The Sino-Portuguese Joint Liaison Group reached in Lisbon in June an agreement on the continuation of Macau's current casino monopoly franchise until the end of 2001. 
Under the agreement, the casino monopoly franchise contract between the Macau government and the Macau Tourism and Amusement Company (Sociedade de Turismo e Diversões de Macau, STDM), signed 1 1 years ago, will basically remain unchanged, namely its expiry date of December 31, 2001. 
The joint Liaison Group also agreed that STDM's monopoly franchise tax will be raised from 30 per cent to 31.8 per cent of its gross takings. 
Under the agreement, STDM will also pay 50 million patacas to an unemployment fund and 180 million patacas to the new Macau Co-operation and Development Foundation. 
The Foundation, which until the 1999 handover will be headed by the Governor of Macau, will also receive na additional 1.6 per cent of STDM's annual gross takings. 
Meanwhile, the casino monopoly company STDM, which is headed by Stanley Ho, in July published its company results for the first time since its establishment in 1962. 
The 1996 report says that STDM had net assets of 21.5 billion patacas in that year.  The net profit amounted to 4.63 billion patacas.  While the liabilities totalled 4.35 billion patacas, the company's total assets amounted to 25.85 billion patacas. 
The STDM report states that the company's gross income from gaming businesses fell six per cent last year.  

The new state-of-the-art headquarters of Banco Nacional Ultramarino (BNU) in Macau will be officially inaugurated on September 24. 
Alberto Soares, BNU's Director-General in Macau, said the new 18-storey headquarters on Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro would preserve the unique facade of the original BNU Building dating back from 1902. 
Mr Soares stressed that the new BNU Building was meant to become "the focal point for our bank and the city centre of Macau." 
The inauguration of the new BNU headquarter in Macau will coincide with a top-level meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.  The IMF meeting is expected to be attended by several thousand bankers from more than 100 countries and territories. 
Mr Soares also said the new headquarters and renovation of several BNU branch offices in Macau was part of the Bank's ',strategy for the future," apart from expressing BNU's "confidence in the future beyond 1999." 
BNU and the Bank of China share the issuing of the local pataca currency until year 2049.  

MACAU AND OPORTO SIGN TWINNING AGREEMENT MACAU 

The city councils of Macau and Oporto signed a twinning agreement on June 26. 
The accord was signed by Sales Marques, President of Macau's "Leal Senado, and Fernando Gomes, mayor of Oporto city in northern Portugal. 
Under the agreement, the two cities will maintain permanent co-coperation in various areas, namely culture, sports, environmental protection, urban development and economics.  

Macau and the People's Republic of China have agreed to co-operate in disseminating economic information on the Internet. 
The Internet information on Macau and China will mainly cover economics, manufacturing, trade, services and social statistics. 
The information will be disseminated through a computerised information centre, which is a joint venture formed by the Macau Foundation (FM), the State Science and Technology Commission of China (SSTCC) and the International Software Technology Institute of the United Nations University (UNU/IIST) in Macau. 
The joint venture agreement was signed by the three sides in Macau in June and will be ready by the end of 1997.  

Macau's foreign merchandise trade in the first five months this year recorded healthy growth rates. 
However, it also resulted in a trade balance deficit of 563 million patacas, according to the Macau Statistics and Census Department. 
In the first five months last year, Macau recorded a merchandise trade balance deficit of 864 million patacas.  Compared with the same period last year, the deficit fell 34.8 per cent in the first five months this year. 
Macau's export-import ratio improved from 86.2 per cent between January and May last year to 91.8 per cent in the same period this year. 
The total export value in the first five months this year amounted to 6.283 billion patacas, up 16 per cent on the same period last year.  The total import value reached 6.846 billion patacas, up 9 per cent. 
While domestic exports rose 19.6 per cent in the first five months, re-exports fell 0.6 per cent. 84.6 per cent of all exports were domestic exports. 
Textiles and garments, taking up 82.5 per cent of the total export value between January and May, grew 22. 7 per cent.  Non-textile exports fell 8 per cent. 
Of Macau's total export value, 38.9 per cent was shipped to the United States and 35.4 per cent to the European Union, including Portugal. While Macau's exports to the United States rose 14 per cent, those to the European Union grew 35.6 per cent. 
80.2 per cent of Macau's import value originated from the Asia-Pacific region, namely mainland China (up 33 per cent), Taiwan (up 19.3 per cent), Japan (up 2.9 per cent) and Hong Kong (up 0.3 per cent). 
12.8 per cent of Macau's import value originated from the European Union (up 2.8 per cent) and 5.5 per cent from the United States (down 12.7 per cent). 
About half of Macau's imports came from mainland China and Hong Kong in the first five months this year. 

* US1= 8 Patacas