Tinian honors Alter City, Leong with awards

From left, Rita Shiu, Ken Lin, Sen. Francisco Cruz, Nicole Hoi, Alter City Group chair Kin Ian Leong, Tinian Mayor Joey P. San Nicolas, Yen-Bor Chen, and Danny Lei at Alter City Group headquarters in Macau.(Contributed Photo)

Alter City Group chair Kin Ian Leong, the largest investor on Tinian, has been actively participating in public welfare activities related to the island.

Recently, Tinian Mayor Joey P. San Nicolas visited Macau and awarded Leong and Alter City the honorary Citizenship and Corporate Citizenship awards, respectively.

Leong said that it is an honor to receive such recognition from the Tinian Municipality as a Macanese. He expressed much appreciation as to how Macau has been providing him opportunities and advantages to develop overseas. To be in line with the local government’s policy, Alter City has confirmed a $1.2-billion investment on Tinian for a complex with vacation resorts and entertainment, developing the tourism industry of the island.

The project is supported by local government officials with a policy to invite people from overseas to make investments. In order to meet the demand of labor and professionals for this project, more quota on immigration and overseas labor are a must, and the mayor has indicated he will be in full support in achieving the required numbers.

Leong has been the honorary special economic adviser for Tinian for the past two years, in addition to being a key investor on the island. Along with San Nicolas, Sen. Francisco Cruz (R-Tinian), visited Macau, where they thanked and honored Leong and his group for their contributions.

“Tinian is on the Pacific Ocean and is the closest American territory to East Asia and China with geographical advantage. It is politically stable, nice weather throughout the year,” said Leong. “The island is safe, comfortable, and a hot spot for tourism.”

About 30 years ago, the CNMI was industrial-oriented, but quickly diminished over time. The CNMI government, recognizing the need to turn to a different economic generator, made the decision that tourism shall become the major industry, leading to the invitation of investors. With the support of the local government, Tinian was to be turned into a beautiful resort destination.

Leong was invited by the local government to explore the island for potential investment two years ago. Professional advice for different aspects were engaged and all indicated the possibility, and thus Leong had confirmed to grasp the opportunity and develop his project on the island, of which will cover about 1,500,000 square meters of land, with not less than 5,500 rooms, a golf course, and other ancillaries with infrastructure, a total investment of $1.2 billion.

The local government has vowed to assign a team to facilitate the project so to have the ground-breaking take place this year, aiming for the completion of Phase I in 2018.

Alter City is planning to erect no less than 250 luxurious villas in Phase 1, together with a casino, 5-star hotels, and a golf course that are surrounded by the paradise-like nature, attractive, well-known diving spots, and historical monuments, guaranteed to draw tourists and a great vacation option, especially a long-weekend getaway for those in East Asia who are just a few short hours flight away.

The project will create thousands of job opportunities. Expertise and labor of different sectors are required, construction, logistics, transportation, properties management, hospitality, F&B, gaming, and many others, this will boost the economic development. In order to ensure sufficient labor and equip the locals with the necessary knowledge and skills to participate in this large-scale project, part of Leong’s project is to provide professional training to the locals and those interested. Further, Leong is going to build an educational institution on Tinian, offering scholarships for local students who could eventually contribute to the island.

In order to facilitate the progress of the project, the long-term operation and tourism industry developed therefrom, the transportation by air and sea must be in accordance with the development, the airport will be refurbished with expansion to cope with the need, while a new sea transport with sight-seeing cruise for the visitors to experience the beautiful and exotic scenery and the surroundings will be developed.

Alter City is aiming to have the airport handling a capacity of 40,000 passengers monthly. The project will transform the island into an entirely new community, bringing revenue to the government, upgrading education while creating job positions for the locals both during the development of the project and the operation afterward, this is an exciting transition for every individual on the island and bringing a brand new page to the local government.

Macau has established its position in the gaming industry and turned the city into a tourism and leisure spot. Leong therefore would like to have the significant success in Macau be found in other countries. This shall also become a platform to group the Macanese people, especially the youth, to explore opportunities overseas, which is considered a great pleasure by Leong.

In fact, with the strong trend of China and Macau forming partnership, the development at Hengqin and Zhongshan and other fusion programs had been an emphasis. The valuable experience of the Macanese entrepreneurs has equipped them to develop regional projects, but more importantly, is to be in theme of “The Belt and Road Initiative,” allowing to develop in the South Pacific region. Sending the new, active generation in Macau overseas, while bringing home the culture and experience, as a positive exchange mutually beneficial to both the land and people.