Year I - Number 47 - Tuesday June 5, 2012 Editor-in-chief: Tiago Azevedo Deputy editor-in-chief: José I. Duarte MOP 6.00
Antenna firms drop encrypted channels
Hengqin ‘needs coordination’
Macau remembers Tiananmen
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Four Seasons Apartments
Govt’s ‘no Cotai homes’ policy falling flat T
he government may be bowing to the inevitable if it allows Las Vegas Sands Corp to sell apartments at Four Seasons on Cotai – as part of a settlement in an unconnected lawsuit – sources have told Business Daily. The authorities had no legal grounds under the terms of LVS’s Four Seasons’ land concession to prevent such sales they suggest. Rather, the roadblock was a political one, they add. The city didn’t want to set a precedent that land it had offered cheaply to casino operators – to encourage
them to take the commercial risk of building integrated resorts in a previously untried China market – could also be sold on for additional profit as residential development long after the gaming resort business case was proven. The government was – say the sources – taken by surprise when LVS used its land concession agreement for an apartment hotel at Four Seasons and stretched it to include flat sales – as the company was commercially and legally entitled to try and do. The sources say it’s an interesting
example of Macau’s traditional handshake deal culture bumping up against the ‘fine print’ contractual approach in other places. And it leaves the government with a new political problem. If LVS is allowed to sell apartments on Cotai, it will be difficult to stop other casino operators from doing so – unless the government relies on appealing to their goodwill. It could also lead to local non-gaming companies arguing they too should be given the right to land on Cotai in order to build apartments.
The Legislative Assembly will vote today on the two bills to reform the political system, after a standing committee discussed them for fewer than three hours. Unlike conventional bills, they must receive the approval of at least twothirds of all members, which means 20 votes, if they are to be passed. The three New Macau Association legislators – Au Kam San, Paul Chan Wai Chi and Ng Kuok Cheong – have promised to vote against the government proposals for reform, as has a fourth legislator, José Pereira Coutinho, the president of the Macau Civil Servants’ Association. The New Macau Association has said it intends to unfurl giant banners at the Rua do Campo pedestrian overpass, the Iao Hon garden and near the assembly building to demonstrate its opposition to the government proposals for reform. The bills are likely to be passed, however, and then sent to Chief Executive Fernando Chui Sai On for his assent. After that they would be sent to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress for final approval. The government is proposing to add two directly elected and two indirectly elected seats to the assembly, and to increase the number of members of the committee that elects the chief executive to 400 from 300. V.Q.
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HANG SENG INDEX
More affordable flats than expected
Political reform vote today
www.macaubusinessdaily.com
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Housing Bureau director Tam Kuong Man yesterday revealed that the government’s 19,000-apartments programme for modest-income families would have a ratio of about 10 social flats to nine affordable ones. He expects the supply to be enough for the 14,500 households on the waiting lists. Meanwhile applicants will start choosing their homes at the Seac Pai Van public housing project on June 12.
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More room to grow for budget hotels
June 4
HSI - Movers
A new two-star hotel opened during the weekend, while another one added a further 24 rooms, but budget hotels still account for just 1,400 rooms, far from the 14,000 available in five-star hotels. Despite good performance, budget hotels face strong competition from larger businesses and the challenges of rising rents, government bureaucracy and labour shortages.
Name
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La Scala back and soon: legislators
%Day
POWER ASSETS HOL
0.55
BANK EAST ASIA
-0.19
WANT WANT CHINA
-0.22
HONG KG CHINA GS
-0.22
CLP HLDGS LTD
0.60
HONG KONG EXCHNG
-4.78
CHINA COAL ENE-H
-4.84
CHINA LIFE INS-H
-4.91
PING AN INSURA-H
-5.49
CHINA UNICOM HON
-5.64
Source: Bloomberg
The government should take back all plots given to the developer of La Scala as soon as possible, a few legislators say, due to its links to the corruption scandal involving former secretary Ao Man Long. But a proposal by the pan-democrat legislators to have a Legislative Assembly probe last year’s land grant earned a much cooler response.
2012-6-05
2012-6-06
2012-6-07
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