{"id":14195,"date":"2024-12-19T20:48:03","date_gmt":"2024-12-19T15:03:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/?p=14195"},"modified":"2024-12-19T20:48:03","modified_gmt":"2024-12-19T15:03:03","slug":"chinas-xi-lauds-macaus-healthy-gambling-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/chinas-xi-lauds-macaus-healthy-gambling-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"China’s Xi lauds Macau’s ‘healthy’ gambling industry"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Chinese President Xi Jinping said Macau saw “new achievements” in economic diversification and the healthy growth of the casino industry under outgoing leader Ho Iat-seng.<\/p>\n

Xi’s remarks came a day before the former Portuguese colony marks the 25th anniversary of its handover to China under a “One Country, Two Systems” framework.<\/p>\n

In 25 years of Chinese rule, Macau has surpassed Las Vegas to be the world’s casino capital by gaming revenue, with its population made rich by Chinese tourist spending.<\/p>\n

But Beijing has for years stressed the need for Macau to diversify its economy.<\/p>\n

Speaking at a lavish banquet Xi said Ho’s administration “united and led Macau’s different sectors to take on challenges with pragmatism”.<\/p>\n

Xi said the city “gained new achievements in appropriate economic diversification” and “the gaming industry has developed in a healthy and orderly manner in accordance with the law”.<\/p>\n

Ho took office in 2019 and much of his tenure was defined by Macau’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, which dealt a heavy blow to the tourist-dependent city.<\/p>\n

Former top judge Sam Hou-fai — who was the sole leadership candidate and chosen by a 400-person committee — will take over as city leader on Friday.<\/p>\n

Xi, who arrived in Macau on Wednesday for a three-day visit, also outlined “three expectations” for Macau’s future.<\/p>\n

Macau must “accurately find its own positioning and plan its future development in a scientific way, and more proactively connect with national development strategies such as the Greater Bay Area,” Xi said.<\/p>\n

The Greater Bay Area is an ambitious economic blueprint to integrate Hong Kong, Macau and nine cities on China’s southern coast, with the goal of overtaking Silicon Valley.<\/p>\n

Xi said he hoped Macau will be “open and inclusive” to attract talent and “dare to reform and innovate”.<\/p>\n

Xi on Thursday visited the Macau University of Science and Technology as well as Hengqin Island, which was partly leased by Beijing to Macau to boost its land supply for non-gaming development.<\/p>\n

Security has been heightened around Macau and roadblocks were set up outside the Macao East Asian Games Dome, the venue of Xi’s speech on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Unlike neighbouring Hong Kong, Macau has not seen large-scale political unrest after it reverted to Chinese rule.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chinese President Xi Jinping said Macau saw “new achievements” in economic diversification and the healthy growth of the casino industry under outgoing leader Ho Iat-seng. Xi’s remarks came a day before the former Portuguese colony marks the 25th anniversary of its handover to China under a “One Country, Two Systems” framework. In 25 years of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11116,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14195"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14195"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14196,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14195\/revisions\/14196"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}