Briefs | SMG claims environment has improved

The director of the Macau Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau (SMG), Fong Soi Kun, says that the pollution in the city stems mainly from car emissions, according to a report by Macau Daily News. Fong claimed that the number of polluted days in the territory greatly decreased after a series of environmental protection measures the city implemented. The director believes that there is only a small possibility of mainland China’s pollutants affecting Macau, which means that heavy pollution is not expected to hit the territory. Last week, Macau’s air registered a poor quality reading. Fong explained that the situation was not serious. In the same report, Fong also judged that the chances of Macau facing heavy polluted days are very small.

UM applications open until January 20

The University of Macau (UM) has announced that its undergraduate programs for the 2017/18 academic year are now open for application and will remain so until January 20. Students who intend to apply to UM, the Macao Polytechnic Institute, the Institute for Tourism Studies or the Macau University of Science and Technology, are required to take the joint admission examination for the four education institutions. The examination covers four subjects, namely Chinese, Portuguese, English and mathematics. An admission examination in physics will be organized separately by UM, according to a statement from the university.

Zheng Anting suggests reduction of gaming taxes

Lawmaker Zheng Anting has said that by lowering gaming taxes, Macau can attract more high-end customers to spend money in the city. Zheng also believes that doing so can bring more businessmen to Macau. The lawmaker further stated that once all gaming-related parties agree that there should be a tax reduction, the public can discuss how this goal should be achieved. Zheng claimed not to be worried at all about the negative impacts of reducing the taxes, and the consequences for the city’s living standards and social welfare system.

Guangdong to establish laws to protect sea environment

The Department of Environmental Protection of Guangdong Province says that it has already submitted a draft bill regarding the province’s sea trash dumping to the Guangdong provincial government. According to a report by Macao Daily News, the province has been recently dealing with instances of people dumping trash into the sea. The environmental department claimed that, with respect to the Pearl River estuary, the low-level government is not strictly implementing the province’s environmental protection policies, which allowed local domestic trash to flow into the seas. It also considers that the territory lacks a proper administration of punishments to avoid these incidents.

Six new local faces to serve Zhuhai CPPCC

Fourteen Macau residents started their work as members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) of Zhuhai city. Six out of the 14 are new members of the conference, which is holding a three-day meeting in the neighboring city. Last June, Zhuhai’s CPPCC chairman Qian Fangli was sacked from her position, and has since been subject to investigations over alleged corruption. Until now, her position has been empty. The CPPCC has elected a new chairman for the conference.