Gov’t discloses info on 16 idle land parcels

The government disclosed information yesterday on the 16 idle land plots that were excluded from the recovery list. With six parcels located in the peninsula and the rest in Taipa, Cotai and Coloane, these plots cover a size of nearly 370,000 square meters in total.
The Secretary for Transport and Public Works, Raimundo do Rosario, told the media after a meeting with the Legislative Assembly’s Follow-up Committee on Land and Public Concession Affairs yesterday that the list of these 16 plots would be released by the Land, Public Works and Transport Bureau (DSSOPT) today, specifying the plot location, size, leaseholder and land premium but not the reasons why they were excluded from government’s retrieval.
Head of the Follow-up Committee, lawmaker Ho Ion Sang, revealed that the government eventually identified that the idle lots’ development delay or lack of utilization was not attributed to the leaseholders. The reasons are rather that “the government couldn’t provide the drawing of urban planning conditions [for the area], delay to reply to the leaseholder’s project proposal, or [the leaseholder] didn’t thoroughly implement administrative formalities for the building project,” he said.
Five of these parcels of land – covering a total of 162,948 square meters – were planned for hotel projects, including a plot to build a theme park in Cotai and an area to build movie facilities at Studio City. Seven plots were intended to build residential, commercial and office buildings respectively, including areas near the Macau Jokey Club. In addition, four plots were for industrial purposes, including a parcel for logistics in the Pac On area and one reserved for a yacht marina in Cotai.  BY