Macao establishes panda fund
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The government of Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) has decided to establish a panda fund that was aimed at providing financial assistance to local education, research and projects related to the preservation of pandas, according to the SAR's Official Gazette published on Monday.
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A pair of giant pandas, "Kai Kai" and "Xin Xin", which were given by China's central government as a gift to the Macao SAR, have been delivered to Macao from Chengdu earlier this month.
According to the Official Gazette, the fund will be supervised by the chief executive of the SAR and run by an executive council consisting of officials from various departments of the SAR governments.
The resources of the fund come from the SAR government, ticket and souvenir sales at the panda pavilion, donations of various sorts and other incomes, the Official Gazette also said.
To provide a comfortable habitat for the two pandas, the SAR government has splashed out some 90 million patacas (11.4 million U.S. dollars) in building the panda pavilion, which covers an area of 3,000 square meters and has various facilities that can provide feeding and medical services to the two pandas.
The price of the ticket to the panda pavilion, which was expected to open at the end of next month, will be set at no more than 50 patacas (6.3 dollars), said Florinda da Rosa Silva Chan, the SAR's secretary for Administration and Justice, on a previous occasion.
The central government's decision of giving a pair of pandas as a gift to Macao was announced by Chinese President Hu Jintao during his inspection visit to the SAR in December 2009.
