Macau readies for decade motherland return celebrations. Swine flu effects Macau visitor stats. Shenzhen Stock Exchange inks MOU with Egypt. Guangzhou nuclear energy powers up. One hour Delta in five-years.
Doubling up
Dr. Stanley Ho’s “Double Celebration of National Day and Macau SAR establishment Day” was more than just touting the 60th anniversary of the founding of China and the 10-year return of Macau to the motherland. Held from June 23-25, the festivities were aimed at the Macau Social Services Center, for which Dr. Ho is the Honorary Life President.
Also in attendance was Macau SAR Chief Executive Edmund Ho, Ms. Angela Leong, President of the Macau Social Services Center, and Dr. Ambrose So, the Chairman of the Double Celebration Event Committee.
Apart from an array of Hong Kong pop-stars such as Ms. Joey Yung, the festivities included performances from the Macau hip hop lion dancers and the Macau Chinese orchestra.
The celebrations come at a time when Macau is pulling together to remember its past as it faces the financial crisis and swine flu.
Bird flu effects Macau visitor arrivals
Macau’s Information and Statistics Census Service (DSEC) has announced that swine flu had negatively effected visitor and non-resident arrivals in May 2009. Figures dropped 20.4 percent year-on-year.
For the first five months of 2009, the DSEC report says that there were a total of 3,640,617 visitor arrivals by sea, a 2.5 percent year-on-year decrease for the same period in 2008. Visitors arriving in Macau’s outer harbor for this same period dropped 25 percent to 2,482, 693. However, visitors arriving by sea at the Pac On Ferry Terminal in Taipa soared 405 percent to 1,030, 868.
Arrivals of tourists by land fell 16.4 percent year-on-year for this same period to 4,627,706 — the majority of whom (4,292,081) passed through the Gongbei Border Gate. Air travel arrivals fell 8.2 percent year-on-year to 644,551 for this same period.
Shenzhen Stock Exchange signs MOU with Egypt
Egypt’s EGX has inked a memorandum of understanding with the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. The MOU addresses information sharing, staff training exchanges (especially for the securities markets), research projects and seminars. Other aspects of the cooperation include possible off-shore listings of traded companies and new investment instruments. The MOU was signed by EGX Chairman Mr. Maged Shawky
and Mr. Jean Wu, Deputy Manager of International Relations and Strategic Planning of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. The MOU did not stipulate if the planned October 2009 launch of the NASDAQ-like General Enterprises Market factored into discussions, negotiations or plans.
Guangzhou power
Guangzhou based Dongfang Electric Heavy Machine Co. Ltd. has finished phase two of the construction of the Unit 2 reactor pressure vessel at the Guangdong Ling’ao Nuclear Power Station.
This reactor’s vessel is the first localized million-kilowatt reactor pressure vessel in China — and represents a breakthrough for Chinese nuclear power equipment.
Ling’ao is also one of the few nuclear plants in China that has adopted the so-called, “Improved Chinese Pressurized Water Reactor Technology (CPR1000).” Which means the rate of output can increase 30 percent from phase one to 60 percent in phase two. Although phase two’s physical mantle has been completed, it must sustain tests before going operational sometime in 2010 or 2011, according to Chinese media reports.
Circle of friends
You know that the Delta is getting its act together to construct one colossal conurbation. You know that the inter-city rail link is on the horizon—and that officials have announced that it will make the whole Delta easily circumnavigated by rail in one hour. There’s new news to this, this week. Much like Rome, all rail links will lead to Guangzhou. So, too, will new electronic toll collection booths along the highways. The roads will further be integrated with IC cards for both Delta inter-city bus transport and the inter-city light-rail. Drum roll…All this will be ready in five years, say reports.
