Briefs | APEC summit: CE meets top tourism officials from Beijing

The Chief Executive met yesterday with a working group from the National Tourism Administration (NTA) led by the Director General of the Department of Tourism Promotion and International Communications, Mr Li Shihong, when they updated each other on the preparations for and exchanged views on the Eighth Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Tourism Ministerial Meeting (TMM8), “to ensure a successful event in Macau next month,” a gov’t press released stated. Dr Chui Sai On again thanked the Central People’s Government for offering Macau “the honour of engaging in organizing the first ever APEC Tourism Ministerial Meeting” to be held here. A special working group was set up to conduct co-ordination meetings with the team led by the Chief-of-Cabinet of the Office of the Chief Executive and Secretary-General of the TMM8 Organizing Committee, Mr Alexis Tam “to facilitate effective arrangements for the event.” Li Shihong said all parties involved “attached great importance to the ministerial meeting.”

New UM-Amaral express bus in operation

Bus operator New Era has launched route 71 – the express service between University of Macau (UM) Hengqin campus and the bus interchange at Praça F. Amaral. The first bus departed yesterday morning. The route goes past the 10 stops within the UM campus. It begins at the UM Hengqin Terminal, and heads towards the administrative building, then the northern part of the university, Avenida da Universidade and the UM Post Graduates Residence before arriving at Praça F. Amaral. As for the trip from the Praça, the bus first arrives at the southern part of UM, followed by the Central Classrooms Building, the University Gallery, the University Hall and the Sports Complex before returning to the UM Hengqin terminal. The Transport Bureau (DSAT) said that it might adjust route MT3U, which currently runs between UM Hengqin campus, Praça F. Amaral and the Northern districts.

Personal credit card number in Q2 increase by 3.8pct

The Monetary Authority of Macao released the credit card statistics for the second quarter of 2014 today. The total number of personal credit cards in circulation was 796,855 at the end of June 2014, showing an increase of 3.8 percent from a quarter earlier. The numbers of Pataca (MOP) cards, Hong Kong Dollar (HKD) cards and Renminbi (RMB) cards was 566,883, 81,173 and 148,799 respectively. MOP cards, HKD cards and RMB cards witnessed respective growth of 4.3 percent, 1.1 percent and 3.4 percent quarter-to-quarter. Compared to a year ago, MOP cards and HKD cards rose 13.8 percent and 9.5 percent respectively, while RMB cards registered an upsurge of 22.7 percent mainly driven by a 22.7 percent growth of MOP/RMB dual-currency cards. As of the end of June 2014, the credit limit granted by banks in Macao for credit cards reached MOP15.7 billion, up by 7.3 percent from the end of March 2014. Credit card receivables amounted to MOP1.9 billion, while the rollover amount totaled MOP546.9 million, accounting for 28.8 percent of credit card receivables.