The Supporting Office to the Permanent Secretariat to the Forum for Economic and Trade Co-operation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries will get a new coordinator and assistant secretary-general in March.
Rita Santos, who simultaneously holds both positions, confirmed in a letter to the media yesterday that she will retire from the civil service on March 3rd.
Speculation about her impending retirement emerged last month.
Santos, a career civil servant, has worked for the supporting office since its inception in 2003.
In the letter, Santos says that after working for the civil service for nearly 35 years it was time to dedicate herself to her family “which will soon will have one more member.”
The forum, which holds triennial ministerial-level meetings in Macau, is overseen by the Ministry of Commerce in Beijing. It comprises China, Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, and East Timor.
Meanwhile, Santos told Radio Macau on Wednesday that she would not exclude the possibility of running for a seat in the legislature. She has run unsuccessfully for “New Hope” – the electoral vehicle of the Macau Civil Servants Association (ATFPM) – in the past.
Meanwhile, an informed source has told The Macau Post Daily that Echo Chan Keng Hong, executive director of the Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM), is expected to succeed Santos. “She would be the right choice,” the source said.
Chan is also the president of the Guangdong-Macau Traditional Chinese Medicine Technology Industrial Park Development Co. Ltd. in Hengqin New Area in Zhuhai. (macaunews/macaupost)
