Macau

Background

Colonized by the Portuguese in the 16th century, Macau was the first European settlement in the Far East. Pursuant to an agreement signed by China and Portugal on 13 April 1987, Macau became the Macau Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People's Republic of China on 20 December 1999. In this agreement, China promised that, under its "one country, two systems" formula, China's socialist economic system would not be practiced in Macau, and that Macau would enjoy a high degree of autonomy in all matters except foreign and defense affairs.

Macau's economy is based primarily on tourism, specifically casino gambling. Its economy slowed dramatically in 2009 as a result of the global economic slowdown, but strong growth resumed in 2010, largely on the back of strong tourism and gaming sectors. In 2010, Macau’s economy grew at 17.2%, 31.5%, and 27.1% in the first, second, and third quarters, respectively. After opening up its locally-controlled casino industry to foreign competition in 2001, the territory attracted tens of billions of dollars in foreign investment, transforming Macau into one of the world's largest gaming center. Macau's gaming and tourism businesses were fueled by China's decision to relax travel restrictions on Chinese citizens wishing to visit Macau. By 2006, Macau's gaming revenue surpassed that of the Las Vegas strip, and gaming-related taxes accounted for more than 70% of total government revenue. In 2008, Macau introduced measures to cool the rapidly developing sector. This city of nearly 552,300 hosted nearly 25 million visitors in 2010. Almost 53% came from mainland China. Macau's traditional manufacturing industry has virtually disappeared since the termination of the Multi-Fiber Agreement in 2005. In 2010, total exports were less than US$900 million, while gaming receipts were almost US$24 billion, a 58% increase over 2009.

The Macau government plans to tighten control over the opening of new casinos and strengthen supervision of local casino operations in 2011 and has introduced measures to diversify the economy. The Closer Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) between Macau and mainland China that came into effect on 1 January 2004 offers Macau-made products tariff-free access to the mainland; nevertheless, China is Macau's second largest goods export market, behind Hong Kong, and followed by the United States.

Holidays

Ps: These festivals' date(*)given above are approximations which are subject to change every new year.

Phone Codes

Country Code: 853
Outgoing International Code: 00

Resources

Market Research

Macau Special Administrative Region
Official website of Macau administration providing a wealth of information on government structure, geographic and demographic facts, statistics, maps and traveling.

Macau Chamber of Commerce
Organization of local Chinese commercial organizations, Chinese firms and businessmen introducing local industrial and commercial associations, taxation in Macau, procedure of setting up a company and other useful information.

World Trade Center Macau
International marketing arm of the local businessmen providing vital links that connect local individual and companies with international opportunities; website provides general introduction to Macau, trade leads, business database and useful links to local business.

CIA - The World Factbook - Macau
This website indicates a wide range of detail information about Macau by introducing under 8 different fields as its geography, people, government, economy, communications, transportation, military, transnational issues.

About Macau
There is available to find out Macau general outlook on the issues of its social and business profile, passport/visa, money, accommodation, government, duty free, health and so forth.