The current administration of Macau Special Administrative Region (SAR) has every reason to expect a rosy picture in the last year of its term, which started on Saturday.

The year 2004, or the fifth year of the first generation of the Macau SAR government, will witness the actual implementation of the Mainland/Macau Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA), the launch of Macau's first cross-border industrial park, the deepening of the mainland's facilitated individual travel (FIT) policy on Hong Kong and Macau-bounded tours as well as the opening of casinos by two foreign casino operators, which will be the first of such practices in Macau's history.

As the Macau SAR celebrated its fourth anniversary of establishment on Saturday, the region's economic growth for 2004 is tipped to maintain a high growth rate of 9 percent, which was the forecast for 2003, or even higher.

Although the economy experienced an epidemic-inflicted setback in the second quarter this year, it rebounded fast in the third quarter to break a monthly record of a 24.6 percent growth due to a strong increase of income from the gaming and tourist industries during the summer travel season, which rose by 43 percent and 8.6 percent respectively over the corresponding period of last year.

The latest statistics from the Statistics and Census Services showed that tourist arrivals in Macau from the Chinese mainland in the first 11 months soared up 34.2 percent over the same period of last year to 5.06 million, which was largely attributed to the effect of the FIT policy first piloted in south China's Guangdong Province in July, and extended later to Beijing and Shanghai.

Ambrose So, general manager of the Macau Gaming Co, told Xinhua that the mammoth tourist flow to Macau will propel a new take-off of Macau's century-old gaming market, which has a history 84 years older than that of Las Vegas.

The industry rejuvenated last year through a government-run bidding of casino operation licenses reaped 22.4 billion patacas ( US$2.8 billion) in the first 10 months, and is set to contribute close to 10 billion patacas (US$1.1 billion) in tax this year, according to Francis Tam Pak Yuen, secretary for economy and finance last week.

Ambrose So's company, which runs all 12 casinos operating now in Macau will soon face a fierce competition from two foreign rivals, the Las Vegas-based Wynn Resort and a joint-venture headed by the Galaxy Resort and Casino, both of which were new entrants through the bidding. Galaxy unveiled in Macau on Wednesday a 1.1- billion-US-dollar plan for building casinos and hotels in Macau.

Despite the company's pending pressure from foreign participants, So believes that the industry that is entering a new round of growth period can create enough room for the growth.

Looking into the future, So said that the FIT policy has already expanded the mainland's source of tourists to Macau; the feasibility of a cross-sea bridge threading up Hong Kong, Macau and Zhuhai City in Guangdong Province is expected to shorten the distance between Macau and HK's international airport to about half an hour; and CEPA will help create cooperation opportunities between Macau and the mainland.

Bai Zhijian, director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Macau SAR, said that the young Macau SAR government has pinned down a pragmatic policy orientation for Macau, and shown its specialty in carrying out a smooth social and economic transformation, which has made Macau more appealing than ever for foreign investment and cross-border cooperation.

Macau will benefit from a number of state-level projects, which will connect Macau closer with the other competitive parties of Guangdong and Hong Kong in the Pearl River Delta region through the building of convenient transportation and communication networks.

Experts say that in the next few years, over 30 billion patacas (US$3.8 billion) of investment will be pooled on the 26.8 square km of land, which enjoys a high degree of autonomy under China's principle of "one country, two systems".

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