News

Due to adverse weather conditions in Europe leading to numerous flight delays and cancellations at airports in London, the Tourism Crisis Management Office (GGCT) has maintained close contacts with the Chinese Embassy in the UK, the Office of the Commissioner for Foreign Affairs in the Macau SAR and the Macau Government Tourist Office's UK Representative to follow up on the situation in London. GGCT will continue to monitor closely the condition and progress of the resumption of airport and flight services in London. GGCT urges affected Macau residents or those with family members stranded in London to contact the following numbers for assistance in case of emergency: －Hotline: (853)28333000；
－MGTO's Representative in the UK: (4420)83348328 or
－the Embassy of the PRC in the UK: (44)2072998431 / (44)7551436721 Tourism Crisis Management Office
20 December 2010
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The Chief Executive is scheduled to leave for Beijing this evening for his annual duty visit. Speaking to the press after a reception to celebrate the 11th anniversary of the establishment of the Macao SAR, Mr Chui said he would report to state leaders on the recent development in Macao and his policy blueprints for next year. He said he would also visit the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and the Ministry of Commerce to gain their support in increasing the imports of daily necessities from the Mainland and guaranteeing the supply of these products. The Government’s goal is to provide daily necessities to the people at affordable prices, he said. He also extended his gratitude for the motherland’s support in supplying food and other daily necessities to Macao. Mr Chui told the press that the Guangdong-Macao Co-operation Framework Agreement had been submitted to the Central Government and that he hoped that it would be signed in the first quarter of next year. In response to demonstrations by some residents this afternoon, Mr Chui said the Government respected people expressing their opinions in a lawful manner and that the Government would gather their opinions for analysis.
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According to the nomination of the Decoration Awards Committee, the Macao SAR Government confers Decorations, Medals and Certificates of Merit to 38 individuals and entities in recognition of their outstanding achievements, contributions and distinguished services rendered to the Macao SAR. Decorations of Honour, including the Decoration of Honour - Grand Lotus, the Decoration of Honour - Golden Lotus and the Decoration of Honour - Silver Lotus, are intended to award to individuals or entities that have made outstanding contributions to the image and reputation of the Macao SAR. The recipients are: Decoration of Honour - Grand Lotus Mr Ho Hau Wah Decoration of Honour - Golden Lotus Mr António Ferreira Decoration of Honour - Silver Lotus Mr Io Hong Meng Seven types of Medals of Merit are awarded for: 1. Professions; 2. Industry and commerce; 3. Tourism; 4. Education; 5. Culture; 6. Philanthropy; and 7. Sport. Each of these categories of decorations is awarded to individuals or entities that have make major or excellent contributions in their respective fields The recipients are: Medal of Merit – Professions Mr Vong Hin Fai Mr Rui Teixeira Freitas Mr Lai Ieng Kit Medal of Merit - Industry and Commerce Mr Wong Pan Seng Mr Lou Cheok Weng Mr José Tang Kuan Meng Bank of China, Macau Branch Medal of Merit - Tourism Mr João Manuel Costa Antunes Mr Kou Pui Kei Medal of Merit - Education Ms Ho Sio Kam Sister Cheung Yung Sau Ms Man Kuan Ms Teresa Kwan Kit Mui Medal of Merit – Culture Mr Chan Wai Fai Ms Lio Chi Heng Medal of Merit – Philanthropy Fundo de Beneficência dos Leitores do Jornal Ou Mun Nurses Association of Macau Medal of Merit - Sport Mr Lam Fai Hong Mr Ma Iao Hang Mr Mok Kuok Heng Medals for Distinguished Services are awarded to public entities, organisations or their staff for outstanding performance of their duties or community service. The recipients are: Medal for Distinguished Service - Medal for Dedication Mr Lei Kin Fong Ms Chan Vicente Man Chung Medal for Distinguished Service - Medal for Community Service Mr Charles Chen Chien Ying Ms Sam Iok Ha Mr Chan Kok Chun Ms Lao Mui Kuai Certificates of Merit including the Honorific Title - Prestige and the Honorific Title – Merit, commend Macao SAR residents or other people who have made major contribution to the reputation, development or social progress of the Macao SAR. The recipients are: Honorific Title - Prestige Mr Sun Shabo Mr Xu Aoao Honorific Title - Merit Mr U Seng Pan Mr Lei Kuong Cheong Mr Chao Man Hou Ms Choi Sut Ian Mr Leong Ka Weng Ms Wong Weng Man Macao Team for the American Regions Mathematics League The decorations, medals and certificates of merit awards ceremony will be held in early 2011.
