Xiamen, China, 7 Sept – The Chinese province of Fujian wants to boost ties with the Portuguese-speaking nations through Macau, a Chinese official said in Xiamen.

Lu Zhangong, the provincial secretary of the Chinese communist party, was speaking at a meeting with the head of the Macau government, Edmundo Ho, who was in Xiamen to take part in the Second Forum on West Coast Economic Zone of the Taiwan Straits and take part in the 11th China International Fair for Investment and Trade (CIFIT).

Ho said, in his turn, that relations between Macau and Fujian had helped in Macau’s development and noted that a delegation from the Chinese province would be present at the Macau International Fair to be held in October.

In June, Ho announced that Macau and Fujian would organize a joint action in the European Union in order to garner business for the region.

Ho said at the time that Macau had organized together with the Chinese province, “trips by groups of businesspeople to Portuguese-speaking countries (Mozambique, Angola and Brazil, amongst others), some of which have already found new markets and trade opportunities.”

Fujian and Macau belong to the Chinese regional alliance of the Great Pearl River Delta also known as “9+2” which includes Fujian, JIangxi, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan and the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau.

The eight province and the autonomous region of Guangxi represent a fifth of China’s total area, a third of its population and a third of its gross domestic product (GDP). Its population is similar to that of the European Union countries.

Fujian province, with an area of 121,400 square kilometres, has a population of 35 million people and is located on the coast of China opposite Taiwan. (macauhub)