Macau Strengthens Relationship With Lisbon

Written on February 6, 2007 by a2zMacau

Macau’s chief executive, Edmund Ho, has said the visit of Portuguese Prime Minister José Sócrates to the territory will strengthen existing friendly relations with Lisbon and also increase the enclave’s importance as a trade and investment platform.

“Macau can be a platform for Portugal in its relations with China. With his (Sócrates’) visit, we are certain that relations between Lisbon and Beijing will be stimulated and developed,” Ho said Saturday after talks with the visiting Portuguese leader.

Ho added that as well as serving to reinforce the Sino-Portuguese strategic partnership, Sócrates’ visit to Macau was important in highlighting the role played by the territory in the two countries’ bilateral relations.

Sócrates’ stop-off in Macau after an official visit to mainland China also will also give a new impulse to relations between the territory and Portugal, added Ho.

Portugal’s prime minister was the first head of government from Lisbon to visit Macau since its handover to Chinese rule in 1999. He said his country’s economic and political ties with China “are absolute priorities” in Portugal’s foreign policy agenda.

Relations between Portugal and China have grown significantly in recent years, noted Sócrates, especially after the signing of a strategic partnership between the two states in 2005.

Portugal’s Socialist government and President Anibal Cavaco Silva, a conservative, are working together to redefine Lisbon’s foreign policy to give priority to country’s such as Brazil, Russia, India and China, he added.

Sócrates said he hoped Macau would continue to promote the Portugal-China connection and pledged that Special Administrative Region would be an entry point for Portuguese products to Chinese markets.

“Macau can be a door of communication between Portugal and China, but also with Africa and Latin America,” the Portuguese leader said.

Macau’s finance and economy secretary, Francis Tam Pak Yuen, speaking at the opening of a Macau-Portugal Economic and Business Cooperation Forum, said the “favorable perspectives opening for Macau in the development of its economy will contribute to creating more opportunities for tightening economic and trade cooperation between Portugal and Macau.”

Tam reminded his business audience that “for historic reasons, close relations exist between Portugal and Macau in the economic, trade and cultural” fields, as well as between their peoples.

“This privilege allows Macau to function as a connecting bridge between mainland China and Portugal, playing the role of intermediary between these two states.” (macauhub)

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