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Category Archives: Macau
Covid-19 | All 29 dance group members and tour guide tested negative – Macau Daily Times
Posted: August 6, 2021 at 10:17 pm
All 29 members of Hou Kong Middle School who engaged in dance-related activities in Xian in late July have tested negative for Covid-19 for the first round of sampling. These students were fellow travelers with the 12-year-old girl who caught the Delta variant on a flight from Zhuhai to Xian on July 19 during the trip.Of those in contact with the girl, 19 members and a mainland tour guide are now in Macau, with 18 of them having tested negative for serology tests. The remaining two members tested positive for serology tests but were diagnosed as normal reaction after vaccination, Leong Iek Hou, coordinator at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention said yesterday.Another 10 members are currently in either the mainland or Hong Kong. They have also tested negative for Covid-19, according to the relevant city governments.The news, announced at the Covid-19 briefing yesterday, came as a slight relief amid the greatest turmoil since Macaus citywide lockdown last year.Ever since a family of four tested positive for coronavirus on Tuesday, local residents and cross-border workers were dashing around town for groceries, for Covid-19 tests, or waiting for a whole night at control points just to go back home.The government earlier identified 72 people and other 328 people as Close Contacts and Secondary Close Contacts with the affected family. All of them also tested negative, director of the Health Bureau (SSM) Alvis Lo confirmed.
Travel Advisory by DSEDJDuring the briefing, a reporter questioned authorities as to whether the Education and Youth Development Bureau (DSEDJ) gave detailed guidelines to local schools regarding education-related outbound trips during the pandemic prior to the emergence of the four cases.In response, a DSEDJ representative said that the bureau issued an appeal to institutions across Macau on June 8, advising them to cancel all outbound trips to medium and high-risk areas in the mainland. However, they are not restricted to travel to other areas in China classified as less risky.Since the cases were reported, the DSEDJ issued a travel advisory to all schools to suspend all activities and outbound trips from August 4 onwards.The DSEDJ also vows to continue to communicate with schools and help raise awareness towards similar activities among all local schools.
Schools HandlingMany locals also doubt whether teachers of Hou Kong Middle School discovered the symptoms of the 12-year-old girl during the trip and, if so, reported the problem to doctors. A proper handling of the situation could have precluded the entire incident from happening.On this matter, Leong confirmed that the girl had not mentioned any details of her health status to teachers, as she thought a slight cough and dry throat during the trip were caused by environmental factors.Authorities called on the public to be considerate and forgiving as she is only a little girl, who is not mature and informative enough to fathom the severe implications of the symptoms.The girl experienced a loss of taste and smell. However, Leong explained that this is a medical concept hard to understand for children. To the girl, the symptoms albeit obvious to many others came across as an increased craving for strong-flavored food.Since the family were found to be positive, hate speech against them has circulated online. Lo urged all locals to stop the condemnations as the girl and her family, who were the victims of this unpredictable pandemic. None of them would have thought the daughter would catch the Delta variant during the trip.
Doctors misconductIt was found that the girls brother, after developing symptoms, went to the Centro Hospitalar Conde de So Janurio to seek emergency medical treatment on July 28, but the doctor did not ask him to undergo a Covid-19 test.In June, SSM made an amendment to the anti-pandemic measure which clearly stipulates that doctors must conduct nucleic acid testing on every person, even those deemed low risks, as long as they have a fever without a known reason.In the preliminary investigation, the doctor in charge did not require the boy to undergo a Covid-19 test, as he had no outbound travel history and had no contact with a confirmed case, which put him under the low-risk group.The authorities yesterday confirmed that the doctor did not follow the required protocols and vowed that they will conduct an in-depth investigation into the case, which is classified as misconduct.Leong also clarified that the girls family went to the Federal Restaurant before their daughter came back to Macau, instead of on July 25 as mentioned earlier.
Health Code GlitchesMedia also questioned why the health code had not changed from green to blue, as the government stated would occur. The colour change would be used as an indicator to show that an individual has still not yet participated in the massive Covid-19 testing.Lo stated that the health code had experienced a glitch yesterday morning. Thus, the technicians thought it was best to stay put and not make new changes to the system to avoid further technical faults.The government also confirmed that the girls parents were fully inoculated with the Sinopharm vaccine.The media also criticized the government that its advice for residents to avoid unnecessary travel is not enough of a deterrent to stop people from traveling during this critical period which in part led to the emergence of these four cases.
