Macao's development in past decade

MACAO, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) is welcoming its tenth anniversary on Dec. 20. The following are the facts and figures about its economic and social development in the past decade.

With a population of 540,000 and an area of less than 30 square km, Macao is a small city in terms of both natural and human resources. Despite this, Macao has made remarkable progress since its return to the motherland in 1999.

-- In 2000, Macao's economy reported growth after four consecutive years of decline. Its gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 14 percent annually in average from 2000 to 2008.

-- In 2008, the GDP per capita in Macao was 313,091 pataca (39,036 U.S. dollars), 2.8 times that of 1999.

-- The fiscal surplus of Macao SAR government increased from less than 13 billion patacas to 100 billion patacas over the last decade.

-- In 2007, Macao received 27 million visits including students and labors. The figure was 10 million in 2001. In 2008, as the government statistics did not include students and labors any more, the figure stood at 22.93 million, 42 times of its population.

-- The unemployment rate declined steadily from the peak 6.8 percent in 2000 to 3 percent in 2008.

-- The government allowance for a Macao resident to maintain the minimum living standard is 2,640 patacas a month now, more than doubling that in 1999.

-- The Macao SAR government raised the annual subsidy to the elderly, 65 and older, to 5,000 patacas in 2009 from 1,200 patacas in 2005 when it started the program.

-- The life expectancy from 2005 to 2008 averaged 82 years, compared to 77.9 years from 1996 to 1999.

-- In 2009, each permanent resident received 6,000 patacas of government bonus and a health-care coupon worth 500 patacas. Each non-permanent resident received 3,600 patacas.

-- In 2008, Macao's social insurance fund had 250,000 beneficiaries, up from 115,000 in 1999.

-- In the 2007-2008 academic year, Macao became the first region, ahead of Hong Kong, Taiwan and the mainland, to provide 15-year free education program for its residents.

-- The Macao SAR government spent 1.02 billion patacas in providing free education in the 2008-2009 academic year, up from 370 million patacas in the 1999-2000 academic year.