The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Portuguese-Speaking Countries in the Greater Bay Area of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau (China) is the first association that aims to bring together companies from all Portuguese-speaking markets, said Rodrigo Brum.
Exports from Portuguese-speaking countries to China reached US$147.5 billion in 2023, a new historical record. Brazil is China's largest Portuguese-speaking partner (82.2 percent), followed by Angola (10.4 percent).
As for other countries, including Portugal, they are "very small and, therefore", they can and should "already be benefiting from joint action and a joint position" in the relationship with China, argued Brum.
The chamber's objective, said the Portuguese leader, is to help businesspeople overcome "the lack of scale" to enter the second largest economy in the world and "the little knowledge or even lack of definition at times about Chinese regulations and legislation".
Brum also highlighted the language barrier, the differences in "the way business is done" and "the known difficulties in exporting food products" to the Chinese market.
Portuguese beef still cannot enter mainland China, despite the fact that, in 2019, Lisbon signed an agreement to simplify procedures for exporting food products to China, including sheep and beef.
Brum said he believes that "the coordinated position of companies from the nine [Portuguese-speaking] countries determines an active position in the structures that have already been created and that must be taken advantage of".
China established the Macau Special Administrative Region (SAR) as a platform for strengthening economic and trade cooperation with Portuguese-speaking countries in 2003.
That same year, China also created the Forum for Economic and Commercial Cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries, better known as the Macau Forum, of which Brum was deputy secretary-general.
"The chamber's ultimate ambition is to gain critical mass to be heard by the authorities that determine the rules of the game" and explain the suggestions and difficulties experienced by Portuguese-speaking businesspeople, said the leader.
This year marks the fifth anniversary of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, one of Chinese leader Xi Jinping's three main strategies for regional integration.
The project covers the special administrative regions of Macau and Hong Kong and nine cities in Guangdong province, through the creation of a single market and increasing connectivity.
The gross domestic product of the Greater Bay Area, with around 70 million inhabitants, exceeds 1.5 billion dollars, larger than the economies of Australia, Indonesia or Mexico, countries that make up the G20.