According to the Public Security Police (PSP), Macau saw a sharp fall in cross-border people flows on August 3 the first day that the government mandated all people leaving Macau to present proof of a negative Covid-19 test result conducted within 24 hours.The total number of passenger flows stood at 193,700 on August 3, down 39.7% from the previous day.Of all 117,700 inbound arrivals that day, 39,600 were Macau residents, down 32.1% day-to-day. The other 12,900 were tourists, plunging by 46.1%. The remaining 63,500 were bluecard holders, down 16.6% from the previous day.Outbound passengers totaled 76,000. Around 30,500 were local residents, representing a huge drop of 46.8%, day-to-day.
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Covid-19 | All 29 dance group members and tour guide tested negative - Macau Daily Times
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April Was Good to Macau, as Casinos Record Highest Total in More Than a Year – GamblingNews.com
Posted: May 7, 2021 at 4:04 am
It can now be said, with guarded optimism, that Macau is headed in the right direction with its post-COVID-19 recovery. After suffering a year of virtually non-existent revenue, the city has now recorded two consecutive months of improvement, with March and April bringing substantial gains. The latest figures have been released by Macaus Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ), for its Portuguese acronym), and the April win was $1.05 billion. It seems that the trend will continue, as May 1 saw the most arrivals to the city since the pandemic began.
In March, casinos in Macau reported gross gaming revenue (GGR) of $1.04 billion, with Aprils GGR improving on that by about 1.1%. While that improvement isnt significant, its a jump of more than 1,000% over what was seen a year ago when COVID-19 gripped the city. The GGR for last month is the highest amount recorded since the global pandemic began and follows an upward trend that would seem to indicate that things are returning to normal.
There is still a lot of work to be done, as the figure is still 64% lower than it was for the same period in April 2019. Still, Macau has been able to see two consecutive months of GGR that has topped $1 billion, which is a momentous achievement, given the economic damage the city has suffered over the past year. In April 2020, Macau was a virtual ghost town, with its borders closed to almost everyone and local visitation to casinos off-limits.
Its very likely that May will be an even better month, if May 1 is any indication. The first five days of May are May Day Golden Week, which has gotten off to a great start. According to statistics already released, May 1 recorded more than 44,000 arrivals, the highest number since before the pandemic began. It was also the highest recorded for this year, 34,729 from April 17. March had an average of 24,340 a day and Aprils high could represent a huge gain, but the final figures have not yet been released.
Sundays arrivals dipped to 36,000 and yesterdays number fell to 34,000. The city was expecting a daily average of around 40,000, which it hasnt reached, but the results are still positive. Many luxury hotels have been sold out for the first three nights of the long weekend and there were over 100 flights on each of the first two days of Golden Week. Casino operators continue to show more encouragement with the increasingly positive results, propelled by the fact that there have been no new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases in over a year.
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April Was Good to Macau, as Casinos Record Highest Total in More Than a Year - GamblingNews.com
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Chinas criticism of HK legal luminary a warning for lawyers in the two SARs – Macau Daily Times
Posted: at 4:04 am
Paul Harris
The central governments denunciation against the chairman of the Hong Kong Bar Association Paul Harris may be a clear intrusion in the sphere of the legal profession [in Hong Kong], but its impact on Macaus legal community remains uncertain or minimal, local lawyer Srgio de Almeida Correia told the Times.The deep-rooted patriotism of Macaus legal community, which Correia regarded as very obedient and dependent on political power and business tycoons, may prevent professionals in the region from being targeted by the Liaison Office for quite some time.Correias remarks came after the Liaison Office of the Central Peoples Government in the Hong Kong SAR issued astatementon April 25, decrying Paul Harris as an anti-China politician, and warning that his continuing tenure would make the biggest irony to the Bar Association.The fierce criticism by the Liaison Office urging Harris to step down was intended as retaliation against Harris, following his earlier remarks in which he stated that he advocated the right to a peaceful protest. This speech was made after Hong Kongs High Court sentenced 10 activists, including media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, for their roles in the illegal assemblies on August 18 and 31 in 2019.The accusation also pointed up Harris close ties with foreign organizations. Before serving as a chairman at the Bar Association he was a member of the Liberal Democrats in the U.K., and a Councillor for St Margarets Ward, Oxford. He resigned from these two positions before and after he took the post at the Bar Association in Hong Kong.
