Briefs | Non-permanent residents included in work subsidy

The SAR government is including non-permanent residents into this year’s work income temporary subsidy. Applications for the subsidy remain the same. Qualified residents can get a maximum of 5,000 patacas per month. The subsidies are applicable to the period starting from January this year. The applicants can submit the application in April, July, and October and in January next year. The SAR government launched the subsidy 12 years ago, in 2008. The local government believes that the subsidy is helpful for low-income residents, including people with disabilities.

Radio taxi better able to meet calls demand amid Covid-19 pandemic

Since the Covid-19 outbreak, Macao Radio Taxi has been able to meet a higher proportion of all calls received by the company. When the company was first established, back in November 2015, the company completed approximately 6,000 orders on a daily basis, but this number represented only 30% to 40% of the total calls received by the company. In 2019, the company put more vehicles on the roads, and raised the percentage up to 60%. Nevertheless, since the Covid-19 outbreak, an even better response rate of 80% to all orders has been recorded. On average, the number of calls dropped by 50%, with 2,000 orders being completed during this period. The company claimed it would not fire any drivers because of the reduction in its business.

3 in 4 internet households now have fiber optic broadband

The number of households using the internet last year increased by 6,900 to a total of 182,300, according to data released by the Statistics and Census Service, widening the scope of internet coverage to 92.3% of all households. At the same time, the number of households using fiber optic broadband connection continued to rise, up by 18.1% last year to 138,800, and accounting for more than three-quarters of the total households using the internet. The proportion of households using mobile broadband to access the Internet (178,500) grew by 3.3 percentage points to 97.9%, indicating that only a small number of households never use mobile broadband at home.

UM to resume postgraduate oral defenses on May 4

In accordance with the guidelines issued by the Higher Education Bureau and considering the actual circumstances of the University of Macau (UM), the university said it will resume PhD and master’s oral defenses on May 4. Students of PhD, master’s, and postgraduate certificate/diploma programs at coursework stage will continue with distance learning until the end of this semester, according to the UM. Master’s and PhD students who are at research stage and need to return to the campus for special reasons, such as for their laboratory work and research, should seek approval from the university in advance. The UM stressed that students must not return to the campus in general without first acquiring approval from the education institution.