The Chief Executive, Ho Iat Seng, met with the Minister of Economy of Portugal, Pedro Reis, at the Central Government Headquarters today (20 October) to exchange views on topics such as promoting economic and trade co-operation between the two places, attracting more Portuguese enterprises and talents to develop in Macao, and better playing Macao's role as a platform.
The Chief Executive welcomed the delegation led by Minister Reis to Macao to attend the 6th Ministerial Conference of the Forum for Economic and Trade Co-operation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries (Macao). He said that the friendship between China and Portugal goes back to ancient times, and the relationship between Macao and Portugal has a deep history. Macau has long played a role as a platform for Portugal to tap into the vast Chinese mainland market, including the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. During the visit of the HKSAR Government delegation to Portugal last year, representatives of the governments and enterprises of the two sides had a number of in-depth exchanges, opening up a new situation of friendship and cooperation between the two places.
The Chief Executive briefed Minister Reis that the Macao SAR is actively promoting the "1+4" moderately diversified development strategy, focusing on the development of the Guangdong-Macao In-Depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin, with a view to optimizing Macao's industrial structure and broadening Macao's development space. He encouraged Portuguese companies to increase their investment in Australia and expand their business into the in-depth cooperation zone, especially in the big health industry. The Macau Medical Center of Peking Union Medical College Hospital (PUMC) was put into trial operation in December last year, effectively promoting the development of Macao's health industry by leveraging the brand effect of Peking Union Medical College Hospital. Portugal has a good biomedical foundation, and relevant enterprises can use Australia and Qinqin as a bridgehead to enter the mainland market.
Minister Les first conveyed the greetings of the President and Prime Minister of Portugal and said that he had high expectations for the Ministerial Conference of Forum Macao, which will further deepen the friendly relations between Portugal and China and broaden the potential of economic and trade cooperation between the two sides. Portugal is willing to participate in the development of Macao's modern financial sector, which will encourage more Portuguese enterprises to expand their business in Macao in the future, so that Portugal and Macao can achieve mutual benefit and win-win results.
He believes that Macao will continue to play a role as a platform to provide greater support for Portuguese enterprises to participate in the development of the Greater Bay Area and enter the Chinese mainland market. He said that the tourism and MICE industry is one of the important industries in Portugal, and in recent years, Portugal has held many different types of large-scale MICE events, and hopes to co-organize large-scale MICE projects with Macao and Chinese mainland in the future to jointly promote cultural exchanges and economic development between the two sides. At the same time, he thanked the SAR Government for sparing no effort in promoting Portuguese language education and promoting Portuguese culture.
葡萄牙驻华大使保罗·若热纳西门托(Paulo Jorge Pereira do Nascimento)、葡萄牙驻澳总领事雷德生(Alexandre Leitão)等参与了会面。