The Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) recorded 9,786 cases of crime last year, a decrease of 1.4 percent from 2003.

Macao Secretary for Security Cheong Kuok Va said at a press conference on Monday that most types of crime in the region went down, apart for cases of counterfeit money and drug trafficking, which showed a significant rise.

He said that the growing number of individual travelers from the mainland had had "no serious impact" on the city's public security situation.

He pointed out that only seven in every 100,000 individual visitors had violated laws during their stay there in 2004, when Macao logged 3.5 million of them from the mainland.

Cheong said the SAR's police forces would reinforce the fight against theft, which would otherwise taint its image with tourists.

The department said it would continue to strengthen cross-border cooperation with counterparts in neighboring Guangdong Province and Hong Kong SAR to counter illegal immigration, drug trafficking and illegal employment.

The crime rate in Macao has seen a sustained downturn since it returned to the motherland in 1999. Prior to that, gangland violence used to affect the gaming industry, blemishing its international reputation in the 1990s. Crimes involving gang violence have been almost eradicated in recent years with the strong support of central government.

(Xinhua News Agency February 8, 2005)