Photo of President of Guinea-Bissau and Head of the Delegation for the Entrepreneurs Meeting for Commercial and Economic Co-operation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries – Bissau – 2016

To contribute to Macao’s development and help the city build a “One Centre, One Platform” policy, the Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM) organised a delegation to participate in the Entrepreneurs Meeting for Commercial and Economic Co-operation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries – Bissau – 2016, which was held in Guinea-Bissau in early April.

The meeting yielded abundant results, promoting exchanges and communication among businesspeople, companies and chambers of commerce in Macao, Mainland China and Portuguese-speaking Countries (PSCs). The meeting advanced Macao as a Commercial and Trade Co-operation Service Platform between China and Portuguese speaking Countries.

Decade of history,11 agreements signed this year 

China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and Directorate-General of Investment Promotion of Guinea-Bissau signed several co-operation agreements

The meeting was organised by the Directorate-General of Investment Promotion of Guinea-Bissau, the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and IPIM. The meeting held in Bissau, the capital of Guinea-Bissau – on 9 and 10 April – had the participation of the Angola Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Apex-Brasil, Cape Verde Investments, Mozambique Institute of Export Promotion, AICEP Portugal Global and TradeInvest Timor Leste.

The Entrepreneurs Meeting for Commercial and Economic Co-operation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries is held annually and is an occasion for business exchanges and negotiations. It is held under the co-operation framework of the Forum for Economic and Trade Co-operation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries.

Since the first meeting in 2005, the annual meetings have brought together more than 4,000 entrepreneurs from Macao, Mainland China and Portuguese-speaking Countries. The meetings have led to more than 3,100 business-matching sessions facilitating the signing of 94 co-operation agreements.

About 260 entrepreneurs and officials took part in this year’s meeting. Several sessions were planned with a view to matching businesses in the areas of finance, agriculture, fisheries, food and wine, trade, technology, consulting and other services. Participants signed 11 agreements on infrastructure development, on trade and on co-operation among chambers of commerce and companies.

Connecting with Portuguese-speaking Countries, helping local companies

Photo with Wang Hua, Chinese Ambassador to Guinea-Bissau

Lo Seng Chung, Executive Director of Excelente International Group

Executive Director of Excelente International Group Ltd. Lo Seng Chung was in IPIM’s delegation to this year’s meeting. His company signed agreements on two co-operative endeavours in Guinea-Bissau.

Mr Lo says one of his company’s agreements, with contractors in Guinea-Bissau, is to build housing with materials from Mainland China with construction due to begin this year. The project is new for Guinea-Bissau, Mr Lo says. Until now few developers there have put the homes they build on the market separately because the local people lack purchasing power. But the Guinea-Bissau economy has been expanding in recent years as the authorities there stress the need to develop the country’s infrastructure, he says.

Excelente International’s second agreement is to increase its involvement in exporting Guinea-Bissau cashew nuts to the Mainland. Mr Lo says that from 2005 the company has been buying cashew nuts directly from Guinea-Bissau farmers and exporting them to the Mainland. Mr Lo expects Mainland companies to buy more than 10 percent of Guinea-Bissau’s cashew crop this year as more Mainland enterprises are interested in the commodity.

Mr Lo held talks with Guinea-Bissau officials about setting up a cashew processing plant in there. By-products using the processed shells can be exported to Asian countries, he says.

Mr Lo says the annual meetings have helped develop Excelente International and, with the collaboration of the China Development Bank and the China-Africa Development Fund, have had a huge positive effect on local communities.

Macao’s platform role praised 

Meeting with Geraldo João Martins, Minister of Economy and Finance of GuineaBissau

With a view to Macao playing its part as a service platform between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries and to increasing co-operation in the Pan-Pearl River Delta Region, IPIM invited Deputy Director of the Department of Commerce of Hunan Province Luo Shuangfeng and Chief of Hunan Provincial Directorate for Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Zheng Zhe to join the delegation to the Guinea-Bissau meeting.

Mr Luo says the meeting helped develop Macao’s role as a pivotal point in the Pan-Pearl River Delta Region and as an essential platform for facilitating economic and trade cooperation between Hunan, Portuguese-speaking Countries and Macao. The service platform that Macao has established for Hunan can help attract Portuguese-speaking Countries’ investment in the province, and help Hunan companies expand abroad, he says.

IPIM President Jackson Chang had meetings in GuineaBissau with Guinea-Bissau Minister of the Economy and Finance Geraldo João Martins, and Chinese Ambassador to Guinea-Bissau Wang Hua. Mr Martins applauded the role played by Macao as a service platform. He said the GuineaBissau government would organise a business delegation to Macao and the Mainland this year.

Next year’s Entrepreneurs Meeting for Commercial and Economic Co-operation between China and Portuguesespeaking Countries will be held in Cape Verde.