MGM Grand Paradise, a Macao-U.S. jointly invested gaming business, has vowed to hire some 5,000 employees, local media reported Thursday.

Macao Post Daily quoted sources from the enterprise as saying that the under-construction gaming resort is to start the hiring plan later this year.

MGM Grand Paradise was co-invested by MGM Mirage, an U.S. gaming giant, and Pancy Ho, daughter of Macao's casino czar Stanley Ho.

The project worth of 700 million U.S. dollars was scheduled to start the business in the second half of 2006.

It will cover "an iconic hotel atrium" and a casino consisting of 345 gaming tables and 1,035 slot machines, according to Macao Post Daily.

Local observers are wary about the seemingly aggressive employment scheme of the gaming project, as it might impose a fresh pressure on the local labor market.

The number of Macao's unemployed population currently stands at around 10,000.

MGM Grand Paradise, jointed by two other gaming projects which were also slated to open this year, will thus have to grasp laborers from other business sectors in the region.

(Xinhua News Agency February 16, 2006)