Guangdong offers opportunity for entrepreneurs from Portuguese-speaking countries

Echo Chan

The assistant secretary-general the Permanent Office of Macau Forum advocated for a greater business relationship between Guangdong Province and the Portuguese-speaking countries.
Echo Chan said in an interview with daily newspaper Tribuna de Macau, that “there are many entrepreneurs who want to have a greater connection to the Portuguese-speaking countries and Guangdong province is a great opportunity. This has to be taken advantage of.”
With an area of 179,800 square kilometres and a population of 106 million in 2014 Guangdong province recorded a GDP of USD1 trillion and a growth rate of 7.8 percent, and is one of the most important development areas in China.
Macau, located next to Guangdong, is part of a regional development project involving several production centres within the Pearl River Delta.
In the interview, Echo Chan said the Distribution Centre for Products from Portuguese Speaking Countries, whose creation was announced in 2013, will start ahead of the next meeting of Macau Forum ministers, to be held in 2016.
In the interview with the newspaper Ms Chan addressed issues related to the future work of the Macau Forum, its link to the Macau Institute for Promotion of Investment and Trade, training and Portuguese language teaching and emphasised that in future the Forum may promote cultural initiatives.
“The Permanent Office of Macau Forum has outlined a set of planned activities and we are open to new initiatives. We can encourage others to join in this initiative but it cannot be the Forum alone that takes on all the roles (…) so we are open to all ideas as they arise to promote greater cultural exchange,” she said.  MDT/Macauhub