CROWN SELLS MACAU JAPAN LEGALIZES CASINOS TAIWAN STOCK Japan’s parliament passed James Packer will step down a bill legalizing casinos WORKERS as deputy chairman, giving yesterday, paving the way TO GET 2 full control of Melco Crown to for billions of dollars of DAYS OFF Lawrence Ho potential investment A WEEK P6 P9 P10 LABOR FRI.16 Dec 2016 T. 12º/ 18º C H. 45/ 75 % facebook.com/mdtimes + 11,000 MOP 7.50 2706 N.º HKD 9.50 FOUNDER & PUBLISHER Kowie Geldenhuys EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Paulo Coutinho www.macaudailytimes.com.mo “ THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN’ ” WORLD BRIEFS LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY AP PHOTO Heavier penalties for CHINA Police have detained a prominent human rights campaigner for allegedly using ID that wasn’t his own to buy train drug trafficking, use tickets, his lawyer P5 said yesterday. Family and friends of Jiang Tianyong [pictured] last heard from him on Nov. 21 while he was in Changsha city in southern China visiting the wife of a rights lawyer detained in a broad crackdown that began last year. CHINA appears to have installed anti-aircraft and anti-missile weapons on its man-made islands in the strategically vital South China Sea, a U.S. security think tank says, upping the stakes in what many see as a potential Asian powder keg. More on p11 JAPAN-RUSSIA The leaders of Russia and Japan hold talks at a hot springs resort in western Japan on a territorial dispute that has divided their countries for 70 years. For Russian President Vladimir Putin, the summit meeting in Nagato city marks his first official visit to a G-7 country since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014. More on p12 AP PHOTO SOUTH KOREA Liberal opposition politician Moon Jae-in (pictured), a possible presidential contender, says his MGM Cotai’s country should reconsider plans to deploy an advanced U.S. missile defense system to cope exterior façade with North Korean threats, a move Washington is likely to see as disruptive. nears completion P2-3 MDT REPORT More on backpage INSIDE 16.12.2016 fri th Anniversary 2 MACAU 澳聞 WWW.MACAUDAILYTIMES.COM.MO Paulo Barbosa GM Cotai’s cons- truction is at a new stage as the MGM Cotai’s exterior façade nears completion exterior façade Mapproaches final completion. Hunter Clayton, executive vice president of MGM Re- sorts Development, reveals that the podium façade cla- BARBOSA PAULO dding will be completed “wi- thin the next several weeks.” Clayton joined MGM Resor- ts in 2011 where he had been responsible for all aspects of design and construction ma- nagement for gaming resort projects, including MGM Na- tional Harbor, Maryland and MGM Springfield (both in the U.S.) and MGM Cotai. In an exclusive interview with the Times, he gave the final update on this stage of construction: “We’ve wra- pped up the remaining en- closures, all the lighting of the mullions, so we are 100 percent complete enclosing all the boxes. We have been working on this with our cla- dding contractor, easily over the past eighteen months, and it has been a very long and kind of meticulous pro- cess because of the way that the panels are articulated. Basically every single glass module has a triangular pro- truding mullion that has an integrated LED light built wi- Hunter Clayton thin it,” the executive said. “Not only are we installing building from outside it’s an integrated resort, Clayton cau, so we gained inspiration the glass on the structure, but indirect light or a glow from said that MGM Cotai “is a from this architecture [MGM we are having to install the the LED onto the face of the MGM Cotai combination of interior and Macau, where the interview LED fixtures and all the elec- mullion, so it gives a much exterior intricate detailing.” took place], but MGM Cotai trical and the data wires back softer and elegant feel to it.” really wanted “In the works that I have really wanted to celebrate a into the building, so that the With the exterior of the bui- done around the world wi- uniqueness of its own and entire façade can be lit.” lding, also advancing quickly, to celebrate thin MGM, our approach is stand out amongst its nei- One of the special featu- the remaining work to com- a uniqueness always to develop architec- ghbors,” he describes. res of the façade will be the plete the integrated resort is ture that is not necessarily Hunter Clayton views MGM lighting system, characteri- mainly inside the building. of its own themed, but is iconic archi- Macau and MGM Cotai as zed by Clayton as different “It’s final finish, installation, tecture that complements its “properties within the same from most: “We developed furniture, materials on the and stand out community. Within Macau family,” given a similar color it so that the integrated ligh- walls, stone on the floors and it’s such a diverse palate of scheme and