Spain Ups Efforts to Address Unemployment

Spain is redoubling its efforts to lower the country’s chronically high unemployment rate and labor costs this month, under intense pressure from the European Union and international investors.

The reform received new impetus from an EU agreement last week on measures to boost employment, competitiveness and budget discipline among euro-zone countries. Germany had demanded the measures—which it sees as a way to address some of the root causes of the euro zone’s sovereign-debt crisis—in exchange for its support to expand the size and scope of the region’s bailout facility.

Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who presides over the euro zone’s largest troubled economy, has promised to overhaul a wage bargaining system that makes it easier to lay off workers than adjust their wages in an economic downturn. The government has given unions and business leaders until Friday to agree on changes, though it has indicated it could give them a bit more time before it legislates without them. The overhaul is the second part of a reform of labor laws that last year lowered Spain’s high dismissal costs, which economists viewed as a powerful disincentive for hiring.

“We have done a labor-market reform, which was positive, but insufficient,” said Salvador del Rey, partner at law firm Cuatrecasas, Goncalves Pereira. “If there are no changes, the reform will not be too useful.”

At more than 20% and rising, Spain’s unemployment rate is far and away the highest in the developed world. In addition, economists say, the country’s rigid wage bargaining system has contributed to one of Europe’s highest labor-costs growth rates, undermining the competitiveness of Spanish industry.

Collective wage bargaining agreements, many of them indexed to inflation, locked Spanish companies into healthy salary increases even during the depths of the economic crisis. In 2009, Spanish gross domestic product contracted by 3.7% and the economy shed 1.4 million jobs. But wages negotiated by collective wage bargaining agreements— which cover about half of the work force and influence the other half— rose by 2.3%.

“The lack of sensitivity to labor-market conditions is one of the reasons why in Spain the adjustment in the use of labor during the recession has occurred mainly via job cuts,” said Citigroup economist Giadi Giani.

To address this problem, unions and business leaders are discussing ways to limit the automatic renewal of existing wage deals if the two parties fail to reach agreement on a new one, thus avoiding situations in which wages are governed by agreements that originated in a period of very different economic circumstances. One solution could be to call in third-party arbitration to help hammer out a new deal when talks break down.

Similarly, talks are exploring new ways to adapt wage deals to changes in inflation, economic growth or a company’s individual prospects. Last week’s EU agreement calls on countries to “review” the practice of indexing salaries to inflation, which critics say boost inflationary pressures and undermine the competitiveness of economies where they are used. Spanish government officials have said Spain’s reform won’t likely eliminate the inflation indexation but will look for ways to improve links between salaries and company profitability. One way could be greater use of variable compensation schemes.

Finally, the talks will explore ways of better adapting wage deals to the needs of individual companies, by, for example, making it easier for them to opt out of industry- or province-level agreements. “We need to adapt our regulations to the needs of those who best know [market] conditions and are best able to respond to them,” said Pedro Ramirez, head of legal and labor issues for Spanish car manufacturer Seat SA, a unit of Germany’s Volkswagen AG.

Lost city of Atlantis, swamped by tsunami, may be found in Southern Spain

Lost City of Atlantis Found on Google Earth

A U.S.-led research team may have finally located the lost city of Atlantis, the legendary metropolis believed swamped by a tsunami thousands of years ago in mud flats in southern Spain.

"This is the power of tsunamis," head researcher Richard Freund told Reuters.

"It is just so hard to understand that it can wipe out 60 miles inland, and that's pretty much what we're talking about," said Freund, a University of Hartford, Connecticut, professor who lead an international team searching for the true site of Atlantis.

To solve the age-old mystery, the team used a satellite photo of a suspected submerged city to find the site just north of Cadiz, Spain. There, buried in the vast marshlands of the Dona Ana Park, they believe that they pinpointed the ancient, multi-ringed dominion known as Atlantis.

The team of archeologists and geologists in 2009 and 2010 used a combination of deep-ground radar, digital mapping, and underwater technology to survey the site.

Freund's discovery in central Spain of a strange series of "memorial cities," built in Atlantis' image by its refugees after the city's likely destruction by a tsunami, gave researchers added proof and confidence, he said.

Atlantis residents who did not perish in the tsunami fled inland and built new cities there, he added.

