Co-organised by Training Centre of Forum Macau (Centro de Formação do Fórum de Macau) and City University of Macau (CityU), the Closing Ceremony of Workshop on Financial Cooperation for the Portuguese Speaking Countries (Portuguese: Colóquio de Cooperação Financeira para os Países de Língua Portuguesa) was held at the Grand Ballroom at MGM Macau on 30 May 2019.

The Ceremony began with speeches by Deputy Secretary-General (appointed by the People’s Republic of China) of the Permanent Secretariat of Forum Macau, Mr Ding Tian; Pro-Rector of CityU, Professor Kuai Peng Ip; and Representative of the Workshop, Mr Adelino Dabata; followed by the presentation of Certificates to participants who have successfully completed the Workshop.

In his speech, Pro-Rector Ip stated that ‘Macau is one of the four key cities of the Greater Bay Area as well as positioned as the service platform for commercial and trade cooperation between China and the PSCs as set out in the national development strategy. In recent years the Macau SAR Government has been actively promoting the development of “featured finance” with the aim of further enhancing Macau’s platform role’. He strongly believed that the Workshop would promote deeper cooperation in financial services and trading as well as cultural exchange between China and the PSCs, in such a way that more business opportunities would be brought to China and the PSCs.  

Also attending the ceremony were Consul General of Angola in Macau, Ms Sofia Pegado da Silva; Consul General of Moçambique in Macau, Mr Rafael Custodio Marques; Consul General of Portugal in Macau and Hong Kong, Mr Paulo Cunha Alves; Deputy Secretary-General (appointed by the Portuguese-speaking countries) of the Permanent Secretariat of Forum Macau, Mr Rodrigo Brum; Coordinator of the Executive Office of the Permanent Secretariat of Forum Macau, Mr Hu Huajun; Coordinator of the Liaison Office of the Permanent Secretariat of Forum Macau, Ms Francisca Reino; Coordinator of the Support Office (Macau SAR Government) of Forum Macau, Ms Teresa Mok; and Representatives of the PSCs from Forum Macau.

The Workshop took place in Hubei Province and Macau from 20 May – 1 June 2019. The workshop brought together 26 government officials, business executives, government consultants, industry representatives and senior officers from the PSCs, including Brasil, Cabo Verde, Guiné-Bissau, Moçambique, Portugal, São Tomé e Príncipe and Timor-Leste.

During the visit to Wuhan and Yichang, the participants attended two business matchmaking sessions and visited a number of corporations. In Macau, they attended a series of lectures related to the trends in China's social and economic development; the ‘Belt and Road’ initiative and relevant policies; principles of financial evaluation of projects, China's foreign banking and financial cooperation policies, conditions and financial instruments; monetary and financial supervision policy of the Basel Committee; Macau's economic diversification development policy and planning; and Macau’s insurance industry, and visited relevant government departments and Bank of China (Macau Branch). Also, the participants attended the 10th International Infrastructure Investment and Construction Forum.