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The Chief Executive, Mr Chui Sai On, is scheduled to visit Beijing on his duty visit between 20 to 23 December. During the visit, Mr Chui will report to state leaders on the recent development in Macao and his policy blueprints.
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Macao is to organise a wide range of activities and events on Monday to mark the 11th anniversary of the establishment of the Macao Special Administrative Region. Highlights will include a flag-raising ceremony at Lotus Square at 8 am and a reception hosted by the Government at Macau Tower at 9:30 am. To bring fun and entertainment to the public, Macao Sport Development Board is to stage a concert at Macao Stadium at 2 pm, staring pop singer Sammi Cheng. In addition, Macao Post will issue commemorative covers and offer hand-back services to the public from 9 am to 5:30 pm. In the evening, the Macau Government Tourist Office will present a firework display off Macau Tower at 9 pm. On Sunday, the Cultural Institute’s Macau Chinese Orchestra will stage a concert at Macao Cultural Centre at 8 pm to celebrate the anniversary.
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Heavenly Harmonies – Taoist Ritual Music in Macao, exhibition organized by Macao Museum under the Cultural Affairs Bureau, raised its curtain at Macao Museum yesterday (December 16th) at 6 pm, completing the ribbon-cutting ceremony with Zhang Xiaoguang, Deputy Director-General of Department of Culture and Education of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Macao Special Administrative Region, Jin Qian, Director-General of Department of General Affairs of the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China in the Macao Special Administrative Region, Ng Peng Chi, President of the Macao Taoist Association, Ung Vai Meng, President of the Cultural Affairs Bureau and Chan Ieng Hin, Director of the Macao Museum. During the ceremony, Macao Taoist Orchestra Association has especially presented a live demonstration performance on the Taoist ritual music, in order to provide a better understanding for the guests and the public on the music. The music played at the rites, namely “Taoist Fasts and Offerings Music” or “Taoist Ritual Music”, is part of the Taoist ceremony and a major component of the Chinese traditional music as well, featuring its strong local colour. The Macao Taoist Ritual Music is an integration of the music from the Zhengyi and Quanzhen School; meanwhile, Macao is the one which preserves the most Taoist songs compared to other Taoist temples in the region, amounting to 500. Therefore, the Taoist Ritual Music has become an element of Macao’s local intangible cultural heritage. In 2009, the Museum has already initiated the nomination of three items, namely the “Macao Taoist Ritual Music” (in the category of Traditional Music), the “Cantonese Naamyam (Singing and Narrative Songs)” (in the category of Quyi), and the “Festival of the Drunken Dragon” (in the category of Folk Customs) as the third batch of the National Intangible Cultural Heritage List, which has been approved by the vetting committee of experts, has passed the public comment period and is now waiting for the official declaration of the Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China. During the exhibition, exhibits related to Taoism are showcased, including music scores, books and journals in the field of Taoist ritual music study, instruments and classic books, which enables visitors to understand more of Taoism and its very way of expressing religion and promoting principles and doctrines. This exhibition aims at showing to the public the representative achievement of Macao’s local traditional music, spreading the message of the protection of the local intangible cultural heritage and making people realize the significance of the protection. The current outstanding achievements on salvaging, conserving, systemizing and studying this endangered traditional music are also displayed. Exhibits are mainly provided by Macao Taoist Association. The exhibition is held from December 17th, 2010 to March 20th, 2011. To tie in with the exhibition, the organizer has especially scheduled a themed seminar entitled The Value of Taoist Ritual Music to be held in the Macao Museum Auditorium on Saturday (December 18th) from 3 pm to 5 pm. Wang Zhongren, a former associate professor of Wuhan Conservatory of Music, has been invited to speak at the seminar. Interested parties may call 8394 1204 for reservation. In addition, the organizer has particularly arranged a concert performed by Macao Taoist Orchestra Association at the Main Hall of Macao Museum, on January 2nd, 2011, at 3:30 pm. Admission will be free for all visitors. For further information, please refer to Macao Museum’s website www.macaumuseum.gov.mo.
