Deputy Secretary-General of the Forum Macau Paulo Espírito Santo regretted on Monday that visitors of Portuguese-speaking Africa have been excluded from the list of countries whose nationals are allowed to enter the SAR since the beginning of the month, without prior authorisation.
Paulo Espírito Santo, who is one of the Forum’s three deputy secretary generals of the Permanent Secretariat of the Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries (Macau), said that “the non-inclusion in the list” of Portuguese-speaking African countries “does not benefit cooperation”, not least because, he stressed, these countries “have the pandemic under control”.
Since September 1, tourists from 41 countries, including Brazil and Portugal, arriving from Taiwan, Hong Kong and overseas have been allowed to enter Macau without prior authorization.
Mr Espírito Santo, Deputy-Secretary General appointed by the Forum’s Lusophone countries and former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and Communities of São Tomé and Príncipe, also asked the Macau authorities to review the decision.
The tone of the speech, however, was marked by underlining the opportunities that have been open to the Portuguese-speaking community at least since the early 21stcentury, with the creation of Forum Macau, and by the need to continue to strengthen cooperation and enhance the role of Macau as a platform between China and Portuguese-speaking countries.
It is necessary to continue “to attract new, differentiated businesses with a Portuguese-speaking base and” to attract Portuguese-speaking investors”, he stressed.
The statements by Paulo Esprito Santo were made at the “Forum of Think Tanks between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries.”
The forum focused on the discussion of two main topics: “Initiatives related to development and security in the world and the future of cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking countries” and “Role of Macau in cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking countries”.
China’s door to further open up
At the opening ceremony of the forum, Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China in the SAR Liu Xianfa said that the role of Macau as a platform between China and the Portuguese Speaking Countries will be even greater in the future.
Mr Liu underlined that China’s door will not close; on the contrary it will keep on opening up.
“With the advancement of the high-quality joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative, the implementation of the Global Development and Global Security Initiatives, and the continued acceleration of the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area and the Guangdong-Macau In-depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin, Macau will certainly perform better in the cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking countries”, Mr Liu said.
The event, which took place at the Complex of Services Platform for Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries, was organized by the Office of Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China in the Macau Special Administrative Region and by the SAR Government, with the Macau Polytechnic University.