The team's findings will be unveiled on Sunday in "Finding Atlantis," a new National Geographic Channel special.

While it is hard to know with certainty that the site in Spain in Atlantis, Freund said the "twist" of finding the memorial cities makes him confident Atlantis was buried in the mud flats on Spain's southern coast.

"We found something that no one else has ever seen before, which gives it a layer of credibility, especially for archeology, that makes a lot more sense," Freund said.

Greek philosopher Plato wrote about Atlantis some 2,600 years ago, describing it as "an island situated in front of the straits which are by you called the Pillars of Hercules," as the Straits of Gibraltar were known in antiquity. Using Plato's detailed account of Atlantis as a map, searches have focused on the Mediterranean and Atlantic as the best possible sites for the city.

Tsunamis in the region have been documented for centuries, Freund says. One of the largest was a reported 10-story tidal wave that slammed Lisbon in November, 1755.

Debate about whether Atlantis truly existed has lasted for thousands of years. Plato's "dialogues" from around 360 B.C. are the only known historical sources of information about the iconic city. Plato said the island he called Atlantis "in a single day and night... disappeared into the depths of the sea."

Experts plan further excavations are planned at the site where they believe Atlantis is located and at the mysterious "cities" in central Spain 150 miles away to more closely study geological formations and to date artifacts

Spain airport unions close to calling off strike

Spanish airport operator AENA and unions reached a preliminary agreement to call off 22 days of strike action between April and August, AENA said on Wednesday, averting disruption during peak holiday season.

The agreement takes on board unions' concerns over labour conditions and job security for the state airport operator's nearly 13,000 staff in the face of a planned government privatisation, union representatives told national radio.

"The agreement was reached after nearly 20 hours of talks," AENA said in a press release, noting the accord still had to be voted on by workers.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said the agreement meant airports would work at normal capacity during the Easter and summer holiday periods.

Around 77 percent of tourists arrive in Spain via air travel, bringing more than 190 million passengers through Spanish airports every year, he said.

However, one analyst expressed caution on the provisional agreement.

"We welcome this announcement, albeit we stress that it is a pre-agreement that needs to be confirmed by workers in a poll," said Eduardo Coelho, analyst at broker BPI.

Spain said in December it wanted to partially privatise the state airport operator, which it says could be worth up to 30 billion euros, alongside its state lottery as part of plans to reduce the national debt.

Air traffic controller strikes in early December stranded thousands of passengers and caused chaos at Spanish airports.

TINSA March House Prices Report

TINSA has a new Spanish house price report available today. 

The accompanying TINSA press release summarises this report as House prices barely change between January and February, softening the year-on-year variation.

Following the strong correction at the start of the year, the General IMIE figures remained similar to January, softening the year-on-year decline to 4.5%. The accumulated decline since the peak continues to be around 19.5%.

Following 2010, which was subject to major changes in taxation that have significantly affected the performance of the market, new factors have emerged that will dominate the market in the coming months, such as the rise in inflation and the increase in mortgage interest rates.
The former could produce a marked fall in house prices in real terms, following a period of static or a modest decreases in the nominal values of properties. On the other hand, an increase in interest rates will make it harder for families to buy a home or simply to continue paying their mortgage taken out at the time of initial purchase.

Returning to the year-on-year declines by area, the evolution was once again divergent. The municipalities on the Mediterranean Coast continue to have the highest falls with 6.7%, although this figure was higher in January at 8.4%.

However the level of the coastal index, in line with the general index, hardly changed compared to the previous month maintaining its level at 1885 points. This region was followed by Metropolitan Areas with a fall of 5.4% and Capital and Major Cities with a figure of 5.2%.

The year-on-year decline increased in the case of the former but slowed in the latter.
As usual, Other Municipalities was below the average with a fall of 3.3% while the Balearic and Canary Islands index recorded a modest decline of 0.8%, substantially less than the year-on-year figure for January. However in both areas the monthly variation barely moved, remaining at similar levels to the previous month.

With regard to the accumulated declines since the peak, the Mediterranean Coast continues to be record the highest falls, stabilising at 27.2%. It is followed by Metropolitan Areas with an overall decline of 20.7%, followed very closely by Capitals and Major Cities with 20.6%.
The Balearic and Canary Islands were well below 20% with a figure of 17.5% and Other Municipalities not included in the previous section ended the month with 16.1%.

