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Entrepreneurs Meeting for Commercial and Economic Cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries opens doors for enterprises

The annual “Entrepreneurs Meeting for Commercial and Economic Co-operation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries – Lisbon – 2018” was hosted from 21 to 22 June, in Lisbon, Portugal. This year’s meeting was held under the theme of “China and the Portuguese-speaking Countries – Writing a New Chapter of Pragmatic Co-operation Together”. The event attracted more than 400 participants.

More than 80 business matching sessions were arranged during the meeting, covering a number of business fields, including food trade, technology, aviation, finance, and service industries. A total of 24 protocols and memorandums were signed during the meeting, covering co-operation between governments or between governments and associations; economic and trade co-operation matters between chambers of commerce; as well as projects related to RMB payment and clearing systems, technical co-operation and promotion of healthy food.

Participants and enterprises hope Macao will be able to play an integral role as a Commercial and Trade Co-operation Service Platform between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries, so that they can expand into new markets.

Guests participating in the opening ceremony included: the Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), Edmund Ho Hau Wah; Portuguese Republic’s Secretary of State of Internationalisation, Eurico Brilhante Dias; Vice-Minister of Commerce of China, Gao Yan; Secretary for Economy and Finance of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) Government, Leong Vai Tac; President of AICEP Portugal Global, Luís Castro Henriques; and Vice-President of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), Chen Zhou.

In his opening address, Secretary Leong Vai Tac stated that Macao is now working to build a Commercial and Trade Co-operation Service Platform between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries, which is the strategic positioning set by the Chinese Central Government for Macao SAR, but also a crucial way for the city to serve the country, as well as a key means to promote the moderate diversification of the city’s economy.

The efficient implementation of the “Belt and Road” initiative and improvements in Sino-Lusophone commercial and trade co-operation – which are aligned with Mainland China’s open-door policy – will create new development opportunities. Shanghai will host the first China International Import Expo in November 2018, which is expected to welcome 150,000 participants from around the world.

With the support of the Ministry of Commerce, Macao will organise a delegation of local enterprises that distribute products from Portuguese-speaking Countries to attend the event in Shanghai. The goal is to introduce these products to this important business and trade platform, and integrate Macao’s role as a Commercial and Trade Co-operation Service Platform between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries with the country’s open-door policy and the construction of the “Belt and Road” initiative.

Exploring new markets

According to Secretary Leong, with the support of the Central Government in June 2017, the headquarters of the China-Portuguese-speaking Countries Co-operation and Development Fund (CPD Fund) opened in Macao. The CPD Fund further strengthens the communication between Macao and its partners from Portuguese-speaking Countries.

The city is striving to promote the development of a featured financial industry, which is focused on financial leasing, wealth management, RMB clearing business and other areas. Together with the establishment of the financial service platform between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries, the CPD Fund provides financial support to enterprises both from China and Portuguese-speaking Countries, which will also enrich the content of the service platform itself. Secretary Leong expects more financial institutions to support and take part in the platform’s construction, by considering establishing a co-operation partnership with Macao or setting up a branch office in the city, in a bid to jointly generate new business opportunities and trade collaboration between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries, while more and more business opportunities will also be created.

Enterprises that participated in this year’s Entrepreneurs Meeting said they achieved productive results. A local technology company said that by relying on China’s “Belt and Road” initiative and the advantages of Macao as a co-operation platform between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries, the company’s top priority was to enhance co-operation with Portuguese-speaking Countries. To explore the markets of Portuguese-speaking Countries via Macao, enterprises would be able to take advantage of three areas: culture, bilingual professionals fluent in Chinese and Portuguese and industry co-operation resources. A representative of the tech company, which is currently focusing on the financial projects that it launched in Brazil, said it now expects their business to expand to other countries in South America. Later during the next phase, the company will work on co-operation projects with Portuguese companies, and will expand its footprint to the European Union by relying on Portugal. In the future, it will also study the feasibility of introducing some of its most successful projects to other Portuguese-speaking Countries by establishing partnerships through the Macao platform. Its projects offer different types of technologies and cutting-edge technological innovations, getting ready to “go global” in collaboration with Portuguese-speaking Countries.

One Mainland Chinese enterprise joined the Entrepreneurs Meeting for the first time in search of business opportunities with Portuguese-speaking Countries. According to its representative, the enterprise is interested in expanding its business to Portuguese-speaking Countries. By co-operating with Macao companies and having faith in their strength, the Mainland Chinese enterprise expects to make use of Macao’s advantages as a Commercial and Trade Co-operation Service Platform between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries. The enterprise believes that this co-operation model would not only be in line with the trend of global intelligent development, but would also enhance the competitiveness of Macao’s science and technology sector.

Organised by the Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM) and led by Secretary Leong, a delegation of about 60 entrepreneurs from Macao travelled to Portugal for this year’s Entrepreneurs Meeting. During the event, the delegation also visited some local industrial and logistics parks and infrastructure enterprises.

The 2019 Entrepreneurs Meeting will be held in São Tomé and Príncipe.