Macau growth 'comes at a price'
22nd January, 2008
The world's busiest casino town is growing at such a rapid pace that its local economy is coming under strain, the Chicago Tribune has reported.
Macau is one of China's two special administrative regions - the other being Hong Kong - and as such enjoy more liberal governance over practices deemed by Beijing to be immoral.
This has allowed the semiautonomous province to thrive into the world's single busiest casino town, surpassing even Las Vegas in terms of gaming revenue. But with tourism quadrupling in a decade, the strain on local businesses has reportedly become unbearable.
"I think it's become overwhelming," said casino expert David Green of PricewaterhouseCoopers in an interview with the Tribune. "The infrastructure isn't really cut out to deal with that."
Another local called the annual influx of 27 million people to the territory "crazy". He reminisced about life before the lure of casino games, saying: "We used to have this sort of Mediterranean, laid-back quality of life [in Macau]."
Rising rents and a labour shortage are also hurting some local businesses, but with revenue jumping an incredible 46 per cent in 2007 Chinese officials insists the short-term difficulties are a price worth paying.
