The third Ministerial Conference of the Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries will take place in Macao on the 13th and 14th of November 2010. Under the main theme “Diversified Cooperation, Harmonious Development”, various activities will be held during the conference, namely the “Opening Ceremony”, the “Ministerial Conference”, the “Conference for Businesspeople” and the “Conference for Professionals in Finance”. The Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries was created in October 2003 in Macao, sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce of China, hosted by the Macao Special Administrative Region Government and with the joint participation of seven Portuguese-speaking Countries: Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal and East Timor. As an intergovernmental and multilateral mechanism for economic and trade cooperation, the Macao Forum aims at promoting and developing economic and commercial relations between China and the Portuguese-speaking countries in economic and commercial fields, using Macao as a platform for the promotion of common development in mainland China, the Portuguese-speaking countries and the Macao Special Administrative Region (MSAR). Two Ministerial Conferences of the Macao Forum were held in Macao in October 2003 and September 2006. Within the ambit of the two Action Plans for Economic and Commercial Cooperation approved by the Ministers of the countries participating in the Macao Forum different cooperation areas were laid out, namely cooperation between governments and in the areas of: trade, investment and business, human resources, agriculture and fishing, construction of infrastructures, natural resources and cooperation development. Since the creation of this initiative seven years ago, countries participating in the Macao Forum have effectively fulfilled their Action Plans and offered a positive contribution in reinforcing and raising the level of their economic and trade cooperation.
