Facilitated trade ties between China, Portuguese-speaking countries secured

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, October 14, 2003

Facilitated trade ties between China, Portuguese-speaking countries secured

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Officials and businessmen from China and seven Portuguese-speaking countries, who are attending a trade forum here, have voiced their eagerness to extend bilateral trade and taken substantive actions to do so.

Compared with the huge population and abundant resources in the countries, the bilateral trade of merely 6.1 billion US dollars scored in 2002 was very small.

Trade delegations led by ministerial-level officials from the Portuguese-speaking countries at the Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese-Speaking Countries in Macao signed a framework document with the Chinese delegation headed by Vice Minister of Commerce An Min to enhance their trade ties on Monday.

The seven Portuguese-speaking countries are Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal and East Timor.

The signing of the framework document, which guarantees a concerted effort to remove trade barriers and open up wider for trade, marks a new era of the bilateral trade. A material merge ofthe two markets would yield a big influence on the global economy and trade, said Joao Jose Silva Monteiro, minister of foreign affairs, international cooperation and communities of Guinea-Bissau.

Amid a global wave of merging regional and cross-border trade zones to maximize trade networks, the resource-rich Portuguese-speaking countries and world's fastest growing market China seem to be a perfect match for the endeavor, said An Min.

Figures from his ministry showed that China's imports from the Portuguese-speaking countries went up to 4.2 billion dollars in 2002, representing an annual increase of 33 percent, and in the first half of 2003, China imported 3.53 billion dollars worth of goods from those countries, tripling the figure for the same period last year.

Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi said when meeting ministers attending the forum here Sunday that China regards the Portuguese-speaking countries as important trade partners.

Under the trade framework signed in Macao, member countries would be actively committed to facilitating bilateral trade and investment, strengthening the cooperation in the areas of agriculture and infrastructure building, and expanding the utilization of natural and human resources.

Among the seven Portuguese-speaking countries, with a combined population of 200 million, Brazil has become one of China's biggest trade partners; Portugal has had trade ties with China forover 400 years; and the rest are developing countries rich of resources and eager for investment.

In a friendly gesture, China signed a bilateral economic and technological cooperation agreement to provide aid to the five Portuguese-speaking countries in Asia and Africa at this forum.

Avelino Bonifacio Fernandes Lopes, Cape Verde's minister of economy, growth and competitiveness, noted that the initiative taken by the Chinese government to sponsor the forum is very necessary.

He explained that the forum would help the countries to share information and overcome selfness so as to construct sound cooperative relations with each other. He added that the rest of the job will be for government officials and business people from the participating countries to substantiate the optimized ties.

The forum has done just that by staging the trade and investment fair for exchanges among non-governmental business organizations and business people from China and the Portuguese-speaking countries.

Carlos Alberto Sampaio Morgado, minister of industry and commerce of Mozambique, said that the forum held in Macao is not only a platform for official trade contracts, but also for seekingpotential business opportunities.

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