Cyprus: casino resort to add USD838m to economy yearly

Melco Chairman Lawrence Ho

One of Europe’s biggest casino resorts due to be built in Cyprus should pump USD838 million into the island nation’s economy annually from 2022, the second year of its operation, the country’s president said yesterday.

President Nicos Anastasiades said the figure represents around 4 percent of Cyprus’ economy.

“Our government’s aim is the creation of a complete casino resort that will be paramount in Europe and one of the best in the world,” Anastasiades said at a presentation of the $658 million resort.

The City of Dreams Mediterranean casino resort is forecast to create 4,000 construction jobs, employ another 2,500 permanent staff and bring in an additional 300,000 tourists annually from Europe and elsewhere. It will be built by a consortium made up of Melco Resorts and Entertainment and the Cyprus Phassouri Ltd.

Melco says the resort will be Europe’s largest and will include 136 tables and 1,200 gaming machines, a five-star, 500-room hotel, 11 restaurants and cafes and a convention expo center.

Melco Chairman Lawrence Ho said the Cypriot resort will mirror the company’s other resorts in Macau and the Philippines in architecture, design, and entertainment.

Anastasiades said the casino will enrich Cyprus’ year-round tourism offering and help attract foreign investment to the country, which needed a multibillion-euro rescue from other eurozone countries to avoid bankruptcy back in 2013.

A temporary casino will open up by June in the southern coastal town of Limassol, where the resort will be built. Four other satellite casinos — one for each of Cyprus’ districts — will also start operating by the middle of this year.

The age limit for entry into the casino has been set at 21. AP

Macau, Guangdong sign agreement on nuclear emergency response

Macau and Guangdong have signed an agreement to enhance communication in the event of any incident relating to nuclear power generation.

A statement issued yesterday by the Government Information Bureau stresses that  “the likelihood of any unscheduled events relating to nuclear power occurring adjacent to Macau is extremely low.” However, Macau and Guangdong deem it necessary to establish an ongoing mechanism for emergency cooperation, in order to cope with either any unscheduled event occurring in the nuclear facility at Taishan Prefecture in Guangdong or in nuclear facilities of neighboring cities.

The “Guangdong-Macau Cooperation Consensus in Case of a Guangdong Nuclear Power Plant Emergency” was signed on Monday in Zhuhai. The signing was witnessed by the Secretary for Security, Wong Sio Chak, and the deputy director-general of the National Nuclear Emergency Response Office, Yao Bin, who is also the head of the nuclear emergency and security division under the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense.

Under the agreement, Guangdong is to notify Macau of any unscheduled event – whether classified under an internationally-recognized, seven-level scale, or under the nation’s four-level grading for nuclear emergency – occurring in any functioning nuclear plants located in Guangdong Province.

Guangdong and Macau are to organize, in turn, an annual meeting to review nuclear emergency measures and off-site emergency planning, as well as training sessions relating to technical issues, according to the agreement.

Prior to the signing ceremony, the two sides held a meeting to discuss response plans in the event of nuclear emergency, and a system for bilateral support when such contingency measures are required.