China-Lusophone cooperation Ministerial Conference to establish 2017-2019 strategy

Li Keqiang

The Fifth Ministerial Conference of the Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries (Forum Macau), a multilateral conference to discuss trade and business promotion which is held in Macau, will this year set out the strategic plan for the 2017 to 2019 period.
Held in the city on October 11 and 12, the event will welcome delegations from mainland China and seven Portuguese-speaking countries, namely Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal and East Timor.
According to a statement from the Government Information Bureau (GCS), this year’s theme will be “Working toward stronger Sino-Portuguese-speaking countries’ trade and economic relations – combining efforts, jointly building a platform, sharing fruits of development”.
The two-day conference will commence with a welcoming banquet and opening ceremony followed by ministerial meetings and additional discussion sessions between entrepreneurs from China and Portuguese-speaking countries.

António Costa

These sessions will be held with a view to examining the opportunities arising from China’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative, according to the GCS statement.
Forum Macau, located in the MSAR, is partly intended to diversify Macau’s economy by thrusting it to the forefront of China-Lusophone economic cooperation, leveraging the city’s heritage as an internationally competitive advantage.
In 2015, mainland authorities established a Tariff Implementation Plan to abolish various import taxes from countries such as Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau, while others, like Angola and East Timor, saw around 95 percent of their exports to China exempt from taxation.
Critics of the plan noted that Portugal and Brazil, the largest of the Lusophonic exporters to China, did not have the same tax reductions applied to their goods and services.
At the previous edition of Forum Macau held in 2013, Gao Hucheng, China’s Minister for Commerce, outlined a vision for trade between China and Portuguese-
speaking countries to expand to USD160 billion (about MOP1.28 trillion) by 2016.
Gao said that the target would be “quite easy to achieve” since trade relations between China and the Lusophone world amounted to USD120 billion (about MOP959 billion) in 2012.
However, in the first half of this year, the trade level was less than USD41.7 billion (MOP333 billion), down by more than 13 percent year-on-
year. If trade levels remain steady during the second half of 2016, the annual total will reach just USD83.4 billion.
Forum Macau was founded in the MSAR in October 2003 as the initiative of the Central Government in collaboration with Macau authorities. Previous editions of the conference were held in 2003, 2006, 2010 and 2013. DB

Li Keqiang, António Costa to attend event

China’s Prime Minister Li Keqiang, will take part in the Ministerial Conference, reported Radio Macau. The Portuguese-language broadcaster also reported that the Prime Minister of Portugal, António Costa, will also be present at the conference