Wall Street Journal – Macau gambling company Galaxy Entertainment Group said Wednesday that it recently signed a framework agreement to build a 10 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) resort on a nearby island China hopes to transform into a thriving city at the heart of the Pearl River Delta.
Unlike Galaxy’s megaresorts in Macau, which has ballooned into a $45 billion gambling market, this project wouldn’t have a casino. The rationale for building the resort, the first such project set to be built by one of Macau’s six casino operators, is to complement Galaxy’s business in the territory, differentiate it from competitors and help develop Macau into a global tourism center, the company said.
The project could also score the company political points with China, which has embarked on an ambitious plan to turn sleepy Hengqin Island, located across a narrow waterway from Macau, into a diversified hub to augment its neighbor, the world’s casino capital.
In 2005, U.S. casino company Las Vegas Sands Corp. unveiled a plan to invest more than $1 billion in a new nongambling convention center, hotel, and retail complex in Hengqin, but it never materialized.
Hengqin’s future was unclear until 2009 when Xi Jinping, then vice president of China, said the central government had decided to develop the island, which is three times the size of Macau and located at the crossroads of that city, Guangdong and Hong Kong. Later that year, China approved a plan to build the University of Macau’s new campus, a $1.3 billion pilot project, on Hengqin.