Barclays Announce Closure of 100 Spanish Branches

Barclays is poised to cut its Spanish retail banking network by a fifth in the first concrete sign of the rationalisation of the group’s operations announced last month by Bob Diamond, its new chief executive.

According to people briefed on the exercise, the project is being driven by Jaime Echegoyen, the new head of Barclays Spain, poached last month from local rival Bankinter , where he was chief executive.

The plan, which is said to be well advanced, would see Barclays close more than 100 of its 600 branches. The bank’s Spanish operations represent one of its biggest networks outside the UK.

Mr Diamond said last month, when announcing Barclays’ annual results, that a third of the group was not pulling its weight, and would be restructured.

The biggest problem areas are the retail and corporate businesses in western Europe. Corporate loan impairments in Spain more than trebled to £900m last year, due largely to soured lending to property developers in the troubled real estate market.

But the news on the Spanish restructuring is still somewhat surprising, given Mr Diamond’s suggestion that Spain could be an attractive growth market.
It was “not a time to exit Spain”, he said, adding that the bank could pursue consolidation opportunities there, perhaps by buying up some of the distressed regional savings banks, known as cajas.

A Barclays insider said: “This doesn’t change the fact that we are committed to Spain and we have a strong franchise there.”

Among Mr Diamond’s other restructuring priorities is a drive to make more of the bank’s presence in Africa. He embarked recently on a two-week tour of the continent.

Moody's Cuts Spain's Rating to Aa2 with a Negative Outlook

Spain’s credit rating was cut to Aa2 by Moody’s Investors Service, which said the cost of shoring up the banking industry will eclipse government estimates. The euro fell and Spanish bond yields rose

Spain, which used to hold top-notch triple A ratings from all the main rating agencies, saw its ratings cut one grade to Aa2 by Moody’s Investor Service. The agency warned that the eventual cost of restructuring the banks will exceed the government’s current assumptions of €20bn. Moody’s said the costs could rise to as high as €50bn.

Moody’s said: “There is a meaningful risk that the eventual cost of the recapitalisation effort could considerably exceed the government’s current projections.

Spain will spend as much as 50 billion euros ($69 billion) shoring up savings banks, Moody’s forecast, more than double the 20 billion-euro price set by the government. The risks to government finances remain “skewed to the downside,” the company said in a statement today. The outlook is “negative,” suggesting more rating cuts are under consideration. As Spain tries to convince investors that struggling savings banks won’t overburden its public finances, European leaders have set a March 25 deadline to approve a package of measures to end the sovereign debt crisis. The Bank of Spain is due to announce today the capital shortfalls of lenders.

“The crisis in the euro region is going to take a long time to resolve, and the rating downgrade of Spain is a reflection of that,” said John Stopford, head of fixed income at Investec Asset Management in London, which manages about $80 billion. “Any expectation that meetings in March are going to lead to a quick solution is a bit naïve.”

The gap between Spanish and German borrowing costs widened 9 basis points today to 231 basis points, the highest in five weeks as the yield on 10-year notes rose 3 basis points to 5.50 percent. The euro slid 0.6 percent to $1.3825 as of 7:18 a.m. in London. Moody’s had put Spain’s rating on review on Dec. 15, after lowering its credit grade to Aa1 from Aaa in September. Fitch Ratings, which calls Spain AA+, changed the outlook to “negative” on March 4. Standard & Poor’s rates the nation AA, after stripping it of its top AAA grade in January 2009.

Moody's Downgrades Ratings of four regions in Spain

Moody’s Investors Services on Friday downgraded the credit ratings of the Spanish regions Castilla-La Mancha, Catalonia, Valencia and Murcia after they failed to meet the target set by the central government for reducing their budget deficits last year. The move comes a day after the agency downgraded Spain’s sovereign ratings by a notch, citing the costs of the recapitalization of the banking sector and the problems the country’s regions face in reducing the shortfall in their finances.

Castilla-La Mancha’s longterm issuer and debt ratings were cut to A2 from A1, Catalonia’s to A3 from A2, Murcia’s to A1 from Aa3 and Valencia’s to A2 from A1. The agency said the downgrades reflect the “wide deviations registered by these regions from the deficit limits set for 2010 and the subsequent difficulties Moody’s anticipates they will encounter in controlling their deficit and debt projections in 2011-12.” It said the budget forecasts of the four regions over the past few years had also been “unreliable.”