Srgio de Almeida Correia
In the wake of the Liaison Offices blunt accusation, Harris cleared up the misconception, reaffirming that he is not an anti-China politician, and he firmly supports the Basic Law and One country, two system principle and opposes any violent behavior.He also said he wishes to meet with representatives of the Liaison Office in Hong Kong to clarify these matters in person.Harris case has raised thorny questions about freedom of speech and the rule of law for some lawyers in Hong Kong.Correia echoes this viewpoint, saying that the event again calls into question the margin of autonomy of the legal profession, the rights enshrined in the Basic Law and the principles inherent to the rule of law.The credibility of the Hong Kong and Macau legal systems lies on its independence, on its autonomy vis--vis political power, and it is based in the rule of law, he said.If the courts, the judges and the lawyers are all [subject] to the political power of the government, no matter if it is local or central, and everybody is forced to follow political instructions for reasons of patriotism or something similar, there are no distinctive factors between the two SARs and the mainland legal system, he added. Staff Reporter
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Chinas criticism of HK legal luminary a warning for lawyers in the two SARs - Macau Daily Times
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WHO warns of new Covid wave in Africa – Macau Business
Posted: at 4:04 am
The World Health Organization on Thursday warned of a new wave of Covid-19 infections in Africa due to delayed vaccine supplies, a slow rollout and new variants.
The African bureau of the UN agency said the continent had to catch up with the rest of the world in terms of vaccine rollouts.
The delay in the delivery of vaccine doses from the Serum Institute of India earmarked for Africa, the delay in the deployment of vaccines and the emergence of new variants means that the risk of a new wave of infections remains very high in Africa, it said in a statement.
It added that new variants such as the ones that emerged in India and South Africa could unleash a third wave on the continent.
The tragedy in India does not have to happen here in Africa, but we must all be on the highest possible alert, said regional WHO director Matshidiso Moeti.
While we call for vaccine equity, Africa must also knuckle down and make the best of what we have. We must get all the doses we have into peoples arms.
Some African countries had been exemplary in deploying vaccines, the WHO said, without naming them.
But it added that in spite of this, only just under half of the 37 million doses received in Africa have been administered so far.
Africa now accounts for only one percent of vaccine doses administered globally, the WHO said down from two percent a few weeks ago, as other regions rollouts are progressing much faster.
The first vaccines deliveries to 41 African countries under the Covax scheme began in March but nine countries have so far administered only a quarter of the doses received, while 15 countries have used less than half of their allocations.
The vaccination rate in Africa is the worlds lowest. Globally an average of 150 vaccine doses per 1,000 people have been administered, but in sub-Saharan Africa it is hardly eight doses per 1,000, according to the WHO.
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DFS Group and L’Oral Travel Retail plan beauty innovation drive with joint projects in Hainan and Macau – The Moodie Davitt Report – The Moodie Davitt…
Posted: at 4:04 am
CHINA (HAINAN/MACAU). DFS Group and LOral Travel Retail have announced ambitious plans to accelerate the growth of their beauty business in Hainan and Macau SAR.
In Hainan, LOral Travel Retail will debut later this year at the Times DF x DFS Haikou Mission Hills Duty Free Complex, with leading brands such as Lancme, Kiehls, YSL, Shu Uemura, Biotherm and LOral Paris. In January, Shenzhen Duty Free Group, in partnership with DFS, opened its first downtown store in Hainan.
Shenzhen Duty Free Group and DFS Group recently inaugurated the Haikou Mission Hills Duty Free Complex. With LOral Travel Retail they aim to re-invent a travellers beauty journey
The collaboration will see exceptional brand retail expressions together with a team of professional beauty advisors, as well as re-invent a travellers beauty journey with new tech-and data-driven solutions said the partners. The location will feature an integrated network of devices embedded with digital features to enable conversations with travellers and generate insights to better serve Chinese consumers, they added.
The partners will also create and launch pop-ups, retailtainment and exclusive gifts within DFS network of stores in Macau in the coming months.
YSL Beauty launched its Claim Your Love campaign with make-up shows at T Galleria by DFS, Macau, Shoppes at Four Seasons earlier this month. New retail expressions in spaces curated by Lancme, Armani and Kiehls will follow. Below is an image from the ultra-premium Helena Rubinstein collaboration between LOral Travel Retail and DFS Group in Macau.
