Living up to the family legacy

Pansy Ho Chiu-king, head of conglomerate Shun Tak, tells Sophie He Macao and HK have now been bestowed with the golden fortuity to be the cat's whiskers by riding on the Chinese mainland's economic miracle.

Pansy Ho Chiu-king - one of the most notable scions born into the family of Macao's "king of gambling" Stanley Ho Hung-sun - professes she's not a gifted entrepreneur, but sporting the business acumen of her renowned father has helped make all the difference.

Many would agree she's already the epitome in the local business domain, sitting at the helm of her own institution that she had relentlessly put together - MGM China Holdings Ltd which she co-chairs with US resorts-and-casino titan James Murren - and heading up her family's flagship Shun Tak Holdings Ltd as group executive chairman.

The worldly 54-year-old heiress acquiesces that gaming is not everything to Macao - a city that has gone to great lengths in the past few years vying to recast itself as a tourist wonderland, where East would continue to meet West.

She advocates Hong Kong and Macao standing together as one to rejuvenate the travel sector by grabbing the unprecedented opportunities presented by two of the Chinese mainland's most ambitious economic undertakings to date - the Belt and Road Initiative and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area plan.

"I think this is a significant historic moment - we're celebrating the 20th anniversary of China resuming the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong. Two decades of collaboration between the Chinese mainland and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and you can see in concrete terms how closely we've grown together," Ho tells China Daily.

Hong Kong, she points out, clearly has a big role to play in the Greater Bay Area with a host of new infrastructure projects coming on stream, notably, the mega Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge which is due to go into service next year.

Shun Tak Holdings itself hasn't missed the boat, capitalizing on the region's exponential growth over the past decade, spurred by Hong Kong's return to the country, Ho says, adding the group has been putting new strategic projects in place in major gateway cities on the mainland, including Beijing, Shanghai and Zhuhai's Hengqin island, which are new areas for development, while continuing to bolster its position in Hong Kong and Macao.

Looking beyond HK

"So, we're putting in place a robust program and, lately, we've also been looking beyond Hong Kong and the mainland. We've just bought a site in Singapore for a commercial project, housing one of our own brand hotels."

"Along with the Belt and Road Initiative, we'll continue to seek opportunities in the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries and Europe," she says.

For Hong Kong itself, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge would give rise to new integrated recreation and entertainment facilities in a commercial district north of the airport, warranting new infrastructure and facilities, all of which will enhance Hong Kong's tourism infrastructure.

"We'll be better linked to other parts of Guangdong province, which is what we call a 'one-hour radius habitat'. We're talking about the catchment of about 100 million people in our living circle, not to mention the third runway coming on within the next three or four years, which will add capacity to Hong Kong as an international city," says Ho.

But, she warns that when people look at these infrastructure projects, they may still tend to think of "my end" or so-called ownership of this particular facility - they rarely think of the opportunities if each other's resources can be combined. "The whole point of any bridge or any road is always about two-way flow - how both sides can contribute to reap the fruits of labor in the end."

Combining resources

Ho stresses it's inexorable for Hong Kong to work with Macao, whereby the two cities should not defuse their resources - Macao can do what Hong Kong can't due to the lack of certain facilities, while Hong Kong has plenty of momentum that can be created, and it has the population to support it. So, their advantages should be combined. "We need to work out the mechanics, the concrete measures," she says, adding she sees herself being in the right spot to promote such cooperation between both cities, as she has businesses and the exposure required and exactly the same passion to help both places benefit, not at each other's expense but rather to build true collaboration.

So, in the long run, Hong Kong and Macao should help each other and work together to promote the region rather than just one specific location, or one specific entertainment destination. Together, they'll become a compelling story, says Ho.

She notes that Hong Kong is trying to focus more on youth activities, sports, recreation and arts to attract tourists, and Hong Kong could well become Asia's next arts center.

As for Macao, it has embarked on a new phase of development, led by the development of non-gaming components as it wants to boost tourism from different perspectives.

Ho herself has been actively promoting Macao's cultural tourism, with MGM having set up a major permanent art collection called the Chairman's Collection which will be hosted at MGM Cotai. "The Chairman's Collection is another of our initiatives used for organizing one or two major arts events a year. We don't get to keep that in our property, so many of visitors have failed to see a particular exhibition. It would be nice we can then at least have our own collection and, starting with that, we can now work on a permanent basis of life art."

Contact the writer at

sophiehe@chinadailyhk.com

(HK Edition 06/30/2017 page7)