Forum for Economic and Trade Co-operation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries (MACAO Forum)
Updated on November 2017
Updated on November 2017
The Forum for Economic and Trade Co-operation between China and Portuguese-Speaking Countries (MACAO), also named “Macao Forum”, was created in 2003. Defined as a multilateral and intergovernmental mechanism for cooperation, the creation of the Forum was stimulated by the Central Government of China, with the coordination of seven Portuguese-speaking countries (without São Tomé and Príncipe at first) and governmental collaboration of Macao – a Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China (SAR) (Forum Macao, n.d.).
The main objective of Forum Macao is to contribute to the development and strengthening of commercial and economic relations between China and its other members (Forum Macao, 2003). Furthermore, mutual benefits and the Chinese, Macao and Portuguese-speaking countries internal development are also a part of the forum’s goal (Xinhua Português, 2016a).
Since Portuguese is one of its official languages, Macao is used by the Chinese government as a link to facilitate and consolidate the commercial and economic relations between China and the eight Portuguese-Speaking countries (Lee, 2016, p. 45). In addition, it is also where the Permanent Secretariat of the Forum is located. That linguistic and cultural bond with the Portuguese-Speaking countries is deriving from the Portuguese colonization of the Forum’s platform for more than 400 years – The colonization of Macao lasted until 1999 (Macauhub, n.d.).
[1] São Tomé and Príncipe cut diplomatic relations with Taiwan on December 20th, 2016. After that, China and the archipelago signed an agreement of reestablishment of their diplomatic relations (Macahub, 2017a). The African Country has become a permanent forum member during the 12nd Ordinary Meeting of the Forum Macao’s Permanent Secretariat on March, 2017 (Forum Macao, 2017a).
Chinese participation in Portuguese-Speaking Countries’ Exportations (2015)
Source: (OEC, n.d.)
Source: (Forum Macao, 2017b).
Source: (Forum Macao, 2017b).