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(SINGAPORE) With three years to go before Las Vegas Sands opens its planned integrated resort at Marina Bay, the company's chairman and chief executive yesterday said that it was already lining up 20 or more MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions) events, including one which could bring in 16,000 delegates.

Ready to roll: (From left) William Weidner, president & chief operating officer of Las Vegas Sands Corp; Lim Neo Chian, deputy chairman and chief executive of the Singapore Tourism Board; Sheldon Adelson, chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corp at yesterday's signing ceremony in Singapore

The huge extra capacity at the new resort could mean exhibitions already being planned for other Singapore venues being poached, a suggestion which Sands chief, Sheldon Adelson, countered with the statement: 'Competition is a good thing.'

Mr Adelson was in Singapore yesterday for the Signing of Development Agreement ceremony for the Marina Bay Sands. It also involved the paying of $1.3 billion for the development site.

The Marina Bay Sands will have 110,390 sq m of gross floor area dedicated to MICE, which will almost double Singapore's available convention space.

Eric Bello, vice-president of sales at Sands, who was also at the ceremony, said that it was looking at specific sectors for business including pharmaceuticals, IT, automotive and finance industries.

He also said that it had been in discussions with event organisers like Singapore Exhibition Services (SES) and Terrapin. He did qualify his remarks by saying that 'not every event will be a CommunicAsia'.

The SES-organised show is currently one of Singapore's largest MICE events.

'There will be a series of corporate meetings that will fill the space mid-week,' he added, highlighting that Marina Bay Sands will have 200 meeting rooms.

Dog-eat-dog competition in the exhibitions trade means that margins are often stripped to the bone. Mr Adelson said that in his time as an organiser for computer fair Comdex, the cost of the convention centre facility was only 2.5 per cent of his total income.

Sands was the first foreign operator to be licensed to build a casino in Macau, where the company has already lined up 26 MICE events, even though there has been market talk that Sands has been offering free convention space to attract events.

'They don't know what they are talking about,' Mr Adelson said - although he did state that it will be cheaper to hold an event in Macau than across the bay in Hong Kong.

'What really counts is not the price but the ability to attract people to that venue,' he added.

The Sands team has meanwhile begun talking to members of the local construction industry about building the resort, which is intended to open in 2009.

John Downs, senior project manager from Sands's Venetian Macau, who will oversee the construction of the Marina Bay Sands, said that it was in the process of evaluating four Singapore construction firms for various parcels of the site, but is at the same time looking at international firms as well.

Mr Downs added that soil testing will proceed next week and that foundation works or 'ground breaking' should start later this year.

A role for Sands's one-time partner in the Marina Bay IR bid, City Developments Ltd (CDL) now seems less likely.

Sands COO William Weidner warmly thanked CDL chairman Kwek Leng Beng for his help in the run-up to the winning bid. Mr Kwek was present at the ceremony but left as soon as it was over.

Later, Mr Adelson said that Mr Kwek's involvement 'will not be profit motivated, it will be civically motivated'.

He added: '(Mr Kwek) has become a good friend. As a Singaporean, he wants to see the project succeed to the extent that if he and his organisation can help, he will do it.'

One area in which Mr Kwek will not be able to help is in lining up an apartment for Mr Adelson and his wife Miriam at CDL's The Sail @ Marina Bay development.

Mr Adelson said: 'My wife has been looking for a home but we have been told all units at The Sail are sold, so we'll have to look to the resale market.'