Spanish Economy in ‘Slow Recovery’

Spain’s economy pursued a “slow recovery” in early 2011, the Bank of Spain said Friday, after joining crisis-torn Greece and Ireland as the only eurozone economies to shrink in 2010.
Spain is fending off fears in international financial markets that its public deficit is unsustainably high and could prompt the country to follow Greece and Ireland into seeking an EU-IMF bailout.

Economic activity will need to pick up speed if Madrid is to meet its target of slashing the public deficit to below the European Union limit of 3.0 percent of annual economic output by 2013 from 9.24 percent last year.

“The indicators for the first few months of 2011, while still scant, point in general to a continuation of the path of slow recovery of activity with characteristics similar to the end of last year,” the Bank of Spain said in its monthly bulletin for February published on Friday.

The bank said consumer sentiment was “clearly improving”, with average confidence levels in January and February sharply ahead of the fourth quarter of 2010.

The Spanish economy slumped into recession in the second half of 2008 as the global financial meltdown compounded the collapse of the once-booming property market, which had fueled growth for over a decade.

It inched out of recession with feeble or flat quarterly economic growth rates in 2010. Over the year as a whole, Spain’s gross domestic product declined 0.1 percent, after contracting 3.7 percent in 2009.

The Spanish government predicts the economy will expand 1.3 percent this year but the International Monetary Fund has tipped more moderate growth of just 0.6 percent.
Spain’s deficit-reduction targets are based on its forecast that the economy will grow by a far more robust 2.5 percent in 2012 and 2.7 percent in 2013.

Spain’s industrial production grew 3.8 percent in January from the same month last year, after falling 0.1 percent in December, the national statistics institute said earlier Friday.

Consumer goods output grew 3.2 percent in January, while capital goods output rose by 4.6 percent. Durable consumer goods production fell 5.5 percent.

Raj Badiani, senior economist for IHS Global Insight in London, said the rise in capital goods output “was welcome, signalling that the improved export performance witnessed since early 2010 is helping business investment to revive after a prolonged slump.

“This coincides with the other indicators, suggesting that the economy continued to grow in early 2011, albeit at a painfully slow pace.

“Spain still faces a profound challenge to pull itself clear from severe recessionary conditions which have delivered continuous job losses since mid-2008.”

Qatar Airways Marks Launch of Second Spanish Route

Qatar Airways on Monday spelled out its commitment to the Spanish market helping strengthen commercial and economic ties with the recently-introduced flights to Barcelona – its second route in Spain.

Celebrating five years of flying to the capital Madrid, the addition of services to Barcelona in June acknowledges the importance Qatar Airways places in the Spanish market.

Since the June 7 launch of daily non-stop flights between Barcelona and the airline’s operational hub in Doha, capital of the State of Qatar, Qatar Airways reports the new service proving to be strong. The route was introduced just in time for the busy summer holiday season.

Speaking at a press conference in Madrid on Monday, Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker said the airline’s Spanish expansion was part of a strategy to strengthen its position in Europe, where the carrier currently operates to 20 destinations – almost 20 per cent of its global network.

“Our Spanish flights give the travelling public easy access to popular business and leisure destinations across the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific. With daily direct flights to Spain’s two major cities of Madrid and Barcelona, Qatar Airways in return boosts business and leisure traffic to one of Europe’s cultural capitals.

“Qatar Airways has, and will continue to invest in the Spanish market, opening new offices in both cities, creating jobs locally and we are pleased to have a large number of Spaniards working at head office in Doha as cabin crew, pilots and administrative positions.

“Five years ago, when we entered the Spanish market as the only Gulf carrier here, with scheduled flights to this beautiful city of Madrid, Qatar Airways had a global network of routes spanning just 50 destinations. Today, with the network growing far and wide to cover almost double the number of cities with frequency increases on many routes, we are able to give the travelling public here in Spain greater choice and convenience to enjoy our award-winning hospitality and fly to destinations across the world via our Doha hub.”

The Doha – Madrid route began in December 2005 with a three-times-a-week service, which grew steadily up to daily last year operated with an Airbus A330 aircraft in a two-class configuration with up to 24 seats in Business Class and up to 236 seats in Economy.

