HONGKONG (July 28): MACAU casino tycoon Mr Stanley Ho has a novel idea on how to restore confidence in Hong Kong and Macau: leasing the two enclaves to the United Nations as headquarters for 100 years from July 1, 1997.
He believes his proposal will fully comply with the spirits of the two pacts Beijing signed respectively with London and Lisbon under which Hong Kong will revert to China in 1997 and Macau in 1999.
If it materialised, he said, the two colonies would become a 'Switzerland' in Asia from 1997 - purely commercial and financial centres and symbols of peace.
Such a bold move would also enable Hong Kong and Macau to maintain prosperity and stability both during the transition and after reverting to Chinese rule, said Mr Ho, chairman of the Hong Kong-listed Shun Tak Enterprises and owner of casinos and hotels. Following suggestions to buy land in Australia and to open up part of Scotland, Mr Ho's idea is, so far, the fourth concrete proposal for giving Hong Kong people a way out in light of recent events in China.
Mr Ho's proposal was put forward in a paper which Mr Ho, a Basic Law Consultative Committee member, distributed to the Macau media yesterday. It said the June 4 incident in Beijing had greatly damaged China's economy, upset the Four Modernisation program, struck foreign businessmen's confidence and aggravated the exodus of Hong Kong residents.
Mr Ho noted that Beijing has repeatedly stressed that it would keep its open door policy and would stick to the 'one country, two systems' policy on Hong Kong and Macau.