Macau wants to show more Portuguese and Spanish products to China

Jackson Chang

The Macau Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM) wants more companies from Portugal and Spain to come to Macau to showcase their products, with the Chinese market as their ultimate goal, said the IPIM president, Jackson Chang.

Speaking at the official opening of the China and Portuguese- and Spanish-Speaking Countries (FIN) International Business Fair, where he completed a mission that had begun a week earlier in Praia, Cape Verde, Chang invited the companies present to take part in the 22nd Macau International Fair (MIF), which will take place from October 19 to 21.

“I hope you will come to Macau to take part in our fair,” said the president of IPIM, noting that this year, for the first time, the Exhibition of Products and Services of Portuguese Language Countries 2017 (2017 PLPEX) will be an autonomous event.

PLPEX, said Chang, will be “an ideal time for Portuguese and Spanish companies to exhibit their products.” FIN was the final event of this mission of IPIM, with the participation of more than 60 business people and managers from various Chinese provinces, which began on June 16 in Praia, Cape Verde, where the Meeting of Entrepreneurs for Economic and Trade Cooperation Between China and the Portuguese-speaking countries took place.

On arrival in Portugal, on June 21, and before heading to Matosinhos, in partnership with the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) and the Portuguese Agency for Investment and Foreign Trade, IPIM organized a Business Opportunities Meeting between Portugal, China and Macau, which brought together about 200 business people and official entities from the two countries.

At the event, China’s ambassador, Cai Run, said that the recent Forum on the Belt and Road initiative was to “define directions and identify projects to be implemented” and, since Portugal was responsible for the “the great maritime era,” it is an “important partner” in the initiative.

The Portuguese secretary of state for internationalization, Jorge Costa Oliveira, said there is “high potential in terms of tripartite business cooperation, especially in other geographies,” including Europe, Latin America and Africa, where Portugal has important political relationships.

This triangulation, the Portuguese official said, gives Chinese companies “improved access to markets where they have no tradition of entry,” and to the Portuguese offers “greater robustness, greater scale and access to financing.”

Macau, the president of IPIM said, is “actively working on the implementation of various supports,” such as the financial services platform and the renminbi clearing center for Portuguese- speaking countries, highlighting its role as a platform.

Both in Praia and in Lisbon, the participating business people expressed their satisfaction with the opportunities opened up by the Belt and Road initiative, as well as with the installation in Macau of the headquarters of the Fund for Development Cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries, which was represented by the director-general of the management company, Jin Guangze.

With a number of business people interested in making applications to the Fund for their projects, Guangze pointed out that there are three selection criteria: strategic nature, financial viability – “reasonable” return for shareholders in 4-5 years – and rational investment.  MDT/Macauhub