The Macau Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM) will invite Portugal to become the partner country at this year’s 21st Macau International Trade and Investment Fair (MIF), IPIM Executive Director Gloria Batalha Ung said on Thursday.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a seminar themed “Ideas from Europe, Ideas from Macau” at Macau Tower, Ung said the three-day fair will open on October 20, adding that she expected the exhibition to be “a bit bigger” than in previous years.
For the last 20 years MIF has been a four-day event but this year it has been streamlined to three days.
“This means that every year we are going to invite one of the Portuguese-speaking countries to participate actively and to be more outstanding at our MIF,” Ung said, adding she believed that that the arrangement would help boost trade and economic co-operation between China and Portuguese-speaking countries.
“This year we’ll invite Portugal to be our first partner country. So what are they going to do? We’re going to allow them to have a very special pavilion at MIF, where they can promote their industries,” Ung said.
Meanwhile, asked by a reporter why the products displayed at IPIM’s Portuguese-speaking Countries Food Exhibition Centre are not for sale on the site, Ung said customers can buy around one-third of the items on their producers or retailers’ websites by scanning the QR codes placed next to the products at the centre.
The centre, which is in the so-called Glass House in Praça do Tap Seac, has over 700 kinds of products on display, according to an IPIM statement last month. The products are from seven Portuguese-speaking countries and include snacks, tinned foods, coffee and alcohol, the statement said.
(Macau News / The Macau Post Daily)
