Hot meeting

A “brief” meeting requested by Secretary for Economy and Finance, Lionel Leung Vai Tak was held in the morning, a source told Business Daily. He was accompanied by Gaming Inspection and Co-ordination Bureau director Manuel Joaquim das Neves.
It took half an hour to make it clear that “some matters should not be [aired] in public”, we were told. Later in the day, a press release posted by the media watchdog bureau, the cabinet of Secretary for Economy and Finance, adopted the tone but conveyed it was not pleased with the criticism widely reported in the “international media” related to the number of gaming tables and possibility of job terminations.
The government is “firm and according to the law, in the policies already defined related to areas such as gaming and labour”, it said, adding the policies “will never be altered lightly”. The cabinet was said to “regret opinions related to those matters”, without, however, directly identifying Steve Wynn.
“The analysis and authorisation of requests related to gaming tables and foreign labour is a legal executive power of the Macau Government”, says the note, adding that the sector should have a “clear and concise knowledge of the matter”.
“The government will continue to fulfil the principle of an annual average growth of no greater than 3 per cent in the next ten years from 2013”, it stated.
Related to the requests to import non-resident workers, the government says it will “continue to analyse, with the utmost rigor, in order to secure employment for resident workers and according to the principle that importation is just a complement of human resources when local workers are not sufficient”.