Year I - Number 75 Friday July 13, 2012 Editor-in-chief: Tiago Azevedo Deputy editor-in-chief: José I. Duarte MOP 6.00
www.macaubusinessdaily.com
New HK leader’s handpicked aide arrested Top Hong Kong officials allegedly bought flats in the same building then leased them to each other while collecting civil service rent allowances, claims Apple Daily. One, Mak Chai Kwong, has been arrested for corruption – only a fortnight after being named as development secretary by Leung Chun Ying, Hong Kong’s new chief executive. Page 16
Appreciate, accumulate
Savers want more yuan bank products C
hina’s yuan has appreciated by more than 30 percent against the pataca since 2005, when the mainland stopped fixing the exchange rate and let the currency float within a fairly tight band. The first yuan certificates of deposit first issued here last year by Bank of China were nearly 2.4 times oversubscribed. And by the end of 2011 there was 41.75 billion yuan deposited in Macau banks. But there are few other yuan-denominated savings products currently in the market. It means the ones that do exist are massively oversubscribed. “There should be more yuan banking products in the territory so that residents
can take advantage of the [appreciation] trend,” says Joey Lao Chi Ngai, chairman of the Macau Association of Economic Sciences. He believes Macau is in a good position to take advantage of the internationalisation of China’s currency. Since 2008 China has signed a series of bilateral agreements with other countries to settle trade in yuan, paving the way for the currency to be more widely used. Mr Lao says that because Macau is a small market, it should cooperate with the mainland. “Macau can also act as a yuan settlement centre for businesses from Portuguese-speaking countries,” he said. More on page 3
‘Show your books’ pan-dems tell associations
HANG SENG INDEX 19400
Political reform group New Macau Association is urging publicly funded community associations to publish their accounts. A law in the years of the Portuguese administration required groups to do so if their subsidy exceeded an amount set by the governor of the day. But that statute has not been enforced for years, says Jason Chao Teng Hei of New Macau Association.
19350 19300 19250 19200
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19150 19100 19050 19000
Control freak tendency feared by investors
July 12
Nervous investors are seeking any intelligence they can find on possible political risks to Macau gaming, several analysts tell Business Daily. They say backers worry what China gives in terms of relatively open access to Macau for its citizens and their money, China can also take away. Not everyone in the financial community is convinced that China’s macroeconomics alone account for the VIP revenue slowdown.
Airline pays passengers
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What should have been short hops by ‘plane from Taiwan to Macau turned into two cases of passenger stranding that cost Air Macau NT$220,000 (58,695 patacas) in customer compenAny plans to increase subsidies offered to public bus companies sation alone. should future be discussed in the Legislative Assembly say Two AirinMacau flights from first Taoyuan Macau’s influential community associations. They welcomed the in Taiwan to Macau were delayed government’s suggestion that an already proposed 23 percent subsidy on Saturday – one for six hours berise should performance-linked, but say there’s nothing in the bus cause the be airline did not have pilots firm contracts spelling out what those performance targets should be. to fly the plane.
Performance guide needed for bus firms
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HSI - Movers Name
%Day
CHINA PETROLEU-H
2.29
CHINA COAL ENE-H
0.00
ESPRIT HLDGS
-0.21
SINO LAND CO
-0.32
CLP HLDGS LTD
-0.38
TINGYI HLDG CO
-3.37
ALUMINUM CORP-H
-3.47
CHINA CONST BA-H
-3.65
CHINA UNICOM HON
-3.76
BANK OF COMMUN-H
-3.82
Source: Bloomberg
2012-7-13
2012-7-14
2012-7-15
27˚ 32˚
27˚ 31˚
27˚ 31˚