Briefs | Inês Chan officially appointed GCS director

Inês Chan, formerly Head of the Licensing and Supervision Department at the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO), has been officially appointed the Director of the Government Information Bureau (GCS). According to an executive decree published in yesterday’s Official Gazette, the Chief Executive has appointed Chan for a one-year term starting on July 1. Chan entered public service in 1990. She has worked for the Cartography and Cadastre Bureau, and has been a department head at the MGTO since 2001. Chan has represented the MGTO at over 100 of the Macau Covid-19 response center’s press conferences. From July 1, the current GCS director, Victor Chan Chi Ping, will serve as an advisor at the Office for the Secretary for Economy and Finance.

Upgrades to civil servant training programs under consideration

The local government has plans to enhance civil servant training programs, according to the Public Administration and Civil Service Bureau (SAFP). In its reply to lawmaker Lei Chan U’s interpellation, the SAFP revealed that it will propose changes to civil servant training mechanisms in the third quarter of this year. The changes will enhance civil servants’ sentiments on the national situation, comprehension and leadership skills. The SAFP hopes to build a team of honest and responsible civil servants who love both Macau and the country. Currently, the bureau is analyzing civil servant training programs according to overall training goals, course design and the evaluation and management of the students, among other perspectives.

April business climate shows minor improvement over March

Even as the business climate for restaurants and retailers remained exceptionally poor in April, the Statistics and Census Service has reported a minor improvement that month over March. It found that the proportion of interviewed restaurants recording a year-on-year decline in receipts fell by 9 percentage points from March to 88%. As for retailers, the proportion of those interviewed that registered a year-on-year sales decrease (87%) stayed at a similar level as in March. The outlook for May was also poor, with 38% of the interviewed restaurants and 50% of the retailers expecting a year-on-year decline of 50 percent or more in receipts.