Mainland Chinese authorities should cut the red tape for Macau and foreign firms’ land registration processes for setting up businesses in Hengqin, a current obstacle that affects the development efficiency of their projects on the island, National People’s Congress (NPC) delegate from Macau and local businessman Lao Ngai Leong has told Business Daily. Under Hengqin’s regulations, foreign firms seeking to establish business projects on the island – including those from Macau and Hong Kong – have to complete a registration process for the land parcels that they are acquiring before paying the land premium. “Completing this registration process could take more than a month. This not only delays our payment for the land premium but it’s also an issue that drags down efficiency in developing projects,” Mr. Lao said during a phone interview. Mr. Lao, a member of the city’s NPC delegates, is now visiting the newly established Guangdong Free Trade Zone and meeting with provincial officials this week. FTZ The Free Trade Zone, inaugurated last month, comprises Nansha New Area, Qianhai and Shekou in Shenzhen as well as Hengqin in Zhuhai. “The reason this process takes so long is that the whole land registration procedure has to be reported by Hengqin Administrative Committee to the Department of Commerce, and then further up to Beijing’s Ministry of Commerce,” Mr. Lao said. “So I urged in the meeting [with Guangdong officials] that this process be simplified, and that the Administrative Committee have its own authority to handle this registration process.” Mr. Lao’s property development company, Cang Shi Com. Enterprise (Group) Ltd., is the local sales agent for Hengqin’s first high-end residential project ‘Sea of Dreams’. His company also signed a contract with Hengqin authorities last year to set up a ‘cultural’ project in the centre of the island, comprising a media production centre and an education and training base. Mr. Lao’s fellow NPC delegate from Macau, local legislator Kou Hoi In, has told Chinese-language newspaper Macao Daily News that only 12 Macau firms have acquired land parcels on the island; 33 local projects were recommended by the Macau Government to Hengqin authorities last year to invest in a 4.5 square kilometre area known as the Guangdong-Macau Industrial Park. The park is reserved exclusively for Macau investors, with different zones designated for the tourism and leisure industry, the cultural and creative industry, information technology and other trade services.
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