Following last months collaboration for a Helena Rubinstein ultra-premium Black Bandage event, YSL Beauty began the Claim Your Love campaign with make-up shows in T Galleria by DFS, Macau, Shoppes at Four Seasons earlier this month. Exclusive retail expressions curated by leading beauty brands such as Lancme, Armani and Kiehls are planned.
Creating a Sense of Place is the Kiehls Loves Macau campaign to welcome travellers back to the region, with limited edition packaging, retailtainment, and travel-relevant products unique to Macau. The campaign will be highlighted by an exclusive Kiehls Loves Macau pop -up at DFS Four Seasons store.
The partners said: This collaboration will act as a key milestone to take travel retail to new heights and further accelerate growth in the strategic destinations of Hainan and Macau SAR.
Shenzhen Duty Free and DFS have outlined grand plans for the Times DF x DFS Haikou Mission Hills Duty Free Complex to become a key Hainan destination as future phases are developed
LOral Travel Retail Worldwide President Vincent Boinay said: Our ambition at LOral is to provide Beauty For All Travellers, therefore we continue to capture growth in the Chinese traveller beauty market. To offer personalised services, products and experiences to the most sophisticated travellers like those visiting Hainan and Macau SAR, better management of data and acceleration on beauty innovation through tech are crucially important. For sure, we feel proud to have partners like DFS who share the same passion and ambition as we do.
DFS Group Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Benjamin Vuchot said: At DFS, it is always our aim to provide our valued customers with exceptional shopping experiences. Through our partnerships with world-leading brands such as LOral Travel Retail, we are able to combine the very best products with exciting and innovative new technologies to surprise and delight our customers in Hainan and Macau at all stages of their journey.
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In US, children return to school — but so do the guns – Macau Business
Posted: at 4:04 am
Students in many US states are just returning to classrooms after months of remote learning due to the coronavirus pandemic but the move back has come with an unfortunate uptick in gun violence.
From the first hours of Thursday, it felt like Groundhog Day at 7:00 am an Army trainee carrying a rifle hijacked a bus full of elementary school students near Fort Jackson, South Carolina for reasons unknown, before letting them go unharmed.
Arrested a short time later, the 23-year-old man was charged with 19 counts of kidnapping, carjacking and other crimes.
Probably one of the scariest calls that we can get in law enforcement is that a school bus has been hijacked with kids on it with someone with a gun. And thats what we had this morning, local sheriff Leon Lott told the ABC station.
Then, on the other side of the country in Idaho, at about 9:00 am a girl in sixth grade meaning she is about 11 or 12 took a gun out of her backpack and started shooting. Two students and a staff member were injured.
A teacher disarmed the girl and she was taken into custody. Her motive remains unknown.
Later in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a middle school was evacuated after a teacher reported seeing a student with a gun. In the end, the offending item turned out to be a mobile phone, but the incident shows how US teachers are on high alert.
Back in South Carolina, a high school student was arrested for bringing a firearm to school. And the day before in the southern state of Alabama, another student was arrested with two guns and a knife.
The incidents are reported by local media, but they do not make national headlines.
Only a deadly shooting spree, like the one at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Florida in February 2018 (17 dead), sparks a shockwave.
No other high income country experiences or tolerates constant school shootings, tweeted Shannon Watts, the founder of the Moms Demand Action movement against gun violence.
More than 248,000 students have been exposed to gun violence in schools since 13 people were killed in the massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999, according to data compiled by The Washington Post.
The figure includes those caught up in the violence, such as witnesses and those forced to evacuate educational institutions when gunfire erupts.
In 2018, 25 school shootings were counted, and 23 more came in 2019.
The Covid-19 crisis that was declared a global pandemic in March 2020 however offered a bit of a respite.
To curb the spread of the virus, most US schools closed their physical doors to students, instead offering remote learning via Zoom and other internet tools. Many are just now starting to reopen.
Nine school shootings were recorded in 2020, and two in the first quarter of 2021.
We worry that gun violence at Americas schools may be even more likely in 2021 than before the pandemic because of a number of exacerbated risk factors for violence, wrote criminal justice professors James Densley and Jillian Peterson in an article published by The Conversation, a non-profit news website.
