The Minister of Economy said today there was room “to fine-tune the regulations” of the China-Portuguese Speaking Countries Cooperation and Development Fund, with access rules criticized by members of the bloc, but rejected the need for another fund.
“Sometimes there is room to fine-tune the fund’s regulations, you don’t necessarily have to make such a quantum leap to create other funds to meet expectations,” Pedro Reis told Lusa, who is in Macau for the sixth ministerial conference of the Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries (PLP), better known as Forum Macau.
The cooperation fund, worth 1 billion dollars (938 million euros), was set up 10 years ago by the China Development Bank and the Macau Industrial and Commercial Development Fund.
This mechanism has already invested 500 million dollars (469 million euros) in Portuguese-speaking countries, Shi Wenju, president of the managing body, the China-Africa Development Fund, announced in October.
The rules on access to capital have been criticized by member countries of the multilateral structure, such as Mozambique’s ambassador in Beijing, Maria Gustava, who last year called for “more flexible access to existing funds”, pointing to the need for changes.
Companies interested in obtaining support must guarantee a minimum investment of five million dollars (4.7 million euros) and the Sino-Lusophone fund only finances 20%, the president of the International Trade Association for Lusophone Markets, Eduardo Ambrósio, explained to Lusa in May 2022.
With regard to the investment of half of the fund in a total of ten projects over ten years, Pedro Reis noted that “it’s not as insignificant as” we’ve heard.
“I think it’s a start. We’d expect it to accelerate now, because even in the case of the funds, sometimes the first few years have fewer projects, and then it gains natural traction. Often, in funds, the second phase has much more capacity to invest,” he said.
Arguing that projects “have to be given time to breathe”, Pedro Reis considers it “more important to consolidate, densify and revisit” this fund “than to create other funds”.
“The important thing would be to make this fund more impactful and SME-oriented,” he said.
Initially scheduled for 2019, the sixth ministerial conference was postponed to June 2020 due to the Macau parliamentary elections, but the covid-19 pandemic meant that it didn’t take place.
Taking stock of more than two decades of Forum Macau, which was set up in 2003, the Economy Minister said that “having this space for dialogue with China” is a “benefit for all the member countries”.
“For China, because I think it gives it greater visibility and proximity to the reality of investment projects, to export moments, to the cultural agenda, to the importance of the linguistic aspect. And for our countries, and particularly speaking of course for Portugal, it ends up being a revisit and a stocktaking and a reinvigoration of this global agenda,” said Pedro Reis.
As well as China, Forum Macau includes nine Portuguese-speaking countries: Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe and East Timor.
Five ministerial conferences were held in the territory in 2003, 2006, 2010, 2013 and 2016, during which Action Plans for Economic and Trade Cooperation were approved.
