FOUNDER & PUBLISHER Kowie Geldenhuys EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Paulo Coutinho www.macaudailytimes.com.mo FRIDAY T. 23º/ 28º Air Quality Moderate MOP 8.00 3407 “ THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN’ ” N.º 01 Nov 2019 HKD 10.00 THE MONETARY AUTHORITY HAS STOCK EXCHANGE CHIEF CHINA SAID TO OFFER CUT ITS BENCHMARK INTEREST RATE RENDEZVOUS IN MACAU FOR BY 25 BASIS POINTS, FOLLOWING AN SAYS CHINA’S LACK OF TRUMP TRADE DEAL, ACCORDING IDENTICAL DECISION SIX WEEKS AGO TRUST HURT HK EXPERIMENT TO A FOX NEWS REPORT P2 P9 P5 AP PHOTO China Hackers with a history of state- sponsored espionage have intercepted the text messages of thousands of foreigners in a targeted ONE PATACA, campaign that planted eavesdropping software on a telecommunications provider’s servers, a cybersecurity firm said. More on p12 P2 China said last night that reports that a professor THE CHINESE CHARACTER OF THE WORD PATACA ON BANKNOTES ISSUED BY THE BANK OF leading a Beijing-backed TWO SYSTEMS language and culture CHINA RAISES QUESTIONS AT A LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY SPECIALIZED COMMITTEE — AND institute in Belgium was BUZZ ON SOCIAL MEDIA. THE MONETARY AUTHORITY SEES NO PROBLEM involved in spying are untrue. More on p12 AP PHOTO Pakistan A raging fire swept through a train in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab Province yesterday killing 74 people and survivors said afterward it took nearly 20 minutes for the train to stop amid contradictory reports about the condition of the train’s brakes. More on p14 AP PHOTO Japan A fire broke out early yesterday and spread quickly through historic Shuri Castle on Japan’s southern island of Okinawa, nearly destroying the UNESCO World Heritage site. Firefighters battled the blaze for about Financial 12 hours before bringing it under control in the decisions afternoon. are rarely North Korea fired easy, and two projectiles into its eastern sea, an apparent the anxiety resumption of weapons can be tests aimed at ramping up pressure on Washington heightened over a stalemate in nuclear for negotiations, according to officials in South Korea and UK parties spar in election that may millennials Japan. settle Brexit – or not More on backpage P15 page 2 www.macaudailytimes.com.mo MACAU 澳聞 01.11.2019 fri MACAU’S LEADING NEWSPAPER AL committee raises questions on MOP Chinese name in BOC notes ANTHONY LAM was not even an official language of Macau until 1991. Chinese character on bankno- Before 1999, when all laws were Ates issued by the Bank of China, written in Portuguese, the currency Macau Branch has raised concerns would only be referred to as “pata- about the notes being printed diffe- ca.” The Chinese name may have rently from that outlined in the Ba- become ambiguous, as both Pai sic Law, cited minutes of a Legisla- and Yuen mean money. tive Assembly Committee meeting. Nonetheless, Tang pointed out The Committee Following-up that some laws were written in both Public Finance Affairs issued the languages even before 1999. In the- minutes on August 5. The minutes se laws, Ou Mun Pai was used to re- detailed the discussion on budget fer to the currency. execution in 2018 by the Executive The lawyer pointed out that the branch. 20th anniversary commemorati- Item 40 of the minutes was hi- ve banknote used Ou Mun Yuen. ghlighted by social media users Item 40 of the minutes which refers to Article 108 of the Basic Law An Executive Decree was issued in speculating that the issue may in- March, far earlier than the minutes validate the money as legal tender. of the Legislative Committee. The item stresses that the legal ten- nese, which literally means “Ma- to currency or money. The lawyer also cited other laws Prior to the actual issuing of pa- der in Macau, pursuant to the Basic cau currency” in English. Macau lawyer Vítor Tang holds a that refer to the currency as Ou per money, the design and other Law, is 澳門元 (Ou Mun Yuen). In As a constitutional document, similar view. “Considering the issue Mun Pai as examples of the wides- specifications were to be determi- the item, the committee urged the the Basic Law is the foundation of to be a potential breach of the Basic pread use of the term. ned by an Executive Decree. In the government to adopt the correct the Macau legal system. Any law Law may be a bit of an exaggera- The same thing occurred in Hong Executive Decree, the currency is term in the future. that contradicts the Basic Law re- tion,” the lawyer said. Kong. The Hong Kong Basic Law referred to in Chinese as Ou Mun This has given rise to