Chui to become Macao chief
Posted by Gavin Smith on 19 Jun 2009 at 10:06
Fernando Chui will automatically become the next chief executive of Macao, the smaller of China’s two special administrative regions after Hong Kong, having secured 95 per cent support from the members of a pro-Beijing “election committee”.
Mr Chui, Macao’s former secretary for social and cultural affairs, told reporters on Tuesday he had obtained 286 nominations from the territory’s 300-member election committee. With 50 nominations required to enter the race, no one else will be able to run against him.
The result will please the Chinese government, which has been unnerved during recent years by what it regards as “political instability” in Macao and Hong Kong.
In 2007 Alan Leong, a pro-democracy barrister, won enough backing to challenge Hong Kong’s incumbent chief executive, Donald Tsang, in a race decided by the city’s own 800-member election committee. Mr Tsang went on to defeat Mr Leong in a landslide.
More worryingly for Beijing, public anger spilt on to Macao’s streets in 2007, reflecting widespread discontent by people who felt left behind by the former Portuguese colony’s casino-led economic expansion.
Discontent was intensified by a corruption case that brought down the territory’s public works secretary.
Like his predecessor, Edmund Ho, Mr Chui is a member of one of the territory’s richest families.
There had been widespread speculation that Ho Chio-meng – Macao’s popular chief prosecutor who rose through the judicial system in neighbouring Guangdong province – might challenge Mr Chui for the post.
Although it has a population of only 550,000, Macao is the world’s largest gaming market, with casino revenues that exceed those of its two largest rivals – Las Vegas and Atlantic City – combined.
Last year, the revenues of Macao’s 31 casinos increased by more than one-third to 108.8bn patacas ($13.6bn).
However, Beijing has successfully acted to reign in Macao’s rampant growth by limiting visa access for Chinese tourists and gamblers. In the first quarter of this year, casino revenues fell by 12.8 per cent against the same period last year.
Macao is the only place in China where casinos are allowed to operate. Its gaming industry was liberalised in 2002, attracting billions of dollars in investments from foreign casino operators including Las Vegas Sands, Wynn Resorts and MGM Mirage.
Mr Chui, to take office in December, will preside over a gaming industry within which competition is intensifying as Las Vegas Sands and MGM Mirage struggle to service their debts.
Rival operators hope those debts could force them to sell some of their coveted Macao operations.
