New Action Plan to boost trade between China, Portuguese-speaking countries

The new Action Plan was signed by representatives of China and the Portuguese-speaking countries at the Fourth Ministerial Conference of the Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries on Tuesday.

Announced by Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng at a press conference after the ministerial conference, the Action Plan include three aspects: establishing a new bilateral trade investment goal; further enriching pragmatic cooperation content; and further enhancing Macao's role as a platform between China and Lusophone countries.

The Action Plan strives to reach the goal of achieving 160 billion U.S. dollars in bilateral trade between China and Lusophone countries by 2016, and to speed up mutual investment in the next three years.

There is a series of "first times" in the Action Plan, which include suggesting enterprises to act as the main body of the trade and economic cooperation zones; reinforcing environmental protection cooperation, especially in the aspect of clean energy; introducing a certain number of film and television works between both sides.

Furthermore, the action plan strives to emphasize more on improving investment environment; to support the promotion of each member's facility projects through the forum; to push ahead with the exchange in Chinese and Portuguese language teaching and learning; to intensify cooperation between financial institutes, so as to boost the China-Portuguese Speaking Countries Fund.

According to the Action Plan, specialized exhibition in Macao targeting Portuguese-speaking countries will be fostered, and the setting up of the Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Commercial Services Center for Portuguese-speaking countries in the city is under discussion. It is also suggested that Macao to be promoted as an arbitration center serving mainly China and Portuguese companies to resolve business disputes.