The extraordinary ministerial conference of the Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries has been postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic once again, from this month to early next year, public broadcaster TDM-Rádio Macao reported yesterday.
The report quoted a “source linked to” the Forum Macao, a locally based organisation headed by the Ministry of Commerce in Beijing.
The report pointed out that the forum’s sixth conference was previously scheduled for October 2020, but because of the pandemic it was postponed to mid-November this year.
Rádio Macao said that the conference was now slated to take place in Macao next January or February.
The last – usually triennial – conference of the Forum Macao took place in the city in 2016. The first postponement was announced in 2018, one year before the 6th ordinary conference then slated for the autumn of 2019.
As both the chief executive election and the celebrations of the 20th anniversary of Macao’s return to China were held in 2019, the conference was postponed to 2020. However, the worsening of the Covid-19 pandemic last year resulted in a further postponement.
Initially, this year’s conference was scheduled for 29-30 June, but was postponed owing to the pandemic.
It was also reclassified as an extraordinary ministerial conference and planned to be held in two segments – online for the participating ministers and in person in Macao by the ambassadors from the Portuguese-speaking countries accredited in Beijing.
