New Forum Macau coordinator vows to strengthen ‘platform role’

Echo Chan

The former executive director at the Macau Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM), Ms Echo Chan, officially took office yesterday as the new Coordinator of the Support Office to the Permanent Secretariat of the Forum for Economic and Trade Co-operation between China and Portuguese-
speaking Countries (Forum Macau).
Chan has been in her new post for nearly two weeks now, and revealed that she will roll out the work according to the soon-to-be released government Policy Address and the secretariat’s established plans.
“I will apply my experience, accumulated in my years at the IPIM, to this new job post, especially to assist in the development of economic, trade and cultural cooperation between Lusophone countries and the mainland, as well as Macau,” she stated.
The new coordinator vowed that she will devote her work to enabling the mainland and the Portuguese-speaking countries to fully benefit from Macau’s platform advantages.
Chan said that the Support Office will “further assist in China’s goal of building Macau into a platform, and encourage more institutions and enterprises to participate in our activities and training, so as to strengthen their exchanges with representatives from Lusophone countries.”
She also expects more effort to be put into Macau society in order to cultivate Sino-Luso bilingual talent.
The Secretary for Economy and Finance, Lionel Leong, directed the inaugural ceremony. He believes that Ms Chan will bring her expertise into her new role.
“During her work at the IPIM over 23 years, she was recognized for dedication, enthusiasm and outstanding performance. Being in charge of market expansion in the Portuguese-speaking countries was one of her main tasks. (…) She has great knowledge of, and has accumulated rich experience in, economic and trade exchange with the Lusophone countries,” he said of Ms Chan.
Echo Chan is successor to Ms Rita Santos, who had held the post since the creation of Forum Macau in 2003, and retired from the role on March 3. BY