Brazil has appointed Rafael Rodrigues Paulino as the new delegate to the Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries, an organisation based in the Macau Special Administrative Region, Macauhub has learned from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Brazil.

Rodrigues Paulino, the second secretary of the Brazilian Consulate-General in Hong Kong, replaces Rodrigo Mendes Araújo, a diplomat at the Brazilian embassy in the People’s Republic of China.

The appointment of a new delegate based in Hong Kong, closer to Macau, is part of the interest shown by Brazil’s diplomatic representation in China to follow more closely the political and economic aspects of cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking countries.

Brazil’s decision comes as a result of contacts made by Forum Macau officials with Brazilian diplomats for Brazil, which is China’s largest trading partner, to get more involved in the organisation’s work.

The Brazilian ambassador to China, Marcos Caramuru de Paiva, said at a recent seminar in Macau commemorating the 15 years of Forum Macau that his country wanted to have a greater intervention in the work of the institution.

At the time, the diplomat considered that Forum Macau needs to become a superstructure that can help develop actions in areas such as tourism and language, among others.

The Brazilian diplomat also said that the Forum has a key role to play in accompanying Portuguese-speaking countries in integrating into the local reality, and in particular in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Great Bay area, to which it can make an invaluable contribution. (macauhub)