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To encourage Macao enterprises and non-profit making organisations to actively participate in MICE activities while optimizing the effect of promotion through products displays and establishing direct contacts with customers, Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM) started to provide exhibitions and trade fairs incentives enquiry and application services to local enterprises and non-profit making organsiations since 1995. The beneficiary organisations can obtain subsidies for the costs incurred during the participation of overseas exhibitions. The financial incentive application has been extended to benefit exhibitors of local exhibitions and fairs in August 2007. With the objective to optimize the measures on providing such financial incentives on a continual basis, and after collecting opinions from SMEs, IPIM has revised the “Regulations on Participation in IPIM’s Promotional Activities” (hereinafter referred as the Regulation) and will come into effect on 1 January. Revised contents include: streamlined application procedures, efficient document submission process, revised exhibition categorisation and the introduction of fixed-amount financial incentives to trade fairs. The new regulations enable applicants to have a better understanding of the application procedures, their respective rights and obligations as well as getting the approval results timely. (1) Streamlining application procedures and efficient document submission process.
To ensure applicants can obtain timely approval outcome, and make better preparation for the exhibition, the “Regulations” will adjust the day-counting mechanism from working days to consecutive days, applicants should submit a written application to IPIM no less than 45 days before the exhibition and the late submission of supporting documents should be made 30 days before the exhibition. The Regulation will also introduce a series of facilitation measures , eg. the submission of documents issued by Macao Financial Services Bureau - Professional tax - Nominal List of Employees and Wages-Earners -Form (M3/M4 Form), complimentary tax payment advise M5 and M6 form, Social Security Contribution are exempted. In addition, for enterprises and non-profit making organisations which may take part in exhibitions for more than once in the same financial year, documents such as the copies of the Declaration form of Start/Alteration of Activity of Industrial Contribution (M/1 Form) and Contribução Industrial – Conhecimento de cobrança (M/8 Form) issued by Macao Financial Services Bureau, and copies of Macao ID of shareholders will be exempted and can be replaced with a declaration, provided that these information have not been changed or updated within the same year. (2) Preferential arrangements granted respectively to exhibitions and trade fairs
Exhibitions– applicants may lodge an application for the cost of printed or audio-visual materials with the document proof of subsidy approval from IPIM in the same year.
Trade fairs – applicants must submit supporting documents at least 30 days before the exhibition. While the quotations may be submitted within the aforementioned period, or within 5 days after the approval notification is received. (3) Special Incentive for Macao Products
Furthermore, to cope with Macao SAR government’s policy of supporting the MICE industry, the Regulation will further lower the criteria for parties eligible for the subsidies and will provide extenuation for applicants not fulfilling the criteria of registration with Macao Financial Services Bureau for at least 2 years or at least 50% of the company shareholders are Macao residents (applicants should provide relevant supporting documents, e.g Certificate of origin and Trademark Registration) (4) Categorisation of incentive applications for exhibitions and trade fairs, incentive amount accumulation system on trade fairs
Starting from 1 January 2011, exhibitions with duration of at least 2 days are eligible for the application of financial incentives. The approval procedures of exhibitions and trade fairs subsidies will be classified into two categories, with the approval principles of exhibition remain unchanged. To enable applicants to have enough time for pre-exhibition preparation and get the approval results timely, review and evaluation for application of trade fair subsidies will adopt a fixed subsidy accumulation system in 2011. The maximum amount that each enterprises/entity may receive for each of the first two applications for trade fairs is MOP 5,000.00, with an accumulation of MOP 30,000.00 every year. In addition, IPIM will further optimize the settlement of subsidy payments by making use of standardized event reports, hence making reimbursement procedures more efficient. IPIM will continue to assess the effectiveness of the incentive measures by means of a questionnaire. The above contents are uploaded on IPIM’s website (www.ipim.gov.mo). The revision of the Regulations will come into effect on 1 January 2011.For more information, please contact Ms. Wong or Ms. Hoi of SME Service Center (Tel: 28728212; Email: smec@ipim.gov.mo). Free copies of the “Regulations on Partcipation in IPIM’s Promotional Activities” are also available at SME Service Center or Service Counter at Centro de Serviços da RAEM.
