This week’s 6th Ministerial Conference of the Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries, also known as Forum Macao, has shown, once more, that mutuality and amity continue to be the globe-spanning forum’s most salient characteristics.
Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao said in a speech during the ministerial conference at its Sai Van service platform complex – its de-facto headquarters – that all the nine participating Portuguese-speaking countries expressed their conviction during the event that Forum Macao “is an important platform and bond for mutually beneficial and friendly cooperation.”
As someone who has had the honour and pleasure of covering the forum’s activities since its informal inception in the first few years of this millennium and its formal establishment by the Ministry of Commerce in conjunction with the local government and then seven Portuguese-speaking countries (PSCs) in Macau in October 2003, I can vouch for Wang’s remarks.
Forum Macao is, I am sure, one of the world’s most mutually beneficial and most amicable international entities. It is also a beacon of peace in the fragmented and troubled world’s increasingly violent rivalry.
Over two decades after its founding, Forum Macao includes all of the world’s nine countries that have Portuguese as their official language (or one of their official languages – Equatorial Guinea and Timor-Leste), with a total population of 290 million.
Aside from Equatorial Guinea and Timor-Leste (East Timor), the forum includes Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Portugal, Cabo Verde (Cape Verde), São Tomé and Príncipe, and Guinea-Bissau.
Including China’s 1.4 billion inhabitants, Forum Macau represents about one-fifth of the world’s population. The amazing thing is that an organisation representing such as huge number of people is headquartered in one of the world’s smallest territories by size (33.3 square kilometres) and population (around 680,000) – Macau. Of course, Macau is one of the world’s oldest existing entrepots – with a history going back to the mid-16th century – and a free port set up in the mid-19th century.
Macau has the right historical background and constitutional framework to host Forum Macao.
One of the forum’s various outstanding features is that it comprises 10 countries that are able to maintain friendly economic, commercial and cultural ties even though their political systems are quite different and are ruled by parties that represent a wide range of political directions – socialist, social democratic, liberal, conservative, etc. However, unlike other international entities, Forum Macao does not intend to impose certain socio-political values on its members, i.e., it does not pursue the West’s purported approach of “shared values” which, I assume, is often nothing more than value signalling as a political tool.
Nine of the 10 Forum Macao are members of the emerging Global South, while Portugal is a country that is firmly anchored in the West, being one of the 12 founding members of NATO in 1949 and a member of the now 27-member supranational European Union. Nevertheless, in my view, Portugal has been able to continue pursuing a relatively independent foreign policy that, quite often, is somewhat different to the policies of its fellow NATO and EU members, in particular concerning its relations with the Global South, previously known, rather condescending, as the Third World.
Regarding political openness towards its membership, Forum Macao is similar to BRICS, which has now nine members that have rather different political systems but, notwithstanding the stark “otherness” as far as their respective methods of governance are concerned, have been able to form an intergovernmental organisation of emerging countries collectively defending their national and collective interests.
Forum Macao doesn’t, obviously, operate in a political vacuum. It is part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and, most importantly, President Xi Jinping’s proposals and actions concerning the creation of a Global Community of Share Future for Humanity.
The forum is also, to a certain extent, the result of the famed Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence marking their 70th anniversary this year.
Considering that six of Forum Macao’s 10 member states are from Africa, I think it’s appropriate to mention their continent’s philosophy of “ubuntu” (meaning “humanity” in Bantu), i.e., a value system that stresses the interconnectedness of individuals with their respective societies and natural conditions. “Ubuntu” has also been translated as the African concept of “I am because we are”. I think the concept stressing the existential importance of the human collective for each individual hits the nail on the head. Certainly, philosophy is a global phenomenon, and we can all benefit from each other and become friends through mutual respect – and learning from and with each other. I think that’s what Forum Macao has been doing for over two decades and will continue to do involving four of the world’s five (or seven) continents.
National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee Vice-Chairman Li Hongzhong emphasised in his well-structured keynote speech at the opening ceremony of Forum Macao’s 6th Ministerial Conference on Monday that the forum “has become a model of cooperation among countries with different social systems, cultural backgrounds, and stages of development, and a driving force in building a community with a shared future for humanity.”
Yes, it has.
In his speech, Li made four suggestions and announced six new measures for Forum Macao.
The four suggestions are: 1) jointly building an open and inclusive world economy; 2) enhancing the level of economic and trade cooperation; 3) expanding cooperation in emerging areas between China and PSCs; 4) enhancing the role of Macau in cooperation between China and PSCs and elevating the role of Macau as a platform for cooperation between China and PSCs.
Li’s No.4 suggestion was, I am sure, music to the ears of all those supporting Macau’s role as a “bridge” between China and the Portuguese-speaking world.
Li’s six new measures for Forum Macao are: 1) promoting trade and investment; 2) expanding industrial cooperation; 3) strengthening development cooperation; 4) promoting human resources cooperation; 5) advancing medical and health cooperation; 6) deepening Macau’s role as a platform.
The six new measures have been enshrined in Forum Macao’s three-year action plan (2024-2027), which the 10 nations inked at the conclusion of the conference on Monday.
It is now up to entrepreneurs from the participating countries to take up the mantle of wealth creators – for themselves and their respective countries. That’s what Forum Macao is all about: creating wealth benefitting all of us individually and, above all, collectively. Pursuing individual wealth without one’s fellow human beings in mind is counterproductive. Entrepreneurs need buyers to purchase their products and services, and buyers need to earn enough money to be able to make the purchases. It’s a two-way street.
That’s why I hope that yesterday’s entrepreneurs conference involving businesspeople from China, including Macau, and the PSCs will bear fruit. Forum Macao needs the involvement of more entrepreneurs who, let’s be realistic, are more important for economic progress than merchants. While merchants buy and sell goods, entrepreneurs are proactive businesspeople developing new products and services and, consequently, taking major risks.
Mostly behind the scenes, there has been muted criticism of Forum Macao’s perceived lassitude in using its support fund.
Macao Forum’s Secretary General Ji Xianzheng told local broadcaster TDM earlier this month that the forum’s Cooperation Fund between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries had by then supported 10 projects worth almost US$500 million. The fund was set up in 2010 and activated in 2013. According to Ji, the forum has so far supported projects in Brazil, Mozambique, Portugal, and Angola.
The criticism reminds me of the age-old adage of “biting the hand that feeds you”.
Be that as it may, I am upbeat about Forum Macao’s future actions, also on the financial support front.
For Macau, the forum will continue to ensure its participation in international relations at a relatively high level, thereby promoting its international image as a service hub for economic, commercial and cultural contacts on the global stage, the Portuguese-speaking world in particular. It’s also Macau’s contribution to assisting the Chinese nation in extending and reinforcing its global network pursuing mutually beneficial and amicable relations with a commercially and politically significant segment of the international community.
Win-win shall remain the ultimate aim of Forum Macao.
– Harald Brüning
