Briefs | MGTO and IACM to adjust restaurant licensing mechanism

The Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) and the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau (IACM) will issue licenses to restaurants as separate administrative entities. MGTO director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes said restaurants inside hotels or shopping malls will be licensed by MGTO, whereas all other restaurants will be licensed by IACM. Senna Fernandes believes that only a few restaurant licenses will be transferred to IACM. She also said that MGTO is reviewing its own license mechanism, with the department having already concluded the first draft of the review, and that it is considering introducing one-station restaurant licensing in 2018.

Cloud computing center expected at government building

A cloud computing center is expected to open in mid-2018 at the government’s Areia Preta service building, as part of the Macau government’s partnership with Alibaba to build Macau’s smart city capabilities. The center is currently intended to serve the government’s restaurant licensing administration. The government expects to launch a consultation draft on Macau’s smart city development next March. The public consultation will last for two months, with a report on the consultation tentatively scheduled for release in the third quarter.

Government plans to conclude new taxi regulations by Q1 2018

The Secretary for Administration and Justice, Sonia Chan, said yesterday that the legal services are finalizing their analysis of the proposal for the revision of the Taxi Regulation. According to the official, the services are making every effort to complete the legislative procedures within the first quarter of 2018, a statement from Government Information Bureau informed. Speaking to the press, Chan said that the service responsible for drafting the review bill had already delivered their document to the legal services to grant a final opinion.  Chan also shared that regarding the enforcement of a system that allows sound recording inside ofthe vehicles, the services have already gathered opinions from the Office for Personal Data Protection and that this has been already considered in the preparation of the bill.