The Chief Executive, Mr Ho Iat Seng, today met with the Minister of Industry and Commerce of the Republic of Angola, Mr Rui Miguêns de Oliveira. The two officials exchanged views on how to promote economic and trade cooperation between the two sides and how to bolster Macao’s unique advantages in order to enhance its platform role serving China and Portuguese-speaking countries.

During the meeting held at the Government Headquarters, Mr Ho expressed his welcome to the Angolan delegation on the occasion of its visit to Macao for the 6th Ministerial Conference of the Forum for Economic and Trade Co-operation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries (Macao), the latter a body known as Forum Macao.

Mr Ho noted the success of the Ministerial Conference of Forum Macao. He expressed the will of the Macao Special Administrative Region (MSAR) to continue shouldering its platform role serving China and Portuguese-speaking countries. Macao also wished to continue assisting all member states of Forum Macao to enhance mutual exchanges and cooperation by making use of their unique advantages, thereby continually facilitating fresh achievements within the Forum Macao framework.

The Chief Executive said Macao had strong advantages in terms of culture, language, and legal services. These could facilitate easier access to the vast Chinese market for Angolan businesses.

Noting Angola had its strongest economic foundation and significant advantages in the energy sector, Mr Ho said the MSAR Government looked forward to providing further assistance in order to support a greater number of mainland China and Macao enterprises to explore the Angolan market. The Forum Macao framework would help strengthen communication between its members, creating among all of them, better conditions for cooperation and exchanges.

Minister Oliveira expressed gratitude to the Forum Macao organisers and the MSAR Government for their warm reception. He stated that the outcomes of this Ministerial Conference exceeded expectations, having provided good opportunities for interaction among all participants.

The Strategic Plan for Economic and Trade Co-operation (2024-2027), signed during the Ministerial Conference, would further cooperation between Angola and China, and offered promising prospects, said Mr Oliveira.

Macao’s platform role was of great significance, making major contributions to the mutual development and reciprocal cooperation enjoyed between Portuguese-speaking countries and China, he added.

The Minister hoped Macao’s platform role would help attact more investors to Angola, while further strengthening economic and trade exchanges between Angola, mainland China, and Macao. Also, he hoped the MSAR Government would introduce measures to make it more convenient for people to travel between Angola and Macao, and thereby enhance people-to-people exchanges.

The Ambassador of Angola to China, Mr João Salvador dos Santos Neto, attended the meeting.