Those risk factors include a spike in gun sales in recent months and a mental health crisis among young people due to months of virus-related lockdowns, the experts authors of a recent book on the issue wrote in April.
On April 26, a middle school student in Minnesota opened fire in a hallway before being arrested. The 12-year-old boys father later apologized.
The Covid. These kids are getting depressed. They have no friends. They dont know what to do. Theyre sitting on their computers. Its starting to fry their brains, he told the local ABC affiliate KTSP.
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Honduras police unearth 1.5 tons of buried cocaine – Macau Business
Posted: at 4:04 am
Police in Honduras, whose president the United States accuses of being a co-conspirator in drug-trafficking, unearthed 1.5 tons of cocaine buried in the ground in a small village in the countrys north.
They found some 1,450 packets of drugs in 58 sacks buried in three large holes dug with heavy machinery, a police statement said.
The drugs had apparently been brought to Francia, which is near the coast, by sea.
The haul was the result of intelligence work and served to demonstrate the hard work done by the National Police in coordination with other institutions, with the aim of dismantling drug trafficking structures operating in the country, according to the head of the special forces police directorate, Miguel Perez.
So far this year, Honduran police have seized more than eight tons of drugs, said the statement.
President Juan Orlando Hernandez has stepped up the fight against drug cartels even as his brother, Tony, was found guilty in a US court in October 2019 of conspiring to import cocaine into the United States.
In March this year, he was sentenced to live in prison on this and other charges.
During his trial, the US government argued the former Honduran congressman was a large-scale drug trafficker who smuggled more than 185 tons of cocaine into the United States.
Judge P Kevin Castel found Tony Hernandez had acted as an intermediary in providing bribes to politicians, including his president brother and the ruling National Party.
US prosecutors said the president had been a co-conspirator in Tony Hernandezs crimes, though he has not been charged.
Hernandez, who has styled himself as a champion in the fight against drugs, has repeatedly denied allegations of drug trafficking.
In March this year, a New York jury found Geovanny Fuentes Ramirez, an alleged associate of the president, guilty of drug trafficking.
During his trial, US prosecutors said the Honduran leader had helped Fuentes smuggle tons of cocaine into the United States.
President Hernandez accuses the US justice system of giving credibility to drug lords seeking revenge for having been extradited to the United States by his government.
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The Maldives, a honeymoon haven in peril – Macau Business
Posted: at 4:04 am
Famed as an upmarket tourist destination of white beaches and turquoise waters, the atoll nation of the Maldives is troubled by political turmoil, rising sea levels and now the Covid pandemic.
Underscoring the underlying political tensions in the South Asian nation, former president Mohamed Nasheed was seriously wounded in a bomb attack in the capital on Thursday.
The country is a collection of 26 atolls made up of 1,192 tiny islands scattered 800 kilometres (550 miles) across the equator.
The country says it has five percent of the worlds coral reefs.
Only 187 islands are inhabited with the population put at 340,000 in the last census. However, the resident population, including foreign workers, was estimated at around 515,000 in 2020 by the World Bank.
High-end tourism is the principal income earner, directly providing a quarter of gross domestic product (GDP). However, the Covid-19 pandemic devastated the tourism sector and the economy shrank 28 percent last year.
The archipelagos secluded beaches and pristine lagoons drew more than 1.7 million tourists in 2019, but arrivals dropped to 555,000 last year.
It is a prized destination for honeymooners, such as Hollywood stars Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes who visited in 2006 as well as big names in Bollywood.
Maumoon Abdul Gayoom ruled with an iron fist for 30 years until 2008, when he lost the countrys first multi-party polls to human rights activist Nasheed.
Nasheed was forced to resign in a 2012 coup led by mutinous police and troops.
In disputed elections the following year, he was defeated by Gayooms half brother, Abdulla Yameen.
In 2015 Nasheed was sentenced to 13 years in jail on a terrorism charge widely criticised as politically motivated. A year later, in 2016 he was granted prison leave for medical treatment in London.
He sought refuge in Britain and his cause was taken up by high-profile human rights lawyer Amal Clooney.
Nasheed returned after his nominee, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih won the 2018 presidential election dealing shock defeat to Yameen. The following year, he went on to win a parliamentary election and became speaker, the second most powerful position in the country.
