A new study suggests Macao should position itself as China’s gateway to Latin America, leaning into the “linguistic and cultural advantages” gleaned through 450 years under Portuguese administration, newspaper Ponto Final reports.
The Portuguese-language study, titled ‘Macao: Reconstruction of the Maritime Silk Road for Latin Countries’ and published in the latest issue of the Journal of Public Administration, highlighted the US city of Miami, Florida, as a potential model for Macao. It noted that Maimi was home to many consulates, chambers of commerce and companies from South and Central America, as well as the Caribbean (collectively known as Latin America).
Author Wang Hai, a researcher at the Institute of Economics of the Jiangsu Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, said Macao had potential to “become the ‘Miami of the East’” and help boost commercial and cultural ties between China and these markets.
[See more: Sino-Lusophone trade is off to a record-breaking start in 2024]
“China needs to create a highly developed international cross-linguistic and cultural exchange gateway like Miami,” Wang wrote. The researcher suggested that a China-Latin America trade platform could be permanently established in Macao – much like the existing Forum Macao, which connects China to Portuguese-speaking countries around the world.
Wang also referenced the SAR’s status as a major trade hub between the 16th and 19th centuries, when “the Maritime Silk Road radiated from Macao to … Asia, Europe, Africa and America, opening up a vast and unprecedented international market for traditional Chinese products, such as silk, tea and porcelain.”
China is already making massive strides in Latin America, illustrated by a US$3.5 billion investment into building a Peruvian seaport – set to start operations this year. The Pacific coast development will be the first South American port controlled by China, Reuters reports.
Over the past decade, China has usurped the US as South America’s largest trade partner.
