Timor-Leste participates in the meeting of the Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and the Portuguese-speaking Countries
The 14th Regular Meeting of the Permanent Secretariat of the Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and the Portuguese-speaking Countries (Macao Forum) was held on March 27, 2019 at the World Trade Center in Macao.
The Macao Forum was established in October 2003, on the initiative of the Central Government of China and in coordination with seven Portuguese-speaking countries - Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal and Timor-Leste – and with the collaboration of the Government of the Macao Special Administrative Region (Macao SAR). In March 2017, it welcomed Sao Tome and Principe, which became the eighth Portuguese-speaking country. The Macao Forum is a multilateral mechanism for intergovernmental cooperation and aims to consolidate the economic and trade exchange between China and Portuguese-speaking countries, using Macao as a platform for linking the participating countries.
The event brought together ambassadors from Portuguese-speaking countries and representatives from other delegations to review the work done by the Permanent Secretariat in 2018 and to discuss and approve the program of activities for 2019. The Permanent Secretariat has elected as agenda priorities the promotion of trade and investment, the promotion of cooperation in productive capacity, the training of human resources and the cultural exchange between China and the Portuguese-speaking countries.
The head of the national delegation, the Timor-Leste Ambassador in Beijing, Mr. Bendito Santos Freitas, underlined the importance of cooperation in the area of productive capacity as one of the main pillars of the Macau Forum, affirming itself as a potential driving force for the economic development of Timor-Leste.
In addition to the Timor-Leste Ambassador in Beijing, the participants included Iriana Ximenes, a focal point and senior adviser to the Office of the Minister of State of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers and Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs; Danilo Afonso Henriques, Delegate of Timor-Leste at the Permanent Secretariat of the Macau Forum and Mariano dos Santos, Immigration Attaché at Timor-Leste Embassy in Beijing.
