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More than 600 businesspeople will take part in a business meeting between China and Portuguese Language Countries, which returns on 23 April after a four-year break due to the pandemic, it was announced on Tuesday.
The forecast was made by Ji Xianzheng, secretary-general of the Forum for Economic and Trade Co-operation between China and Portuguese Language Countries, better known as Forum Macau.
“The Portuguese-speaking countries will certainly also form delegations of business promotion institutions,” the Chinese leader told journalists.
Macau’s Government Action Guidelines for 2024, released in November, had already mentioned the return of the Meeting of Entrepreneurs from China and Portuguese Language Countries.
The initiative will take place on the third and final day of Forum Macau’s sixth ministerial conference, which includes the signing of the organisation’s action plan until 2027, a document that was discussed today by the institution’s Permanent Secretariat.
After the meeting, Ji Xianzheng said that the plan would cover new areas of co-operation, including the digital economy, e-commerce, sustainable development and climate change.
The holding of the sixth ministerial conference, between 21 and 23 April, was announced on Monday, but the secretary-general assured that preparations “didn’t start yesterday, they started several months ago”.
Ji said that Forum Macau is still “liaising with the capitals of Portuguese-speaking countries to gather information on the formation of delegations”, but expressed confidence that ministers will attend the conference.
Five ministerial conferences were held in the territory in 2003, 2006, 2010, 2013 and 2016, during which action plans for economic and trade co-operation were approved.
Initially scheduled for 2019, the sixth ministerial conference was postponed to June 2020 due to the elections for the Macau Legislative Assembly, but the Covid-19 pandemic meant that it was not held.
China established the Macao Special Administrative Region (MSAR) as a platform for strengthening economic and trade co-operation with Portuguese Language Countries in 2003 and created Forum Macao that same year.
The Forum’s Permanent Secretariat includes three deputy secretaries-general: Timorese Danilo Afonso Henriques (nominated by the Portuguese-speaking countries), Xie Ying (nominated by China) and Casimiro de Jesus Pinto (nominated by Macau).
The Permanent Secretariat also includes nine delegates from Portuguese Language Countries: Angola, Brazil, Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe and Timor-Leste.
Exports of goods from Portuguese Language Countries to China totalled US$147.5 billion (€136.1 billion) last year, the highest figure since Forum Macau began presenting this type of official data in 2013.
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