Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming May 2016 6 How will the forthcoming mega-bridge across the Pearl Delta from Hong Kong affect Macau? Steven Ribet investigates. lag “will result in considerable embarrassment for the Hong Kong government,” comments the news service HowardWinnReports. The project’s route splits at its western end, with northern branches that enter Zhuhai directly without going through Macau. That’s just as well. If HMZB had to rely on Macau it might not open until well into the next decade. Macau hasn’t even started work on much of the connecting infrastructure at its end of the bridge. (Hong Kong and Zhuhai, by contrast, will be fully plugged in once HMZB opens.) And even after Macau’s transport links are finished, questions remain about the city’s ability to capitalize on the opportunity the bridge will offer. “You can’t be in a hurry if you want to lay a firm foundation,” says Dr Joey Lao of the Macau Economic Association. “The real benefits of the bridge will be reaped not in our generation but the next.” To look at the big picture, HMZB is part of a long term vision of turning the Pearl River Delta into a “polycentric megacity region.” The big idea of Beijing’s central planners, in other words, is that development in a geographical area is more stable when it integrates several economic centers. The fortunes of a region with only one big city will rise and fall with the cycle of that city. Witness Detroit, the collapse of which pulled down the whole of Michigan state. Growth driven by different The Zhuhai/Macau Boundary Crossing Facilities will mark the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge’s western end. To the left is the smaller gateway island still under reclamation, Zone A. M edia in Hong Kong have been making a fuss recently over delays in the Hong Kong-Macau- Zhuhai Bridge (HMZB). The 48 kilometer, US$15 billion mega-project will allow cars and trucks to drive across the Pearl River Delta after its opening, which has been scheduled for December next year. The latest news is that China will likely finish its assigned task of building the link’s main section on time. But delays in connecting infrastructure on the Hong Kong side will likely push the project’s completion back to 2019. This Cover Story Opportunity? Macau’s