A new high-end development is ready to show how good it will be once all is said and done. Governor Tmewang Rengulbai and Airai State officials, traditional organizations' reps were joined by hotel developers to break ground for a project consisting of 250 luxury villas at Shiokumins in Ngruluobel Airai.

"Just take it easy, we will show you good we are said George Cheng, a Taiwanese-Canadian owner of the resort to be called Grand Palace Villa Park. Cheng said that in the near future the project will bring to Palau a higher world standard in resort hotels.

A Palau resident the last five years, Cheng said that finally the project has been permitted including FIB and EQPB. The hotel project consists of four phases and will be fully completed within four years. The first phase will be completed in 12-18 months, in which it will receive its first customers.

It will provide high-end accommodations with three different size villas. As a high-end luxury resort, the hotel targets wealthy visitors who fly in with their own private jet. Cheng said the plan is to model itself like Palau Pacific Resort by hiring mainly Palauans to staff the hotel. "We don't want our guest to wake up and think they are in the Philippines or other places and not Palau," said Cheng in his remark during the ground-breaking ceremony.

He said minimum wage doesn't concern him. "Even if it's higher, I don't care. It's good for the workers and good for the hotel," said Cheng. Cheng stressed that what makes Palau attractive to investors is not only its natural beauty but also its government and stable laws. Actual construction work will begin in the next two months. Cheng comes from a family with business holdings in furniture and hotel businesses.