Galaxy Entertainment Group (GEG) has announced that Robert Drake will be stepping down from his role as the group’s CFO on Mar.1 to “pursue his personal interests.” In a statement, the company disclosed that Drake will be replaced by the COO of its Japan Development division Ted Chan. Drake has been with GEG for over 15 years. Following his resignation, he will move into a role as a Senior Advisor for the group. GEG vice chairman Francis Lui said Drake has contributed to a number of significant milestones including: navigating the company through the global financial crises and the Covid-19 pandemic, inclusion of GEG as a constituent of the Hang Seng Index, opening Galaxy Macau Phases 1 & 2 and Broadway Macau, and, most recently, the successful issuance of GEG’s new Macau gaming concession.
Visitor arrivals double year on year in January
Visitor arrivals in Macau surged 101.3% on year, albeit from a low base, to 1,397,748 in January. The figure represented a month-on-month rise of 259% which was ascribable to the easing of anti-epidemic measures for entry into Macau and the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday, showed the latest report from the Statistics and Census Service. Overnight visitors and same-day visitors soared by 234.5% and 29.1% year on year to 816,199 and 581,549, respectively. The number of visitors from the mainland increased by 54.5% year on year to 991,641 while visitors from Hong Kong and Taiwan region leapt by 704.3% and 139% year on year to 356,958 and 18,868, respectively.
Hengqin-Macau project selected as the national key R&D program
A project entitled “Research on the Technical System for the Regulation and Evaluation of Mesenchymal Stem Cell Therapy for Major Diseases, Such as Graft-versus-host Disease” with Professor Xu Renhe, associate dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences of the University of Macau (UM) and chief scientist, was selected for funding under the National Key Research and Development Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China. The project is Macau’s first project to be listed in the National Key Research and Development Program. The project is based on an agreement signed between the Hengqin government, UM and Zhuhai Hengqin Imstem Biotechnology in 2016 serving as part of their new efforts to jointly build a biomedical industry incubation center.
