On the eve of Ho Iat Seng’s departure for Lisbon, the Chinese region’s authorities confirmed today that the chief of the Macau government will visit Portugal, Luxembourg, and Belgium between April 18 and April 27.
According to a statement, the chief executive of Macau will be in Portugal until April 22, with meetings scheduled with the Portuguese president, prime minister, and foreign minister.
Following Ho Iat Seng’s departure for Luxembourg, the business delegation will travel to Porto and visit several regional companies in order to “strengthen economic and trade cooperation between Portugal and Macau,” according to the statement.
The delegation will meet with the Portuguese-Chinese Association of Traders and Industrialists and the Portugal-China Small and Medium-Sized Business Chamber of Commerce with the assistance of the Macau Trade and Investment Promotion Institute.
In addition, business trips to Hospital da Luz, Quinta da Marmeleira, Amorim, Sovena, and Delta groups are planned.
In a statement released in February, the government expressed its hope that the business delegation will “promote cooperation and exchange in the fields of Portuguese education, science and technology, the pharmaceutical industry, and maritime economy.”
In parallel, the Terreiro do Paco will host a daily “videomapping” performance evoking the special Chinese administrative region from April 15 to April 22 as part of an initiative by the Macau Tourism Bureau.
In Luxembourg, Ho Iat Seng will meet with Xavier Bettel, the country’s prime minister.
Friday, the Chief Executive stated in parliament that the visit to Luxembourg would also serve to learn from the largest stock exchange in Europe, and he reaffirmed that Macau intends to investigate the establishment of a stock exchange.
The government of the territory has expressed its willingness to proceed with a stock exchange denominated in the currency of the Chinese mainland, the renmimbi, in order to provide financial services between Beijing and Portuguese-speaking nations.
The European tour concludes in Brussels with a visit to the headquarters of the European Union and meetings with Pierre-Yves Dermagne, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Labor of Belgium, Rudi Vervoort, and other EU representatives.
The objective is to “promote exchanges between Macau and European Union countries in the areas of trade, science and technology, tourism, and the normalization of the movement of people,” the territory’s government said in February.
