SG IR face 2 more new competitions - STRONG!

[JI_Fled]

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/...-seeks-investors-to-create-casino-resort.html

Taiwan island seeks investors to create casino resort

Taipei - A Taiwan island is seeking investment to build itself into an international casino resort, a newspaper said on Monday. The Penghu county government is seeking 30 billion Taiwan dollars (909 million US dollars) in private investment to help develop massive casino resorts, the Taipei Times quoted the cabinet's Public Construction Commission (PCC) as saying.

The plan for tourist casinos on Penghu - an archipelago with 90 islets about 44 kilometres off Taiwan's west coast - is part of the cabinet's iTaiwan 12 Development Projects, which in Chinese reads as Love Taiwan 12 Development Projects.

The Penghu county government has crafted an investment project to build tourist casinos at two locations in the offshore county.

The Penghu casino and resort project would be the largest programme among the iTaiwan 12 Projects, PCC officials said.

The projects, initiated by President Ma Ying-jeou, will require a total investment of 3.99 trillion Taiwan dollars (122 billion US dollars) over a span of eight years, with the government funding 2.65 trillion Taiwan dollars (8 billion US dollars) and the private sector footing the rest.

The Penghu county government also plans to build a 120-hectare international vacation village.

The vacation village would contain a 2,000-room hotel, a duty- free shopping mall, an international convention center, as well as golf courses and casinos.

Planning for the resort is scheduled to begin in 2009, private investors are to be finalized by February 2010 and construction should kick off in 2011, the paper said.

However, the casino project is pending the revision of the Offshore Islands Development Act in parliament and the outcome of a referendum by Penghu residents. It faces the disapproval of some Penghu residents who frown on gambling, it added.

Copyright, respective author or news agency

 

[JI_Fled]

Budhists protested against Casino.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090112/bs_afp/taiwaneconomygambling_newsmlmmd

Taiwan lifts casino ban

TAIPEI (AFP) – Taiwan's parliament on Monday voted through a controversial bill lifting a decades-old ban on casinos -- despite protests that gambling could lead to a damaging decline in public morality.

The ruling Kuomintang (KMT), who dominate the legislature, pushed through the law at a vote of 71-26 allowing the offshore islands to build casinos only if they are approved by residents in referenda.

"This is one of the political agendas listed on the campaign platform of President Ma Ying-jeou last year," Kuomintang parliamentarian Lin Tsang-min said.

President Ma, who took office in May, must sign the bill before it takes effect.

The Cabinet will set up a committee to work out detailed measures stipulating the governing of casinos, like the number and size of casinos to be licensed and the minimum capital for casinos.

The Kuomintang government said the move would help the poor offshore islands by attracting tourists.

"It would certainly a boost to the offshore islands' competitive edge in tourism and land development," Lin said, referring to Penghu, the island groups located in the middle of the Taiwan Strait which is the most likely venue of the first casinos.

If Penghu inaugurates casinos, it would attract half a million tourist visits each year, generating 100 billion Taiwan dollars (3.0 billion US) worth of revenues in gambling and tourism, according to an evaluation study prepared by Taiwan's top economic planning body Council for Economic Planning and Development.

Casinos and related businesses could create up to 50,000 jobs for Penghu residents, it estimates.

However, approving the bill was not without controversies.

Outside parliament, dozens of demonstrators, many of them Buddhist monks and nuns, braved chilly winds and staged a sit-in protest.

"The bill is sure to pollute the people's minds," a protester said.

The opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ridiculed the Kuomintang government's hope of building Penghu into a gaming hub to compete with the southern Chinese enclave of Macau.

"First is gambling, then come pornography and crimes," DPP legislator Tien Chiu-chin said, adding that "gambling is not likely to solve the economic problems".

Local media speculated that the world's casino giants would pour money into Penghu after they were hammered by the global financial tsunami.

 

[JI_Fled]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=abQwJHyXrWNE

Taiwan Allows Casinos After Repealing Gambling Ban (Update2)
Email | Print | A A A

By Tim Culpan and Janet Ong

Jan. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Taiwan repealed a ban on gambling on its outlying islands after more than 15 years, paving the way for developers such as AMZ Holdings Plc to open casinos and boost the flagging economy.

The bill allowing Kinmen, Matsu and Penghu to legalize casinos passed its final reading in Taiwan’s legislature today, Justin Chou, a lawmaker, said in a phone interview. The government hasn’t decided how many licenses to award, he said.

