London-based luxury hotel chain Le Meridien has been awarded a 10-year management contract for the only hotel in Hong Kong’s Information Technology (IT) flagship project, Cyberport.

The group’s managing director for Asia-Pacific region Michael Sagild said this was a significant step that would spearhead the group’s expansion into the North Asian markets of China, Korea and Taiwan.

Mr Sagild believes Hong Kong’s high efficiency, excellent infrastructure and free market economy will provide investors with a smooth operating environment.

“Hong Kong is a critical city for brand exposure,” he said. “By brand exposure we will gain contacts and opportunities. The relationship with the Hong Kong Government is very valuable, and the fact that it is a partnership between the government and the private sector is fantastic.”

Scheduled to open in September 2003, the five-star LeMeridien@Cyberport hotel will be a 13-storey, 176-room complex that is to be “an important landmark in Hong Kong’s hospitality landscape”, Mr Sagild said.

He believes the hotel will attract not only business travellers, but also tourists as a result of the Disneyland project scheduled to open in 2005, the development of more casinos in nearby Macau, and in its own right.

Located on scenic Telegraph Bay, the ocean-facing Le Meridien acts as a welcoming gateway to Cyberport. “Its seclusion creates a unique appeal,” Mr Sagild stressed. “It’s not just a hotel with a shopping centre; it’s an attraction on its own.”

The design of LeMeridien@Cyberport's guest rooms will adopt the hotel group’s unique “art and tech” concept that fuses artistic settings with technology and matches the hotel with the innovative IT environment of Cyberport. Guests of the hotel will also have access to various sophisticated telecommunications services available to members of the Cyberport community.