(ECNS) - Macao's casino tycoons were again in the spotlight, as Zhuhai city's Hengqin New Area, one of the three districts covered under Guangdong province's new pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ), officially entered the FTZ era on Thursday, with 37 projects signed or launched, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported on Friday.
Hong Kong-based Shun Tak Holdings Limited, owned by the family of Macao's legendary casino tycoon Stanley Ho Hung-sun, will build a port service complex in Hengqin, which will be made up of office buildings, hotels, commercial facilities and business apartments, the paper said.
According to plans, the project will be finished and put into use in 2018.
Ho's family has long been eyeing Hengqin for investment. In August 2013, when the Hengqin FTZ was still a concept, Shun Tak had already announced the purchase of the plot between Hengqin and Macao, where the upcoming port service project will be located, for 721 million yuan (116.36 million U.S. dollars).
Galaxy Entertainment Group, a Hong Kong-listed Macao casino operator controlled by Hong Kong tycoon Lui Che-woo, also has set its sights on Hengqin. The company will invest about 10 billion yuan to build a holiday resort in the southwest of Hengqin in hopes of turning the island into China's Maldives.
Hengqin, a 106.46-square-kilometer coastal island, is situated in the southern corner of Guangdong's Zhuhai city. The island is no more than 200 meters away from Macao and has been selected as a new area to enhance economic ties with Hong Kong and Macao. It is also included in the Guangdong FTZ, which was officially announced by the Chinese government on Tuesday, together with two other new FTZs to be built in China's northern city of Tianjin and southeastern province of Fujian.
