The Conference of Entrepreneurs between China and the Portuguese-speaking Countries cum Project Matching Meeting for China and Portuguese-speaking Countries Cooperation and Development Fund to bolster participating countries’ trade and business co-operation, was held in Macao today.

The Conference, which was themed “Grasp Opportunities and Deepen Cooperation in Pursuit of Common Development and Win-win Outcomes”, was attended by some 600 high ranking officials, entrepreneurs from China and the Portuguese-speaking countries.

The Secretary for Economy and Finance, Mr Tam Pak Yuen, said in his speech that significant achievements have been made in two-way investments, co-operation between entrepreneurs, and training to widen the human resources pool, adding that all these have shown that co-operation between China and the Portuguese-speaking countries have been enhanced over the past decade.

He highlighted the importance of the special fund for co-operation and development between China and Portuguese-speaking countries, which was formally established in June this year, and said the participants would discuss ways to further promote exchange and co-operation between entrepreneurs from China and the Portuguese-speaking countries in this Conference.

In her speech, China’s Vice Minister of Commerce, Ms Gao Yan, made four suggestions to promote mutual benefit. They are:

- Expand bilateral trade and investment;

- Create an enabling environment for trade and economic cooperation;

- Beef up collaborative projects between China and Portuguese-speaking countries; and

- Leverage the role of Macao as a platform.

During the Conference, two agreements on trade co-operation were signed and 95 business projects on infrastructure, agriculture, manufacturing, energy and natural resources, were successfully matched.