Briefs | Macau Food Festival sees more visitors than last year

The 16th Macau Food Festival officially ended on Sunday. This year’s 17-day food event saw a 10 percent increase in the number of visitors, according to a report by Jornal Cheng Pou. According to the organizers, several package tours included visits to the festival location. Despite a few rainy days, business was estimated to have increased slightly as compared to last year. The organizers have also expressed their satisfaction towards this year’s festival.  The next food festival will be organized for November 2017.

Kiang Wu’s youngest diabetes patient is 13-year-old

Kiang Wu Hospital organized a walking event last Sunday, with the aim of reminding the public to be cautious with their health and to be mindful of the risk of diabetes. Over 200 people participated in the walking event. Kiang Wu Hospital disclosed that it had recently received its youngest diabetes patient, who is 13 years old and has a family history of diabetes. In addition, the children reportedly do not undergo enough physical activity. The hospital also announced that it is establishing a weight management center with the aim of combating diabetes. It intends to begin with addressing more severe cases of obesity in local residents.

Taiwan expands definition of Macau and HK students

Taiwan’s latest education policy allows Macau students who obtained Portuguese passports after 1999 to study in the island with the same welfare rights as students with Macau or Hong Kong passports. Prior to this new policy, Taiwan only recognized students from the two SARs, who had held Hong Kong or Macau passports. Portuguese passport-holders from Macau will be granted special welfare rights provided by Taiwan’s education authority. The new policy allows Macau students, who hold both a Macau and a Portuguese passport, to be recognized as students from Macau.

AL candidates may be invited to retract from previous stances

The Legislative Assembly (AL) Second Standing Committee yesterday continued to analyze changes to the Legislative Assembly electoral law, including the controversial and recent proposal that only those who state their loyalty to the MSAR and “never acted against the Basic Law” may be elected as lawmakers. At the end of yesterday’s meeting, the Secretary for Administration and Justice, Sonia Chan, told the committee that the Electoral Affairs Commission would assess how sincere candidates were when making the declarations anticipated under the proposed revision of the election law. The main issue is acknowledgement of China’s sovereignty over the MSAR. “Other ideas that contradict the Basic Law” may also be grounds for voiding a candidacy, although Sonia Chan said that candidates may be invited to retract from previous statements and thus be allowed to run as lawmakers. The Second Standing Committee president, Chan Chak Mo, said that the members of the committee do not see the loyalty statement as an issue and will not debate it again before the proposal goes to vote at the AL plenary.

Unemployment rate remains unchanged

The unemployment rate for August-October 2016 held stable as in the previous period (July-September 2016), at 1.9 percent. According to information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC), the underemployment rate was 0.7 percent, up by 0.2 percentage points. The total labour force was numbered at 397,000 and the labour force participation rate stood at 72.3 percent. Total employment decreased by 4,700 from July-September to 389,500. In terms of industry analysis, employment in the gambling and construction saw a decrease, while the tourism sector saw an increase. The number of the unemployed was 7,500, down by 100. Fresh labour force entrants searching for their first job accounted for 19.2 percent of the total unemployed, down by 4.5 percentage points.

MGTO launch tourism news database

The Macao Government Tourist Office (MGTO) launched the “Macao Tourism News plus” (beta version) yesterday, an online database of news materials for members of the press. It will aim to more effectively disseminate information relating to tourism developments within the SAR. The service is dedicated to compiling an extensive collection of Macau tourism news originating from different news providers. MGTO noted in a statement the office’s hope that the service will allow users “around the world to easily browse and use the information archived in the database, thereby upgrading the efficiency and quality of dissemination of Macau tourism news.” Media are invited to register for user accounts now.