Taiwan joins Singapore in allowing casinos to boost tourism and lure gamblers from Macau as a global recession cuts into the island’s earnings from exports and slows domestic consumption. The law requires local governments to hold referendums before allowing casinos, while any project must include an integrated tourist resort, Chou said.

“The first draft of this bill was made in 1994, and it took so long because there’s so much debate and so many competing voices,” Chou, a member of the ruling Kuomintang said. “Because Taiwan’s economy is now falling, the belief is that probably these resort projects can help spur the economy.”

Shares of Isle of Man-based AMZ, which plans to build a casino resort on Penghu, climbed 46 percent to 91 pence as of 11:08 a.m. on London’s Alternative Investment Market. AMZ, which has gambling tycoon Larry Woolf as a director, plans to invest as much as $300 million to build a five-star 500-room resort on Penghu in order to win a casino license, Ashley Hines, a director at AMZ, said in a phone interview today.

Regulator, Conditions

AMZ owns 11 hectares of land on Penghu and plans to bid for a license as soon as Taiwan sets up a regulator and issues criteria, Hines said. The company will adjust its plans to meet the conditions and aims to be the first licensee, he said.

“It could help the local economy in the near-term with all the construction and job creation,” said Tony Phoo, an economist at Standard Chartered Bank in Taipei. “In the long- term, it needs to be a well-rounded plan beyond just a casino.”

Taiwan’s economy probably slid into recession in the fourth quarter as exports declined and unemployment rose, the statistics bureau said Nov. 20. The government plans to spend more than NT$480 billion ($14.43 billion) over four years to help spur growth.

Approximately 100 protestors shouted “oppose the casino, protect Penghu,” outside the legislature before today’s session. Members of an alliance of social welfare and religious groups opposed to gambling in Taiwan which organized the rally held signs urging legislators not pass the bill.

Casinos on Taiwan’s main island remain banned with legislators likely to discuss expansion of gambling only after two or three years of successful operation on the outlying islands, Chou said.

“If they can run very well out there, then maybe the lessons can be copied and used on the main island of Taiwan,” he said.

The Cabinet-level Council for Economic Planning and Development will be responsible for finalizing rules for awarding casino licenses with no decision yet made on how many will be allowed or when, he said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Tim Culpan in Taipei at [email protected]; Janet Ong in Taipei at [email protected]

 

[JI_Fled]

http://www.nasdaq.com/aspxcontent/N...000065.htm&&mypage=newsheadlines&title=Taiwan Lawmakers OK Bill For Casino Operations On Outlying Islands



Taiwan Lawmakers OK Bill For Casino Operations On Outlying Islands


TAIPEI -(Dow Jones)- Taiwan's legislature approved Monday a bill that paves the way for casinos to be set up on outlying islands, Jill Wang, a public- relations official at the Council of Economic Planning and Development, said Monday.

A study by the council, Taiwan's economic planning agency that drafted the bill, estimated casinos on outlying islands will help attract 500,000 tourists a year, and generate NT$50 billion in casino revenue and another NT$50 billion in tourism revenue, the Economic Daily News reported Monday.

-By Daniel Ong Kian Hong, Dow Jones Newswires; +8862-2502-2557; daniel.ong@ dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires
01-12-090312ET
Copyright (c) 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

 

[JI_Fled]

Thank President Ma Ying-jeou, he sucked up every bit of PAP GOVT craps including IR. Now the super rich PRCs are heading to Macau and Taiwan to have fun. Not PAP's poor stuck casinos. FINISHED!

 

[tonychat]

Hurry!!!!!

 

[xebay11]

SG IRs not finished but PAP hell need to do a lot of u-turns to try to stay afloat, all the crap about entrance fees, renaming the casninos as IRs and stupid casino-to-resort building plot ratios would have to go out the door, in order for SG casinos to have a whisper of a fighting chance.

 

[SeeFartLoong]

PAP's Ass Luck .....

They deserve it.

 

[meepok kia]

SG IRs not finished but PAP hell need to do a lot of u-turns to try to stay afloat, all the crap about entrance fees, renaming the casninos as IRs and stupid casino-to-resort building plot ratios would have to go out the door, in order for SG casinos to have a whisper of a fighting chance.

They should consider leasing out some IR shop space for some kind of sex shop or strip clubs... or maybe even a legal hash joint??