The strategic partnerships that China has signed in recent decades, particularly with the majority of Portuguese-speaking countries, are a major factor to boost the Belt and Road initiative (BR), according to researchers, Yichao Li and Mário Barbosa Vicente.
Work has begun on building the new deepwater port of Tibar in Timor-Leste. China Harbor Engineering Company (CHEC) is developing the US$490 million project, which will be operated by French firm Bolloré. The scheme is huge in relation to the size of the Timorese economy and the volume of non-oil trade flows, so is it really needed, or will it actually drive economic growth?
The expansion of global trade was an important theme of the 2nd International China Imports Exhibition, during which a set of agreements favouring Macau as a trading platform between Portuguese-speaking countries and China was signed.
Brazil and Cabo Verde were among the countries to introduce the most reforms throughout 2018 to improve their business environment, although this was not enough to prevent their decline in the World Bank benchmark index.
Macau has an important role to play as a “knowledge centre” in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area (GBA) project, according to some of the leading Sino-Lusophone researchers.
The São Tomé Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (APCI) will follow up on potential deals that resulted from the meeting of entrepreneurs from China and Portuguese-speaking countries, said the director of the São Tomé and Príncipe agency.
Art has been around for at least 10,000 years. It has taken many forms, from paintings on cave walls to dead sheep suspended in formaldehyde. But, whatever the medium, age and location, one thing is for sure: you can tell a lot about a culture when you look at its art. As the late anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss said, objects matter.
The diversification of Macau’s economy centred on relations with Portuguese-speaking countries is essential if the territory is to find its place in the Greater Bay Area, said the chief executive of Banco Nacional Ultramarino (BNU).
Most international attention on Timor-Leste is directed at the fortunes of the Greater Sunrise hydrocarbon project but another sector has the ability to affect Timorese lives more directly. Coffee accounts for 90 percent of the country’s non-oil and gas export revenues but has the potential to play a much bigger role in rural development. Yet … Continue reading “Challenges but huge potential for Timorese coffee”
The Portuguese-speaking countries (PSCs) will play a key role in the future of Macau outlined in the Greater Bay Area (GBA) Plan of the Central Government of China.
Mozambique has exceeded expectations in terms of global connectivity, according to the latest ranking by multinational DHL, in which Timor-Leste was the only Portuguese-speaking country included to increase competitiveness compared with the previous year.
The fate of the Greater Sunrise gas project in Timor-Leste hangs in the balance after two of the main investors pulled out, selling their equity shares to the government of Timor-Leste.
Macau’s Banco Nacional Ultramarino (BNU) is looking to increase support for the more than 40,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the territory, said Carlos Cid Álvares, the bank’s chief executive told the Tribuna de Macau newspaper.
Trade between China and the Portuguese-speaking countries has increased 11-fold since Forum Macau was set up in 2003, and the Forum has played a “very important role” in Chinese globalisation, said China’s Deputy Minister of Commerce.
China’s direct investment in Portuguese-speaking countries has reached US$$50 billion, Macau Forum Secretary-General Xu Yingzhen said in an interview with local Portuguese-language newspaper Tribuna de Macau.
Business projects involving China and Portuguese-speaking countries have been receiving official Chinese funding, but the deepening of this cooperation in the “era” of the New Silk Road requires innovative financial mechanisms, the president of the Fund for Cooperation and Development between China and the Portuguese-speaking Countries said in Lisbon.
The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), which includes Timor-Leste (East Timor) and Portugal among its members, intends to strengthen its intervention in Africa and South America, said the chairman of the financial institution based in China.
The business environment improved from 2016 to 2017 in all Portuguese-speaking countries, among which Cabo Verde (Cape Verde) was the best positioned and Angola the one that rose the most, according to the classification in the World Bank “Doing Business” report for 2018.
The economies of the Portuguese-speaking countries, with the exception of Mozambique, recorded slight gains in the Global Competitiveness Index 2017-2018, released last week.
The role played by Macau as a platform in the relationship between China and Portuguese-speaking countries is viewed with renewed interest by economic agents due to the establishment in the Special Administrative Region of the headquarters of the Fund for Cooperation and the “Belt and Road” initiative drawn up by the central government of China.
