Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) has confirmed to Inside Asian Gaming that it has the power to change the investment plans of the city’s concessionaires as it sees fit and taking into account what it deems to be socio-economic development needs.
And while concessionaires have already submitted their plans for this year’s investment programs, those plans must now fit in with the government’s own five-year plan, unveiled earlier this month.
Macau’s six concessionaires all submitted their 2023 plans in March, with Chief Executive Ho Iat-seng stating at the time, “The government will make a judgment based on their investment plans and put them into the government’s ‘1+4’ multi-industry development plan.”
The details of concessionaire plans have not been made public although the government announced its multi-industry development plan on 4 August, titled, “Development plan for the appropriate diversification of the economy (2024 – 2028)”. This plan includes a number of areas related to gaming operators, including some infrastructure projects and non-gaming elements in Macau.
An industry representative, who asked not to be named, told IAG that the five-year plan had not yet been finalized when concessionaires submitted their proposals in March, and that the government had made a number of adjustments to those proposals, in consultation with the concessionaires, in the months since.
“The [gaming concessionaires’] investment plans need to be in line with the government’s new five-year plan,” the source said. “This new five-year plan shows that most of the government’s development plans for the next five years are related to gaming concessionaires, including those in the areas of high technology and major healthcare.”
The “Development plan for the appropriate diversification of the economy (2024 – 2028)” proposes a “1+4” strategy for the development of multiple industries, including integrated tourism and leisure, traditional Chinese medicine and comprehensive health, modern financial services, high-tech, MICE, and culture and sports.
In reply to inquiries from IAG, the DICJ said, “The grantee company has to submit to the SAR Government every year the implementation plan of the next year’s investment plan, and before the SAR Government approves the plan, the Government can adjust the investment project content, investment amount and implementation time in accordance with the needs of the socio-economic development in consultation with the concessionaires. As for the specific project implementation plans of the investment plans of the concessionaires this year, they have already been submitted.”
None of Macau’s concessionaires responded to IAG’s inquiries around the contents of their investment proposals.
It has previously been reported that the Macau government was not satisfied with the investment plans of the concessionaires. Speaking with analysts during Melco’s 2Q23 earnings call, Chairman and CEO Lawrence Ho revealed there were “a lot of negotiations” continuing with the government in the wake of last year’s re-tendering process, which saw all six concessionaires submit detailed investment proposals in winning new 10-year gaming concessions.
“What we’re seeing now is that there is a lot of reporting on the operators’ part – monthly reporting, quarterly reporting – [and therefore] a lot of negotiations and discussions around [what we are planning to do],” Ho said.
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