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Angolan Ambassador to Beijing: Sino-Lusophone fund eases rules for partnerships

The Angolan ambassador in Beijing said this Tuesday that the China-Portuguese-Speaking Countries Cooperation and Development Fund will make the application rules more flexible to promote more partnerships between companies from the two blocs.

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João Salvador dos Santos told journalists that he believes that "more flexible access criteria to the fund" will obtain "more tangible results that will benefit China" and the Portuguese-speaking countries.

The cooperation fund, worth almost one billion euros, was created almost 10 years ago by the China Development Bank and the Industrial and Commercial Development Fund of Macau.

After a meeting between diplomats and the fund's leadership on Monday, there will be "direct contact between the countries and the fund's management to directly discuss projects that are sustainable", said the Angolan.

"We want profitable projects so that we can make use of the fund and make the fund sustainable. We want the fund to last 'ad eternum'", underlined dos Santos.

According to the fund's page, the institution, based in Macau, supported a total investment of more than four billion dollars (3.7 billion euros) by Chinese companies in 20 projects in Portuguese-speaking countries.

The bottom page gives examples of the Container Terminal of Paranaguá, the largest in South America, in southern Brazil, and the hydroelectric dam of São Simão, also in southern Brazil.

Companies interested in obtaining support must guarantee a minimum investment of five million dollars (4.6 million euros) and the fund only finances 20 percent, the president of the International Commercial Association for Lusophone Markets told Lusa in May 2022.

"Nothing is used in the fund", lamented Macau businessman Eduardo Ambrósio.

João Salvador dos Santos was in the Chinese region for a meeting of the Forum for Economic and Commercial Cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries (Macau Forum).

The secretary general of Forum Macau, Ji Xianzheng, told journalists after the meeting that there is still no date for holding the sixth ministerial conference of the institution, postponed since 2019 due to the covid-19 pandemic.

"The Portuguese-speaking delegations and the delegation from China addressed the issue, inside and outside the meeting. To set a date, they first have to know the important political agendas of all countries", said the official.

About a month ago, the leader of the Macau Government, Ho Iat Seng, said he hoped the conference would take place this year.

Forum Macau, which celebrated its 20th anniversary this Tuesday, is supervised by the Ministry of Commerce of China, and includes delegates from the nine Portuguese-speaking countries: Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, Portugal, Sao Tome and Principe and East Timor.

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