other aspects. ts within the fin don’t shine so forth,” the company’s exe- amongst its architecture and such a diffe- But the new integrated resort outward. They actually shine cutive vice president said. neighbors. rent mix of hospitality-inte- will be “much larger” and di- inward to the mullion face it- Asked to describe the main grated resort type of product fferent. “We think that the self, so when you look at the architectonic features of the HUNTER CLAYTON that MGM needed to deliver product that we are offering something that really was there in terms of the interior unique. Obviously we have design (the detailing of it), a sister property within Ma- the jewel box concept that NUNO ASSIS INSTRUMENTAL CONTRACTOR THE EXECUTIVE vice president structural steel, the podium steel of MGM Resorts Development and The Spectacle roof itself. They praises the work of the project’s are still our partners today. We general contractor, China State walk every single day on the site Construction. “They have been between our team and theirs, and very instrumental at helping us they are one of the cornerstones deliver the project. […] Their sub- of our team to deliver the project,” sidiary, China Steel, did all the Clayton told the Times. The Spectacle roof interior www.macaudailytimes.com.mo DIRECTOR AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF_Paulo Coutinho [email protected] A MACAU TIMES PUBLICATIONS LTD PUBLICATION MANAGING EDITOR_Paulo Barbosa [email protected] CONTRIBUTING EDITORS_Eric Sautedé, Leanda Lee, Severo Portela ADMINISTRATOR AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER + 4 Million page views Kowie Geldenhuys [email protected] DESIGN EDITOR_João Jorge Magalhães [email protected] | NEWSROOM AND CONTRIBUTORS_ SECRETARY Denise Lo [email protected] PER MONTH Albano Martins, Annabel Jackson, Daniel Beitler, Emilie Tran, Grace Yu, Ivo Carneiro de Sousa, Jacky I.F. Cheong, ADDRESS Av. da Praia Grande, 599, Edif. Comercial Rodrigues, 12 Floor C, Jenny Lao-Phillips, João Palla Martins, Joseph Cheung, Julie Zhu, Juliet Risdon, Lynzy Valles, Renato Marques, Richard MACAU SAR Telephones: +853 287 160 81/2 Fax: +853 287 160 84 Whitfield, Rodrigo de Matos (cartoonist), Sandra Norte (designer), Viviana Seguí | ASSOCIATE CONTRIBUTORS_ Advertisement [email protected] Thank You! JML Property, MdME Lawyers, PokerStars, Ruan Du Toit Bester | NEWS AGENCIES_ Associated Press, Bloomberg, For subscription and general issues: [email protected] | Printed at Welfare Printing Ltd +11,000 like us on facebook.com/mdtimes Finantial Times, MacauHub, MacauNews, Xinhua | SECRETARY_Yang Dongxiao [email protected] SEND NEWSWORTHY INFORMATION AND PRESS RELEASES TO: [email protected] WEBSITE: WWW.MACAUDAILYTIMES.COM.MO fri 16.12.2016 th Anniversary MACAU’S LEADING NEWSPAPER 澳聞 MACAU 3 we then slowly took away all the secondary supports and it settled into place. The NUNO ASSIS movement on that structu- MGM Cotai’s exterior façade nears completion re once we took all the su- pports away, was less than three millimeters. So it’s a very precise, very strong self- supporting structure. Every NUNO ASSIS load within the structure is actually carried by itself. […] From an engineering and construction viewpoint, it is quite unique.” The re- sult of this engineering feat, designed to extend over the nearby restaurants and re- tail outlets, will be “a ceiling structure that forms a subtle wave in the sky,” according to MGM’s press release. MGM Cotai is a property owned by MGM China Hol- dings Ltd, a venture between Pansy Ho and MGM Resorts International. MGM China The exterior façade of the building announced earlier that the resort will open during the you get from the exterior… structure as long as a soccer second quarter of 2017. The Spectacle roof exterior There are a number of diffe- The remaining field, where the form of the rent special events or expe- works to roof has peaks and valleys riences that you will interact that allow it to support its STANDING OUT ON THE SKYLINE [with] throughout the inte- complete the own weight.” During a con- rior of the building.” versation with the Times this “FROM THE outset we wanted to striking both in daylight and at One of those experiences integrated week, Clayton praised the design a structure that would really night, with lots of dramatic spatial stand out on the skyline,” said John experiences within. The two differ- will be The Spectacle, which construction process of the Bushell, design principal at Kohn ent hotels and an exclusive Mansion MGM describes in a press re- resort are digitally-engineered struc- Pedersen Fox (KPF), the New York all form part of a single distinctive lease issued yesterday as a “a ture: “Once we created all mainly inside and London based firm appointed unified composition,” he added, as meticulously engineered co- the nodes and connected it for MGM Cotai.