Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming May 2016 8 So how will Macau benefit from the HMZB link? A lot will depend on the level of the bridge’s toll fee, and Hong Kong’s willingness to relax its border controls. Hong Kong has of course been less enthusiastic about integration with the Pearl Delta region than the other way around. But if mainland visitors are granted one visa to enter both SARs, Professor Ricardo Siu of Macau University thinks the big bridge will boost multi-destination itineraries. Joey Lao, however, thinks the link will do little or nothing to boost tourism into Macau from southern China. “Visitors coming to Macau from Shenzhen will not use the bridge because they will first have to cross the border into Hong Kong, and that will take too long,” he says. “Instead they will use the Shenzhen-Zhongshan bridge further up the delta.” He is referring to a second bridge approved by Beijing, planned for construction some 32 kilometers north of HMZB. The eight-lane, 51 kilometer link should cost US$4.8 billion and is scheduled to open in 2021. For visitors coming to Macau from Hong Kong island, HMZB will reduce crossing times from the 60 minutes it now takes to ride a jetfoil ferry, to 45 minutes on a bus. Overall journey times might be shorter still if the new trans-delta buses run more frequently than ferries, and getting a coach can also be said to be more pleasant than sitting on a boat. If Hong Kongers begin their journey in the New Territories, the time saved by using the new link should be greater. Nonetheless, the reduction in transit times between Hong Kong and Macau will not be dramatic, and given the Zhuhai/Macau Boundary Crossing Facilities is a good distance further away from visitors’ likely destinations in Macau compared to the ferry terminals, there might be little or even no reduction in transit time at all. This may limit the new link’s ability to bring in more visitors from Hong Kong. HMZB’s biggest effect on Macau, in fact, should come from improved access to Hong Kong International Airport. “The new route from Macau to Hong Kong International Airport will be shorter than the existing route to the airport from Central Hong Kong. This world- class aviation hub will belong to Macau,” enthuses Joey Lao, who envisages a 20 minute coach journey after remote check-in at the Zhuhai/Macau Boundary Crossing Facilities. Today, air passengers flying into Hong Kong can take a ferry from the airport directly to Macau without passing Hong Kong’s border controls – but there are only five sailings each day. The new road link should dramatically increase the frequency of departures, by coach. The big project could thus have a dramatic impact on Macau International Airport, which is small, offers a limited number of destinations and has been criticized as inefficient. Macau’s integrated casino resorts, for instance, may in future decide to fly in all of their of HK$102 billion (US$13.1 billion). This eastern end will comprise a 12 km viaduct that completes HMZB (called the Hong Kong Link Road) and a 150 hectare artificial island at the end of the Link Road called the Hong Kong Boundary Crossing Facilities. Lastly will be the Tuen Mun-Chek Lap Kok Link; another undersea tunnel linking the Hong Kong Boundary Crossing Facilities with the New Territories town of Tuen Mun and, north across the border, Shenzhen at Shekou. In January 2010 a Hong Kong resident challenged the validity of the Boundary Crossing Facilities’ environmental impact assessment in Hong Kong’s courts, halting construction for over a year. Hence the delay on the link’s eastern end. Once HMZB is operational, journey by truck between Hong Kong and Zhuhai should fall from today’s 4½ hours to 40 minutes. That means Hong Kong’s logistics hub at Chek Lap Kok Airport will be the project’s chief beneficiary, handling more high-value, time-sensitive products and components from factories on the Pearl Delta’s western bank. Factories in Shenzhen and Dongguan, meanwhile, will also source more parts from across the water, where land and labor costs are lower, and make more use of Zhuhai’s cheap container port. But Macau’s potential to gain from the increased freight will be limited. Unlike China it has no manufactured or agricultural produce to export. And unlike Hong Kong it has no shipping container port or air-freight logistics hub. The Macau/Zhuhai Boundary Crossing Facilities will in fact be a giant car park, to allow Macau-bound passengers to switch to shuttle buses and public transport once they reach the bridge’s west end. Only a very small number of vehicles coming across will be allowed to continue into the former Portuguese colony. “Macau is a tiny place suffering from traffic jams,” explains Joey Lao. “Vehicles allowed to enter would immediately add to the congestion.” Under construction, the artificial island that forms the western end of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge’s undersea tunnel. Macau’s potential to gain from the increased freight will be limited. Unlike China it has no manufactured or agricultural produce to export. And unlike Hong Kong it has no shipping container port or air-freight logistics hub. Cover Story