concerns quires revision or nullification. The Basic Law provision may uses Heung Kong Yuen, not Heung Pai, not Ou Mun Yuen. about the legal tender printed by The Monetary Authority of Ma- have been there to ensure the Kong Pai, to refer to the currency. “I don’t think the matter can be the Bank of China, Macau Branch, cao, in response to the Times’ in- smooth transition of power be- However, “Kong Pai” (an abbrevia- raised up to the level of violating the as a different term is used on the quiry on the matter, cited the pro- tween two sovereign states, Tang tion for Hong Kong Dollar in Chine- Basic Law,” Tang reiterated. notes. The term the bank uses is visions in both laws, adding that postulated. se) is printed on the paper money. The legal tender of Macau is not 澳門幣 (Ou Mun Pai), and it is prin- Law No. 1/1999 did not expressly “The exact wording of the Article “So, if it affects the Macau cur- issued by its de-facto central bank, ted on all the banknotes the bank discuss the different terms for the is ‘The Macao Pataca, as the legal rency, it affects the Hong Kong one the Monetary Authority of Macao. issues. currency. tender in the Macao Special Admi- too,” said Tang. It is issued, under the authority’s Legally, pursuant to Article 4 of In response they explained that, nistrative Region, shall continue to Considering the issue from ano- commission, by two commercial the Decree-law No. 7/95/M, the in the Monetary Authority’s unders- circulate,’ which I believe focused ther perspective, Tang thinks this banks: the Bank of China and Ban- legal tender in Macau is called tanding, both Ou Mun Yuen and Ou more on the continuation of the problem may have been caused by co Nacional Ultramarino. The lat- the Macau pataca in Portuguese, Mun Pai are different only in name. currency, instead of what it should something being “lost in transla- ter has never explicitly used either and designated as MOP in the ISO The Authority does not see any dif- be called,” Tang said. tion.” A mere word choice may be of the full Chinese terms on their 4217 list of international currency ference in their nature. “At that time, ensuring no fluc- the root of the issue. banknotes. codes. According to the legislation, Technically, the Authority re- tuation occurred in the financial It is worth pointing out that The Bank of China was also con- the official name in Chinese is Ou marked, the Chinese character 幣 market was prominent,” the lawyer when Macau was under Portugue- tacted for comment, but no res- Mun Pai, as pronounced in Canto- (Pai) is used for general references added. se administration, written Chinese ponse was received by press time. Macau cuts benchmark interest rate for third time this year DANIEL BEITLER in borrowing costs. that the policy rates in Hong the downward pressure on The Hong Kong dollar Kong and Macau “should be the global economy, to whi- HE Monetary Autho- is pegged to the U.S. dollar basically consistent in order ch Hong Kong is not immu- Trity of Macao (AMCM) in a band that ranges be- to maintain the effective ne.” BEITLER DANIEL has cut its benchmark inte- tween HKD7.75 and 7.85 to operation of the linked ex- “Looking ahead, we ex- rest rate by 25 basis points, the U.S. dollar. In turn, the change rate system.” pect there’s still downward following an identical deci- Macau pataca is fixed to the Bloomberg reported that pressure on the U.S. rate,” sion six weeks ago. Hong Kong dollar at an ex- the move is unlikely to have said George Leung, HSBC Yesterday’s lowering of change rate of 1.03. As the much bearing on the local Holdings’ Asia-Pacific ad- the base rate to 2.0% is the Hong Kong dollar is pegged cost of borrowing, as lenders viser, at a separate briefing third cut since the start of to the greenback, both spe- don’t necessarily pass on the held yesterday. “This is likely the year. cial administrative regions rate to their customers. to make the operating en- The quarter-point move essentially import U.S. mo- “It is hard to say whether vironment for banks like follows the lead of the Hong netary policy, although lo- the Hong Kong interbank HSBC more challenging in Kong Monetary Authority cal banks are not obliged rates may follow the U.S. the future, but we hope that (HKMA), which cut its ben- to follow with lower retail rate,” HKMA Chief Executi- it will bring some relief to chmark interest rate yester- costs. ve Eddie Yue said at a brie- our customers and maybe day in response to the U.S. In a statement issued fing yesterday. “However, a little bit of sunshine to the Federal Reserve’s reduction yesterday, the AMCM noted the U.S.