China hopes that in the next three years from 2007 to 2009, two-way trade between China and Portuguese-speaking countries will reach 45-50 billion U.S. dollars and mutual investment double at least, a senior Chinese official said Sunday in Macao.

Hua Jianmin, Chinese state councilor and secretary general of the State Council, also said that the Chinese government had decided to provide in the three-year period a preferential loan of 800 million yuan (about 100 million U.S. dollars) for implementing construction projects, which have been proved feasible by Chinese banking institutions, for expanding cooperation between the two sides.

He made the remarks at the 2nd Ministerial Conference of the Forum on Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese-Speaking Countries which opened here Sunday morning.

Ministers from China and seven Portuguese-speaking countries gathered here Sunday to explore ways of furthering their economic and trade cooperation.

Addressing the conference, Hua said in the past three years, all cooperation approved by the 1st conference has been carried out smoothly with remarkable results through joint efforts of the forum member countries.

He said the cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking countries enjoys great potentials and has a broad prospect.

He also proposed that all member countries to expand the scope of their economic and trade cooperation and further perfect the mechanism of the forum so that the cooperation can be deepened and achieve more and more results.

Hua spoke highly of Macao's unique role in bridging China and Portuguese-speaking countries in their cooperation.

The 2nd Ministerial Conference, with the theme of " Strengthening Cooperation, Common Development," will make a retrospective analysis of the implementation of the "Action Plan for Economic and Trade Cooperation" approved in the 1st conference held in 2003.

The forum is composed of China and seven Portuguese-speaking countries, namely Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal and Timor-Leste.

Source: Xinhua