Al Baker added: “With 14 flights a week between Spain and Qatar and onto a host of connecting international cities, we demonstrate the growing importance of bilateral ties between our two countries. Spain and the State of Qatar enjoy developing relations which are growing from strength to strength.”

Qatar Airways held an official celebratory event Sunday night in Barcelona to mark the launch of its second Spanish route, attracting key leaders from commerce and government. A fifth anniversary event was also planned in Madrid for Monday night.

The airline’s route development in Spain is part of a wider European growth drive that Qatar Airways embarked on earlier in the year and which has focused on identifying underserved markets across the continent. In addition to Barcelona, Qatar Airways has opened new routes to Ankara and Copenhagen and will also begin operating to Nice by the end of 2010.

In the New Year, Qatar Airways will add four further routes in Europe beginning with the launch of flights to the Romanian capital, Bucharest on January 17. Operated four times a week, the new service will continue on to Budapest, the capital city of Hungary. January 31 marks the launch of five flights a week from Doha to the Belgian capital of Brussels. From March 9, the airline will also introduce Stuttgart to its network with three flights a week non-stop from Doha.

Qatar Airways currently operates a modern fleet of 89 aircraft from its Doha hub to 92 key business and leisure cities across Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, North and South America

Spanish Banks to Get €300 Million Cash Injection from Qatar

Qatar will invest 300 million euros in Spanish banks and has discussed other investments with Spain’s prime minister, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani said on Monday.

The prime minister said the move would be to “invest in these companies and capitalise them.”

“We have confidence in the Spanish economy; the government has taken many positive steps,” Sheikh Hamad told reporters on Monday.

“In the next 10 days to two weeks there may be some more (investment announcements),” he said, declining to indicate any further specifics on companies or amounts.

He was speaking at a joint conference with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. The states signed a memorandum of understanding on the bank investments.

Sheikh Hamad is also the chief executive of the Qatar Investment Authority, the Gulf state’s sovereign wealth fund. Qatar’s emir will visit Spain on a state visit in April.

“This will be an important step forward for the Spanish economy and will consolidate confidence,” Zapatero said.

Spain is under intense market scrutiny on concerns banks’ overexposure to Spanish property could force Madrid to follow Greece and Ireland and seek an international bailout.

Spain’s banks have mostly been shut out of international wholesale debt markets, with some economists claiming they could be facing a capital shortfall of up to 120 billion euros ($137 billion).

To assuage fears about the health of the country’s unlisted savings banks, or cajas, the government approved a decree forcing these regional banks to seek private capital either by direct investment or stock market listings.

But overseas investors’ interest in the cajas has been muted so far, apart from a tepid response from U.S. private equity firm J.C. Flowers in December.

“This is a shot in the arm for the cajas now as they brace for stock market listings. It’s a good sign and may just be what other investors need to put some money on them as well,” a bank analyst at a Spanish brokerage said.

“The savings banks are a long term bet as there is still a lot of restructuring to be carried out. However, this is the sort of investment which fits in with a sovereign wealth fund’s strategy,” he said.

Zapatero said the two sides had also agreed on more investment by Qatar in the communications and energy sectors. He also indicated that Spain might increase the amount of gas it imports from the Gulf state.

Last week, Qatar said it was open to buying stakes in part state-owned British lenders RBS and Lloyds Banking Group.

Qatar, the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas, has been on an acquisition hunt in recent years.

The Gulf Arab state has stakes in companies including retailer J Sainsbury, Barclays bank and German automaker Porsche through QIA.

It sold a portion of its stake in Barclays in 2009 reaping a significant profit.

Earlier this month, the QIA’s Qatar Holding unit invested in contingent convertible bonds issued by Credit Suisse.

Other high-profile investments made by QIA over the past couple of years include the 1.5 billion pound acquisition of iconic London department store Harrods.

Spanish Unemployment Rises in February

Spain’s registered unemployment advanced for a second month in February, deepening the divide between peripheral economies struggling to recover from the financial crisis and Germany’s booming labor market.

The number of people registering for jobless benefits in Spain rose by 68,260, or 1.6 percent, from January to 4.3 million, the Labor Ministry in Madrid said in an e-mailed statement today.

Spain’s unemployment rate remains at more than 20 percent, while the number of Germans out of work dropped to the least since 1992 last month.

