Li Hongzhong, the first-ranked vice-chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC), will attend the opening ceremony of the 6th Ministerial Conference of the Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries (Macao) - aka Forum Macao - on Monday, public broadcaster TDM has reported today.
According to TDM, Li will deliver a speech during the opening ceremony of the conference at the Services Platform for Commercial Cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries in Nam Van on Monday morning.
Li, 67, is a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee. He is a former Party chief of Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hubei, as well as a former governor of Hubei province.
The opening ceremony will be presided over by Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao.
The report pointed out that on Monday afternoon, the conference will be officially convened to identify the key areas of China's economic and trade cooperation with Portuguese-speaking countries in the next three years, adding that the conference aims to further enhance Macau's role as a service platform for China with Portuguese-speaking countries in commerce and trade. The conference will conclude with the signing of the "Action Plan for Economic and Trade Cooperation (2024-2027)".
The conference's welcome banquet will take place on Sunday at the International Convention Centre on the second floor of the Macau East Asian Games Dome in Cotai.
In addition, according to the report, an entrepreneurs conference will be held on Tuesday morning. The conference will be co-chaired by Deputy Minister of Commerce Guo Tingting and Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) Secretary for Economy and Finance Lei Wai Nong. Representatives from Portuguese-speaking countries will deliver speeches at the entrepreneurs conference.
Forum Macao was formally set up in Macau in October 2003. It was initiated by the Central People’s Government’s Ministry of Commerce (MOC) in conjunction with the government of the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR).
It now comprises China and nine Portuguese-speaking countries – Angola, Brazil, Cabo Verde (Cape Verde), Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Timor-Leste (East Timor).
Due to the three-year COVID-19 pandemic and schedule issues, the last Ministerial Conference, which is supposed to be held every three years, took place in Macau back in October 2016.
Forum Macao’s Permanent Secretariat is headed by its Secretary-General Ji Xianzheng, a career diplomat who took up his current post in January 2022. Ji, who was previously posted to Venezuela, Spain and Portugal, is an expert in commercial diplomacy and former deputy director of the Department for European Affairs at the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) in Beijing. He is fluent in Spanish, English and Portuguese.
Analysts have described Forum Macao as Macau’s most important institution dedicated to international relations and pointed out that it has considerably elevated the MSAR’s international status and image.
Forum Macao’s nine Portuguese-speaking countries include Brazil, one of the world’s major economic powers and one of the nine BRICS members, as well as two of Africa’s emerging major economies – Angola and Mozambique. It also includes EU member Portugal and five relatively small countries which, however, are rich in natural resources Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Timor-Leste (East Timor), São Tomé and Príncipe, and Cabo Verde (Cape Verde).
The nine Portuguese-speaking countries have a population of 290 million. Forum Macao’s 10 member states account for around one-fifth of the world population. been five Ministerial Conferences and an Extraordinary Ministerial Meeting, all of them held in Macau.
In an article published in The Macau Post Daily today, Macau-based Foreign Ministry Commissioner Liu Xianfa has pointed out the importance of "Enhancing Macau's role as a bridge between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries for Building a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind".
"I believe that Macao, which serves as an important bridge for cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking countries and the permanent host city of Forum Macao, will make greater contributions to China and Portuguese-speaking countries working together to build a community with a shared future for mankind," Liu underlined in the conclusion of his article.
Caption: Undated File Photo of NPC Vice Chairman Li Hongzhong - Xinhua
