The Printing Bureau (IO) noted in a statement last night that the Official Gazette (BO) will only be published online from Saturday, meaning that its printed version will no longer be published starting from New Year’s Day.
The digital version of the gazette published from Saturday will have legal status, the statement noted.
The subscriptions and sales of the printed version of the gazette will therefore be cancelled on Saturday, last night’s statement said.
The government said earlier this year that it had decided to cancel the printed version of the gazette as the number of subscriptions of its printed copies has sharply declined since the establishment of the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) in December 1999.
The cancellation of the printed version of the gazette is regulated by amendments to Law 3/1999 which regulates the government’s promulgation of newly-enacted laws, newly-drafted regulations and other official documents.
The amendment bill, which was passed by the Legislative Assembly (AL) earlier this month, stipulates that the Official Gazette is only published in digital version.
However, according to the amendment bill, the Printing Bureau will have to publish a printed version of the gazette when it is unable to publish a digital version of the gazette due to a malfunction of its IT system.
Once the operation of the bureau’s IT system returns to normal, the bureau will have to upload the affected editions of the gazette onto its website, according to the amendment bill, which will take effect on Saturday.
The amendment bill also cancels the mandatory requirements for all public entities to subscribe to the Official Gazette.
Government officials said earlier this year that nowadays the vast majority of readers check the gazette online instead of reading the printed version. Only around 80 copies of each edition were still subscribed to last year, a sharp decrease from the over 600 copies of each edition shortly after the MSAR establishment, the officials said.
