Maria Gustava, Mozambique’s ambassador to Beijing, says products from Portuguese-speaking countries need “greater access to the Chinese market”.
She is also calling for more flexible rules from the China-Portuguese-speaking Countries Co-operation and Development Fund – a US$1 billion pool set up in 2013 to support development in the lusophone world.
Gustva was speaking on the sidelines of the 14th International Forum on Infrastructure Investment and Construction in Macao, Portugal’s news agency Lusa reports.
[See more: Sino-Lusophone trade increases by nearly 4 percent in the first quarter]
Gustava said that “it would be important to expand the areas” of Chinese investment to small and medium-sized companies operating in sectors such as agricultural processing.
She appealed to Chinese companies to “exploit to the fullest the enormous potential for investment” in Portuguese-speaking countries, adding that “they present enormous opportunities for the internationalisation” of Chinese enterprises.
Portuguese-speaking countries sold goods worth more than US$28.3 billion to China in the first three months of 2023 – an increase of 1.8 percent year-on-year, according to data from the Chinese customs authorities.
