Lawmaker questions Galaxy's land concession

Lawmaker questions Galaxy's land concession

Lawmaker Au Kam San inquired the government into the justification of granting casino companies large land parcels at very low prices, especially when the financial crisis has crippled Macau's business environment.

The Official Gazette last week consolidated six land parcels occupying about 30,000 square metres near Estrada da Baía de N. Senhora da Esperança on the Cotai Strip, and transferred them from the government public property to the government private property.

In that way a larger land parcel as large as 440,000 square metres was formed and then granted to Galaxy Casino, S.A. as a private company's own asset for its flagship property construction.

According to the lawmaker's interpellation, Macau's gaming industry has been slowing down, but the government's action to grant a gaming company a "massive piece of land" without going through an open tender was "shocking".

At the same time, Au also pointed out that the construction of the Galaxy Macau resort had already started before the land concession was completed.

The mega resort, however, has its opening date postponed, which was originally scheduled for 2008, due to economic impact.
Au said there are only about a few hundreds of workers at the construction site, and with this small number of workers the property "will be unlikely to begin operation even in three years time."

However, the lawmaker said meanwhile the government granted such a large land parcel to the company by exempting a public tender, which he added was "ignorant of the current situation and unbelievable."

Secretary for Transport and Public Works Lau Si Io said last week that there was no “special situations” with the consolidation for the Galaxy Macau project

He also said that the land concession process of Galaxy was "the same" as that of other gaming operators, in which "construction always starts before the concession is completed."

On the other hand, Au criticised the government on how land premium is calculated.

The 440,248 square metres of land granted to Galaxy Casino, S.A. should be worth a market value of at least 30 billion patacas, the lawmaker said.

However, he said that the premium of that land parcel was calculated at a maximum amount of some three billion patacas based on the calculation method revised a year ago.

Au also claimed in the interpellation that among the few hundreds of Galaxy Macau construction workers, only six were locals but were already dismissed at the end of March, whilst those who stayed working were all "imported or illegal workers."

Monday, 06 April 2009
Macau Daily Times