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‘Google Map’ has been added to Consumer Council’s website as a function to help consumers when checking information of its ‘Certified Shops’ & ‘Adherents’. Consumers are able to see the type of business, location and other information by clicking on the list of ‘Certified Shops’ & ‘Adherents’ on the Council’s website. The emblem of ‘Certified Shops’ & ‘Adherents’ has become a trusted one in local shopping industry. As of December 2010, there are currently 1,379 ‘Adherent’ shops covering most types of businesses in Macau and among which 1,261 shops have already been awarded the ‘Certified Shop’ emblem. The Council indicates that many consumers visit its website for checking information of its ‘Certified Shops’ & ‘Adherents’ prior to shopping. For consumers’ convenience, a ‘Google Map’ function has been added to the Council’s website to help consumers when checking details of the scheme members. When clicking the list of ‘Certified Shops’ & ‘Adherents’ on its official website, consumers are now able to see the type of business, shopfront picture, location and contact details of the searched ‘Certified Shops’ & ‘Adherents’. The just-added function will be running as a beta version and comments and suggestions from consumers are welcome for the Council to better its service. Further, the latest issue 207 of Consumer Report has been published. In this issue, the Council introduces its work plan for the coming year, including the enhancement of services provided by Consumer Arbitration Centre, the suggestion on the introduction of a regulation for product labeling, and the proposal for adding the number of days of ‘No Plastic Bag Day’. This issue also covers the new measures taken by the Administration on enhancing the transparency of the real estate market. Consumer Report is now available free of charge at the two offices of the Consumer Council, bookstores and libraries. Consumers may also access the resources online at the Council’s official website (http://www.consumer.gov.mo). For inquiries, please call 8988 9315. Consumer Council’s website: http://www.consumer.gov.mo
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The Monetary Authority of Macao announced today that the preliminary estimate of Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves amounted to MOP182.2 billion (USD22.78 billion) at the end of November 2010. The reserves rose by 4.1% from the revised value of MOP175.1 billion (USD21.92 billion) for the previous month. When compared with a year earlier, the reserves increased by MOP36.4 billion or 25.0%. Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves at end-November 2010 represented 35 times the currency in circulation or 271.2% of Pataca M2 at end-October 2010. The trade-weighted effective exchange rate index for the pataca, a gauge of the domestic currency’s exchange rates against the currencies of Macao’s major trading partners, rose by 0.14 points month-to-month and 0.24 points year-on-year to 89.03 in November 2010. For enquiry, please contact:
Research and Statistics Department, Monetary Authority of Macao (Tel: 83952532; Fax: 28353042)
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Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT) has the honour of inviting culinary expert of the Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Arts Schools to feature again the “Le Cordon Bleu Master Chef Week at IFT”. Chef de Cuisine Patrick Terrien will visit Macao to showcase his expertise in “French Authentic Regional Cuisine Culinary Art” - the theme of this month’s programme. Le Cordon Bleu, one of the leading schools for teaching classical French cuisine, patisserie and boulangerie, was founded in Paris, France in 1895. Over the last century, Le Cordon Bleu has evolved from a cooking school to an international network of 29 international schools across 5 continents, in the area of culinary arts and hospitality institutes, maintaining at the same time the highest standards of culinary excellence. Chef Patrick Terrien joined the prestigious team of Le Cordon Bleu chefs since 1989, has many year of experience in the industry having worked with the world renowned chef, Joël Robucho, his own restaurant in the City of Tours which was awarded one Michelin Star. During his visit in Macao, Chef Terrien will demonstrate the culinary skill of French regional cuisine, including Normandy, Alsace, Provence, Preigord Cuisine and dessert of Loire Valley, Brittany, Basque Country and Ile-De-France areas. Chef Terrien aims to offer participants an exclusive gastronomic programme and introduce them to a sense-awaking experience of superb dishes throughout this one week French Master Chef Programme. Special cross-over like this is an example of IFT’s endeavour to bring in new culinary elements to Macao and to encourage ideas exchange with international prestigious institutions. Through this it is believed that the local arts in culinary will be enhanced to a new level. The “LE CORDON BLEU Master Chef Week at IFT” will take place from 14 till 18 December, including a tutorial on conceptual knowledge and cooking demo, also featuring set lunch for selected programmes, followed by cooking practicum. Details can be found on www.ift.edu.mo or call 85983 016/041 for enquiry.
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