The Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM) announced in a statement yesterday that it has decided to cancel Macau’s annual six-day period for the selling and letting-off of firecrackers and fireworks at designated areas during the upcoming Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday next month, as the pyrotechnic articles cannot be transported to Macau due to the suspension of operations at Beihai Port in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
The statement also said that the bureau will refund the fees to the winning bidders who had obtained a permit to sell firecrackers and fireworks in the city’s two designated areas for the letting-off of the products during next month’s CNY period.
The Chinese New Year falls on February 12.
The letting-off and selling of firecrackers and fireworks is prohibited in Macau except in the officially designated areas for such activities during the CNY period.
Last year, the government kept the traditional CNY activity of people letting off firecrackers or fireworks in the two designated areas – which took place in late January 2020, amid the first emergence of COVID-19 in Macau a few days before, with the implementation of COVID-19 prevention and control measures in place in the two areas.
Macau confirmed its first COVID-19 case on January 22. The Chinese New Year in 2020 fell on January 25.
Customarily, there are two designated areas for the selling and letting-off of firecrackers and fireworks during the CNY period every year – an area in the Zone B reclamation area near Macau Tower, and the reclamation area in front of Estrada Almirante Marques Esparteiro on the northern waterfront of Taipa.
Beihai Port’s improvement work
Yesterday’s statement said that the winning bidders – who were initially slated to operate firecrackers and fireworks booths in the two areas during the upcoming CNY period – have told the bureau that Beihai Port, which is used by the manufacturers to export firecrackers and fireworks to Macau, is undergoing an improvement project so that the port’s operation has been suspended since New Year’s Day.
The IAM statement pointed out that since 2016 firecrackers and fireworks produced in the mainland must be transported to Macau by sea only, adding that the mainland authorities require that such products can be loaded onto ships only in the ports that have been officially designated to handle such items to ensure safety.
Yesterday’s IAM statement said that due to the suspension of Beihai Port’s operation, the firecrackers and fireworks cannot be transported to Macau in line with the mainland’s official requirements.
The statement said that “after an assessment”, the bureau has decided to cancel the selling and letting-off of firecrackers and fireworks at the two designated areas for this year’s CNY period.
The statement pointed out that the two designated areas were initially slated to open from February 11 (Chinese New Year’s Eve) to the night of February 16 (the fifth day of the Chinese New Year).
The statement pointed out that the bureau held a bidding process last month for eight booths in the Zone B letting-off area and five booths in the Taipa letting-off area. All 13 booths were awarded to the winning bidders at the minimum price of 5,000 patacas each, the statement pointed out.
According to previous IAM statistics, over the past few years several thousand boxes of firecrackers and fireworks were imported by Macau for the annual CNY selling and letting-off period each year.
