Portugal PM praises bilateral relations during Chui visit

Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa said yesterday (Macau time) that his country’s relationship with China is an important element of its national policy. During his meeting with Macau Chief Executive Chui Sai On, Costa said that the recent mutual visits by the presidents of the two countries have consolidated bilateral relations.

Costa spoke highly of the Greater Bay Area development project, stressing that the infrastructure improvements will strongly promote the area’s further development. Costa said that Macau has played a very important and special role in enhancing Portugal-China relations.

He expressed hope that Portugal and Macau will maintain unique friendly relations in several fields, such as judicial assistance and youth entrepreneurship.

Costa said that he was glad to see the successful development of Macau since its establishment 20 years ago. He praised Macau for its efforts and contributions in promoting the relationship between China and Portugal, as well as other Portuguese- speaking countries.

Chui, who is on a nine-day visit to Portugal, said that Macau will continue to serve as the service platform of commercial and trade cooperation for China and the Portuguese-speaking countries.

For his part, Chui encouraged Macau students studying in Portugal to make good use of the opportunity to gain further knowledge from overseas study and deepen their professional skills.

Chui made the comments during a dinner hosted for approximately 200 Portugal- based students from Macau, according to a statement from the Government Information Bureau. Six of the students shared their experiences of life studying in Portugal, gave their views on the possibility of pursuing a further academic qualification and talked about their career prospects in Macau.

Chui encouraged the students to return to Macau after their studies, bringing their knowledge and experience to both public departments and judicial bodies. He said that legal professionals played an important role in society and that their opinions and decision can have major a major influence on society.

Chui said that the existence of different legal systems within the Greater Bay Area presented huge challenges for a coordinated development model for the nine cities in Guangdong and the two Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau. It was not an easy task to create a mechanism to facilitate integration within the Greater Bay Area, he stated.

Also during the visit, Portugal and Macau agreed to strengthen economic cooperation and promote mutual investments in order to maintain the sustainable growth of the two economies.

Earlier, the Macau SAR government and the Portuguese Ministry of Economy signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in the fields of tourism, education, training and research, with the aim of promoting the joint development of training courses and joint degree programs. MDT/Agencies