre has declined from the peak period of 15,210 person-time during the month of September to merely 7,292 person-time in October. In line with cost effectiveness and the 3 years cheque validity, effective from 25 October this year, the Support Centre will move to the Service Centre of Civil and Municipal Affairs Bureau located in Avenida da Grande Praia no. 804, China Plaza, 2/F to continuously offer assistance and handle enquiries associated with the 2008 to 2010 Wealth Partaking Scheme. The opening hours of this Service Centre are from 9am to 6pm straight, Monday to Friday, except public holidays. The service hotline 2822 5000 and the facsimile 2822 3000 will remain in operation. Enquiries can also be made to the Service Centre of Civil and Municipal Affairs Bureau at 8795 2675 and 8795 2676. Moreover, the official website of Wealth Partaking Scheme http://www.planocp.gov.mo is retained to provide relevant information.
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Since the law on "Prohibition of Providing Illegal Accommodation" took effect on August 13, MGTO has waged a total of 81 sanctions, of which all were being investigated and will be judged according to established legal procedures, and offenders informed of their right to plead. At present, the first sanction proceeding has been completed and an operator who provided accommodation illegally is fined 200 000 patacas. Other cases are in different stages of sanction proceedings. The Cross-departmental Working Team has been conducting operations in the past two months and seized 12 operators, 12 touts and 12 persons who manage the premises that provide accommodation illegally (managing staff) on site. Apart from the operators seized on site, MGTO’s ensuing investigations will seek to establish if more offenders are involved. MGTO has begun sanction proceedings on offenders according to the law on "Prohibition of Providing Illegal Accommodation". To date, one operator who provided accommodation illegally is fined 200 000 patacas. If the fine is not paid within the statutory period, the Financial Services Bureau will enforce the collection of fine. Meanwhile, six occupants who failed to fulfill their duty of cooperation were fined 3 000 patacas each, among which, two have paid the fine. For those who fail to pay the fine within the statutory period, MGTO has notified the Financial Services Bureau to enforce the collection of fine and informed PSP that the involved persons should pay the fine or their reentry into Macau will be denied. According to the law, operators and persons who manage the premises that provide accommodation illegally (management staff) incur a penalty up to 800 000 patacas, touts can be fined up to 100 000 patacas, persons who fail to cooperate can be fined up to 20 000 patacas and occupants who fail to cooperate are fined 3 000 patacas. From October 19 until 5p.m. today (Oct 25) the Cross-departmental Working Team sealed four premises suspected to provide accommodation illegally and seized two touts, two managing staff, one overstayer and two illegal immigrants at the premises. Since the law on "Prohibition of Providing Illegal Accommodation" took effect on August 13, 999 premise-checks were conducted, involving 692 premises, of which 81 premises suspected to provide accommodation illegally were sealed, while 101 were normal residences. Ensuing investigations on the rest of the premises have been launched. Among the checked premises, some were vacant or unoccupied. Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO) and the Public Security Police Force (PSP) will continue investigation on unanswered doors, which are suspected to be used to provide accommodation illegally. Meanwhile, during investigations to other cases, PSP has found 16 premises suspected to provide accommodation illegally and informed the Cross-departmental Working Team to handle the cases. To date, the operations involved more than 803 occupants, among whom 367 were occupants of premises suspected to provide accommodation illegally and were investigated, including 16 overstayers and 14 illegal immigrants. 12 operators, 12 touts, 12 persons who manage the premises that provide accommodation illegally (managing staff) and six occupants who failed to fulfill their duty of cooperation were seized on site. Following the raid to premises suspected to provide accommodation illegally, MGTO began sanction proceedings on involved operators, touts and managing staff, and adopted provisional measures to cut the supply of water and electricity to the concerned premises and sealed the doors. Public can also call 2833 3000 to report suspected premises.
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