Briefs | Local man accused of MOP35 million fraud

A local resident has been accused of fraud after he borrowed MOP35 million from two of his friends and did not pay the money back. The suspect, aged 46 years old, claimed to be an investor. According to the victims, the suspect borrowed MOP20 million and MOP15 million from his friends in 2013 and this year, respectively. However, the suspect failed to pay the money back to his friends within the established deadline. The suspect later gave one of the victims MOP4 million, and last September gave both victims a check of MOP18 million, but it turned out to be an invalid check. The suspect has been detained by the Judiciary Police.

470 complaints over oily fumes emission

Three governmental departments received a total of 470 reports concerning emissions of oily fumes and cooking odors from restaurants in the first eight months of this year, according to the Environmental Protection Bureau’s (DSPA) reply to lawmaker Ho Ian Sang’s written inquiry. The DSPA, together with the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau (IACM) and the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO), received 127, 334 and nine complaints respectively. DSPA staff members were deployed to the concerned locations for a further follow-up. Some 64 of the 334 complaints issued to IACM were confirmed to be associated with excessive oily fumes. Sixty-one restaurants are still under a penalty process, while three restaurants have already paid the penalty. So far, no restaurants have seen their licenses revoked due to the emission of oily fumes. The government is currently drafting laws regarding restaurants that emit oily fumes and cooking odors. It will likely enter legislative procedures next year.

UM, Brunel University hold big data seminar

A joint seminar on big data analytics for smart city was recently held at the University of Macau (UM), with assistance from Brunel University. During the event, experts and scholars from around the world discussed technologies for smart city development. Scholars from both universities shared their latest research results in the fields of smart grids, smart cities, high-performance parallel processing, big data analysis, and online data mining. UM’s Rector Yonghua Song said that UM will focus its efforts on five research areas, namely sensory information, communications system and network safety; urban big data and smart technologies; smart energy; smart transport based on the Internet of Things; and urban public security and emergency management.

Foreign exchange reserves grow 0.3 percent

The Monetary Authority of Macao has announced that the preliminary estimate of Macau’s foreign exchange reserves amounted to MOP158.9 billion (USD19.72 billion) at the end of November 2018. The reserves increased by 0.3 percent from the revised value of MOP158.4 billion for the previous month. The city’s foreign exchange reserves at end-November represented 10 times the currency in circulation. Meanwhile, the trade-weighted effective exchange rate index for the pataca rose 0.44 points month-to-month and 2.3 points year-on-year to 107.0 in November , implying that overall, the exchange rate of pataca grew against the currencies of Macau’s major trading partners.

Consumer Council releases latest price survey

Macau’s Consumer Council conducted its latest ‘supermarket price survey’ on December 13 with the surveyed locations including supermarkets near Horte e Costa, Avenida do Ouvidor Arriaga and Rua da Emenda areas in Santo António Parish. With reference to the seven local parishes and the number of supermarkets in each parish, the Council has collected prices from these supermarkets to help consumers check price discrepancies and make price comparisons according to their desired locations. The latest price survey is now available on the Consumer Council’s website, on its iPhone and Android apps and at Council offices. It can also be accessed at libraries of the Cultural Affairs Bureau.