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Empresas y finanzas

China's gambling hub of Macau gets new leader


    MACAU (Reuters) - A low-key former Macau official was endorsed Sunday by a small, pro-Beijing electoral college to serve as the enclave's next chief executive, with no changes expected in gaming policy in the Chinese-ruled gambling hub. Fernando Chui was the sole candidate in the former Portuguese colony's chief executive race, but still required the formal backing of a 300-member election committee.

    The territory's half million people have no direct say on who their next leader will be. Macau returned to Chinese rule in 1999, two years after the neighbouring former British colony of Hong Kong.

    With Macau clawing its way out of a deep slump in the gaming sector, exacerbated by Beijing-imposed visa curbs on mainland Chinese visitors, Chui will have a key role in charting Macau's future gaming market growth, while trying to cast off the previous administration's corruption-tainted image.

    (Reporting by James Pomfret; Editing by Nick Macfie)