Spain’s economy emerged from an almost two-year recession in 2010 before contracting again in the third quarter as austerity measures undermined the recovery.

“Unemployment will remain fairly stubbornly high,” Giada Giani, an economist at Citigroup Inc., said before the data were released. “It probably isn’t too far away from the peak, but it’s unlikely to come down any time soon.”

The highest unemployment rate in Europe and the deepest budget cuts in at least three decades have eroded support for Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who faces regional and local elections in May.

The opposition People’s Party would win 44.1 percent of the vote if a general election were held now, compared with 34 percent for the ruling Socialists, a poll by the state-run Center for Sociological Research showed on Feb. 8.

Spain Clears Plan to Shore Up Savings Banks

Spain approved a decree toughening capital requirements for banks on Friday, but pushed out a deadline for unlisted regional banks to get private capital on board by six months.

The decree forces savings banks, or ‘cajas’, to seek private capital, either by direct investment or stock market listings, in order to boost capital reserves diminished by indiscrimate lending to property developers during a property boom and bust.

“We have approved this decree today in order to reinforce the solvency and sustainability of our financial sector so that it can continue lending even at difficult times,” Economy Minister Elena Salgado told reporters at a press conference.

Spain remains under intense market scrutiny on concerns about the health of its banks and its high debt but the socialist government’s moves to overhaul its banking system have led to a slight drop in its borrowing costs recently.

The government has given savings banks until September to clarify their plans to get private capital on board, either by direct investment or stock market listings but pushed out the deadline for listing to March.

Cajas had complained the original September deadline did not allow enough time to organise stock market flotations.

The new requirements set in law did not differ greatly from proposals made by the government in recent weeks, despite wrangling from cajas to soften the terms.

The government demanded an 8 percent minimum core capital ratio — a measure of a bank’s ability to withstand financial shock — for listed banks. That jumps to 10 percent for unlisted banks that fail to attract private funds for more than 20 percent of their equity.

Aid from the state-backed fund, set up to help savings banks merge, would count towards core capital, Salgado said.

The government will nationalise those savings banks that fail to achieve the stringent core capital levels, which match tough Basel III rules laid out by global regulators.

€15 Billion ‘Euro Vegas’ Planned for Spain

US gaming giant Las Vegas Sands is “very actively pursuing” plans to build a Las Vegas-style casino strip in Spain at a cost of up to 15 billion euros ($20.4 billion), its chief said Thursday.

Sheldon Adelson told the Foreign Correspondents Association in Singapore that Las Vegas Sands is already in talks with city officials from Barcelona and Madrid to build a gaming strip in either of their cities.

“I want to do a mini-Las Vegas in Europe. I hope we could use the name ‘Europe Vegas’ or ‘Euro-Vegas’ or something,” he said.

“I want to build like 20,000-plus rooms and millions of square feet of shopping and MICE space,” he added, referring to the meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions sector.

“Now, we are very actively pursuing it. I’m already building up a team of development professionals in architecture, design, project development etc.

In two weeks I’m meeting with three huge general contractors to possibly build several places at once.”

Adelson said the project would create 180,000 jobs, with investment costs unprecedented for a private company.

“This will cost close to 10 to 15 billion euros. No private sector company has ever invested that kind of money, and we need the support of the (Spanish) government,” he stated.

The gaming mogul called on the national authorities in Madrid to set up a taskforce to fast-track their development plans as well as assign them a sizeable and suitable plot of land.

“Can you imagine having 10 Marina Bay Sands in a strip? Pretty ambitious project,” he said.

Marina Bay Sands is Las Vegas Sands’ sprawling casino establishment in Singapore, which cost $5.7 billion to build.

It opened in April last year and visitors had since averaged a million a month, Adelson stated.

“We have 11 million visitors, about a million people a month here since we opened,” he said.

Adelson expressed confidence that after all the attractions in the Marina Bay Sands open, Singapore’s target of attracting 17 million tourists to the city-state in four years’ time will be met.

“The goal of 17 million by 2015, I think we’re going to shoot right through that,” he said.

He added that the Asian gaming market had unlimited growth potential, due to the Chinese “culture” of gambling.

“I don’t think there’s going to be any limit in this market. We will continue to grow, the only thing that I can’t say with surety is how much.”