Macao’s Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai is aiming to expand the SAR’s international influence, and has positioned Spain as the starting point for extending its platform role into the Spanish-speaking world. The revelation by the SAR government followed his meeting with Minister for Foreign Affairs José Manuel Albares Bueno of Spain, in Madrid yesterday.
The talks, which occurred after Sam’s four-day visit to Lisbon, focused on boosting future collaboration between Macao and Spain in areas such as trade, investment, culture, and scientific and technological innovation. Both sides concurred on maintaining dialogue and advancing mutual cooperation.
Sam noted that as a Special Administrative Region of China, Macao leverages the “One country, two systems” principle to act as a unique platform for cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking countries. This has involved successfully hosting numerous international events, including multiple ministerial meetings of the Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries.
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Macao now aims to use Spain to expand its engagement by jointly promoting deeper, mutually beneficial cooperation between China and Spanish-speaking nations. Sam emphasised that his visit was a key step in fulfilling the central authorities’ mandate for Macao to expand its global profile and become an important “bridgehead for China’s opening-up.”
Minister Albares welcomed the delegation, confirming that the visit provided a significant opportunity to deepen friendly relations between China and Spain. He gained a clearer understanding of Macao’s potential to serve as a “vital connecting point” for exchanges between China, Spain, and other Spanish-speaking nations.
Looking ahead, Albares stated that Spain was ready to further strengthen economic, trade, and tourism cooperation with Macao and hoped to take part in future international economic and trade events held there. Crucially, Spain offered support for the Macao SAR Government’s drive to promote Spanish language learning in the region, with the goal of nurturing a greater number of Chinese-Spanish bilingual talents.
