Macau-Portugal education agreement to facilitate closer ties

An agreement signed between Macau and Portugal will help facilitate greater cooperation between the regions, the Education and Youth Development Bureau (DSEDJ) said in a statement.

On Jul. 12, the bureau signed the agreement with the Coordinating Council of Higher Polytechnic Institutes in Portugal, a day after Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Elsie Ao Ieong met with a delegation from the entity.

Earlier this year, Ao Ieong visited Portugal to seek cooperation in the areas of medicine and healthcare, as well as education and culture.

The DSEDJ noted that the agreement aims at constructing a framework for strategic partnership.

According to the bureau, the implementation of the agreement will result in constant communications and mutual education data sharing between the Portuguese council and itself. This will help provide more appropriate and multifaceted information to Macau students who want to pursue further education in the European country, the education bureau highlighted.

Meanwhile, the agreement will also foster cooperation and exchange between Macau’s higher education institutions and their counterparts under the Council. This will help elevate the internationalization level of Macau’s higher education, the DSEDJ underlined, adding that more opportunities will also be made possible to local students.

According to the bureau, it has been diligent in cultivating people with talent in Portuguese for Macau, through apparatus such as organizing relevant activities and competitions, supporting higher education students in Macau and Portugal to organize their own events, as well as assisting local students’ overseas education in Portugal.

In the past decade or so, the Macau government has identified the cultivation of Portuguese talent in Macau as a key policy. AL