East Timor seeks higher education cooperation with GAES

A delegation of the East Timor parliament members toured the territory last week and met with the coordinator of the Tertiary Education Services Office (GAES), Sou Chio Fai, and the deputy-coordinator of the Office, Silvia Ribeiro Osório Ho, where they exchanged views on the current state of higher education in the two territories, a statement from the GAES informed.
During the meeting, Sou made a brief presentation on the development of Macau’s higher education as well as the situation on the training of qualified bilingual staff in the Chinese and Portuguese languages.
The office coordinator highlighted that the training of these professionals is one of priorities of government, to which it is investing significant resources.
Sou also remarked that, following the government plan to turn the territory into a “Portuguese Language Training Center in the Asia-Pacific,” the GAES launched last April a special funding project for institutions of higher education both in Macau, Mainland China, other Asia-Pacific counties and Portuguese- speaking countries – including East Timor – to promote this field.
Meanwhile, the head of the East Timor parliament delegation, Virgilio Costa Hornai, highlighted the “long term historical relations between East Timor and Macau that have been strengthened in recent years by mutual cooperation in areas such as economy and trade, tourism and law, among others.”
He also said that the visit to GAES “was a good opportunity to know more about the situation of Macau’s higher education as well as expand exchanges and cooperation in the area with Macau.”