Macau, China, 17 Sept – The president of Guinea Bissau, João Bernardo “Nino” Vieira, is due Friday to arrive in Macau on a three-day visit at the invitation of the chief executive of the Special Administrative Region of China, Edmund Ho.
According to Radio Macau, Vieira’s schedule in the SAR includes a meeting with Ho and a meeting with the secretary for the Economy and Finance, Francis Tam.
On Tuesday, Vieira was received in Beijing by the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, met with prime minister Wen Jiabao and signed an economic and technological cooperation agreement.
Guinea Bissau is, similarly to other Portuguese-speaking nations, with the exception of Sao Tome and Principe, which has diplomatic ties with Taiwan, one of China’s partners in the Forum that ahs Macau as a contact and promotional platform for economic and trade relations.
Guinea Bissau saw its trade with China rise 31.6 percent in the first seven month of the year, to a total of US$4.5 million.
In the first seven months of 2008 trade between China and the seven Portuguese-speaking countries totalled US$43.93 billion, a year on year rise of 88.7 percent.
Geocapital, a Macau-based company owned by Stanley Ho and Jorge Ferro Ribeiro in July of last year bought 60 percent of Guinea Bissau’s Banco da África Ocidental (BAO) bank.
Geocapital was also granted a concession to build a tourist complex on Caravela island, in the Bijagós archipelago, designated a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO.
(MacauNews)
