MOP 6.00 Closing Editor: Michael Grimes
work starts next year
W
ork on the new border crossing at Ilha Verde business daily will1 start midway through 2015 and should be complete in 2016, it emerged yesterday. The mainland’s official news service quoted an unnamed source from the Zhuhai Port Bureau as saying the immigration hall and passenger walkways would “start construction in the second half of 2015”. The agency added the new checkpoint – once completed – would be open 24 hours per day. The main immigration hall is designed to simplify customs and immigration for travellers by streamlining the work of mainland and Macau officials into a single inspection process. “After the completion of the new border in 2016, it will be first time for the two places to have one inspection together,” the official said. More on page
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Year II
Number 490 Thursday March 6, 2014
Publisher: Paulo A. Azevedo
New border Friday April 19, 2013
Casinos hold key to economic diversity
www.macaubusinessdaily.com
Page 2
Use tech to fight laundering: PwC Page 4
That tricky second term
Another H7N9 case in Hong Kong Page 16
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T
he news that Fernando Chui Sai On would seek a second term as Macau’s Chief Executive had been widely predicted. But Mr Chui will face some tough challenges in that second period, after the leadership in Beijing signalled in the clearest possible terms that it wants to see the
city picking up the pace with economic diversification. Business Daily yesterday asked a selection of Macau’s business leaders and opinion formers what they thought were the main challenges ahead for Mr Chui and for the city.
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Macau, Henqgin in 5-Yr Plan
Zero-fares tours are back
The central government wants Macau to diversify its economy from gaming via the development of Hengqin Island, according to the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission. The chairman of the commission told a press conference in Beijing the body aimed to include the idea in China’s 13th Five-Year Plan. It will cover development for the whole of China between 2016 and 2020, and is currently being drafted.
Travel agencies on the mainland have found a loophole enabling them to get around national regulations that ban package tours with low up-front costs but hefty hidden charges. The return of “zero-fee” tours just months after they were outlawed by the mainland authorities last October has caused most damage to the Macau-based tourist guides, an industry insider says.The new law to curb the practice was only enacted in October.
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%Day
Sands China Ltd
2.08
Tencent Holdings
1.63
Hutchison Whamp
1.47
Cheung Kong Hold
0.81
Swire Pacific Ltd
0.46
Want Want China
-2.08
PetroChina Co Ltd
-2.18
New World Develop
-2.20
Belle International
-2.47
China Unicom
-2.68
Source: Bloomberg
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