Abstract
Macao’s gambling industry would not prosper without patrons from outside Macao’s borders. This was the case not only in the past, but remains true in the present and will remain true in the future. The attractiveness and competitiveness of Macao’s gambling industry not only depends on Macao’s gambling products, promotion strategy, transportation networks, and so on, but also on the gambling policies of its neighbours. To be specific, if gambling were to be made lawful in a close neighbour, for example Hong Kong or Guangdong province, Macao could suffer a tremendous decline in business. Since the policies of its neighbours are beyond Macao’s control, Macao’s top government officials must always keep in mind how to maintain a harmonious relationship with all of them—and must convince its neighbours, as well as the Beijing government, that it is in their interests not to make gambling lawful within their boundaries.
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Notes
- 1.
The term greater China economy frequently refers to Singapore, Macao, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and mainland China, as the majority of the population in these societies are Chinese. However, in this book, we adopt a narrower definition and only include the latter four economies.
- 2.
In 2001, the DSEC began to release statistics on FDI.
- 3.
The Pan-Pearl River Delta region is comprised of nine provinces/regions in the Pearl River Delta in southern China, namely Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangxi, Hainan, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, and the two SARs of Macao and Hong Kong, widely known as “9 + 2”. The region accounts for 20 % of the total area of China and represents one-third of the country’s population. The signatories to the agreement have pledged to cooperate in ten major areas, namely infrastructure; enterprise and investment; information development; tourism; commerce and trade; agriculture; labour; science, education and culture; environmental protection; and health and disease prevention. For details of this and the following agreements, see the web page of the Macao Economic Services (Direcção dos Serviços de Economia) and Macao SARG Portal (Portal do Governo da RAE de Macau).
- 4.
This Outline stipulates that Macao’s status is that of a global centre of tourism and recreation and identifies the following major foci of regional cooperation for Macao: the development of modern service industries and advanced manufacturing industries; the construction of integrated transportation infrastructure; the convergence of urban planning, information networks, energy base networks, and urban water supply; the deepening of CEPA; and the building of a community with a high quality of life.
- 5.
This transportation system will also be connected to China’s high-speed railway system, which will greatly improve Macao’s accessibility to inhabitants of other parts of the country.
- 6.
Before the declaration of this policy, on 27 June 2009 a one square kilometre piece of land in Hengqin had been assigned as the site for University of Macau, which would fall under the administration of the Macao SAR government. Clearly, the central government sees the development of Hengqin as a “win-win” policy that will help Macao enlarge its foundation for sustainable growth and also speed up the development of Hengqin (Macao Daily News 28 June 2009).
- 7.
The evolution of the EU from a divided and confrontational Europe after WWII, to a common market with limited membership and cooperation, and then to the European Community with a larger membership and vibrant trading relationships, and finally to the EU sharing common economic advancement through the use of a single currency (the euro), is a good example. On the way to achieving the EU, although the prospects of some sectors of the domestic economy improved, others were crowded out, which inevitably led to the restructuring of the labour market. As most EU members felt that the benefits generated from membership would largely outweigh the costs (economic and socio-political), they agreed to come to a compromise (specifically, to share both good and bad times) and unanimously reached an agreement to form a “united Europe” like the US (Healey 1995; Mattli 1999). To a certain extent, the example of the EU inspired the Chinese government to pursue a strategic policy of regional integration involving Macao, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and mainland China by forming the greater China economy to promote social development and cultural exchanges in addition to economic cooperation (Cheung et al. 2007; Zheng 2012).
- 8.
In 2011, Hong Kong received 28.1 million arrivals from mainland China (Tourism Commission 2012). Despite all of the policy support received from the central government, Hong Kong residents have been stridently demanding that the local government curb birth tourism by mainlanders (37.4 % of all babies born in Hong Kong were the children of mainland couples (Census and Statistic Department 2012, p. 35) and automatically have the same rights as local citizens), protesting against luxury stores (like Dolce and Gabbana) for giving preferential treatment to mainlanders, publicly insulting tourists from mainland China as uncouth and unhygienic, accusing them of being “locusts” who buy up daily necessities (such as infant milk powder) (BBC News 1 February 2011, 8 February 2012), push up property prices, and so on.
- 9.
For example, in our 2009 survey, only 13.2 % expressed interest in politics, in contrast to 49.5 % who reported otherwise. Furthermore, according to our 2009 survey and the 2008 AsiaBarometer surveys led by Professor Takashi Inoguchi, the proportion of Macao respondents who agreed with the statement “generally speaking, people like me don’t have the power to influence government policy or actions” amounted to 60.6 %, as compared with 41.7 % in Japan, 43.9 % in the US, and 58.5 % in mainland China.
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Zheng, V., Wan, Ps. (2014). National/Regional Integration and Local Development. In: Gambling Dynamism. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40749-9_7
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