Eighty percent of the Maldives is less than a metre (three feet) above sea level, making it one of the countries most threatened by rising sea levels linked to climate warming.
In 2009 Nasheed held a cabinet meeting underwater to raise awareness of the risk, also warning his people could become climate refugees.
Situated along Indian Ocean trading routes and about 650 kilometres southwest of Sri Lanka, the Maldives has been colonised several times.
Once a Buddhist kingdom, it converted to Islam around the 12th century.
Portuguese explorers occupied the main island of Male in the 16th century. The territory then became protectorates of the Dutch and the British before complete independence on 1965.
Sunni Islam today remains the state religion, all other religions being banned.
The Maldives follows a moderate version of Islam while banning alcohol, except in tourist hotels, and homosexuality.
There are fears of radicalisation via websites. The country has banned foreign preachers yet some 300 Maldivians are known to have travelled to Syria to join jihadists at the height of the fighting.
Nasheed had expressed fears of religious extremists taking over the country. Attacks on independent journalists have been blamed on Islamic extremists.
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Pandemic control and economic recovery efforts to continue in the Year of the Ox – CE – Macau Business
Posted: February 12, 2021 at 5:35 am
The Macau SAR government efforts to control the pandemic to recover the local economy, Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng announced in his annual Chinese New Year message.
In the new year, the Macau SAR Government will continue to work hand in hand with all sectors of society to advance in adversity. We will firmly coordinate actions to prevent and control the pandemic and those of economic and social recovery, and make efforts to accelerate the development of adequate diversification of the economy, Ho noted.
Macau society has faced difficulties, united and in solidarity, and the socio-economic situation remains generally stable
The city is preparing to the Year of the Ox after a Year of the Rat marked by the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact in the local economy.
After a steady period of plunging visitor numbers gaming revenue, the local economy has shown signs of recovery, but with community outbreaks in some mainland China provinces prompting authorities to lower expectations for the Lunar New Year holiday period.
Gambling revenue increased by 3 per cent in January from the previous month to some MOP22.1 billionand financial report published by gaming operators for the last quarter of 2020 have so far showed a return to operational profits.
Visitor arrivals surged by 150 per cent from the third quarter to the fourth quarter of 2020, however despite a 30,000 per day average spike in the Christmas and NYE period, visitor arrival numbers are trending at about 20,000 per day, a number set to remain unchanged during the CNY period between February 11 and 17 and with hotel bookings trending at only 30 per cent.
Still, the start of the local vaccination plan on January 9 first for priority groups and later to the general population has brought hopes that as local immunization rates grow, the local economy will be able to gradually recover.
In his CNY message, Ho also thanked all frontline workers, namely health professionals, police officers, firefighters and the public administration workers team, as expressed sincere thanks to all the personalities of the different social sectors and to the residents of Macau for their efforts during last year.
The Year of the Rat says goodbye, taking winter with him, and the Year of the Buffalo comes with Spring. In this happy, peaceful and beautiful time, I want, on behalf of the Government of the Macau Special Administrative Region, to send my best wishes for a good Chinese New Year to all residents, Ho expressed
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CE New Year Message: Accelerate economic diversification to speed post-pandemic recovery – Macau Daily Times
Posted: at 5:35 am
In his annual new year message, welcoming the Year of the Ox, Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng emphasized the need to accelerate Macaus economic diversification for a quicker post-pandemic recovery.
In his message, delivered today [Thursday] at the end of the Year of the Rat, the CE said that, with the help of the Macau community, the government would devote unrelenting effort to epidemic prevention and control, and speed up the task of economic recovery. He added that to achieve such goals, the government would additionally dedicate utmost efforts to accelerating adequate economic diversification, and to enhancing incessantly governance capabilities, to serve the public, while also advancing projects relating to peoples livelihoods.
Ho noted that the past year was arduous, with the Covid-19 pandemic having serious effects globally and locally in terms of the economy and peoples day-to-day lives; a fact that was also reflected in the governments work.
Expressing gratitude for the support from the Central Government, and the collective efforts of the local community, and the frontline workers, Ho remarked that Macau had been able to tackle the pandemic effects in a good manner, maintaining its socio-economic stability. He wished the whole community a joyful, healthy and prosperous Year of the Ox.
Last but not least, the CE extended his gratitude to all those working in the private and public sectors, who will continue to work over the new year holiday period so as to keep all essential services operating during this season.
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