Second Macao-Portugal Joint Committee meeting in Lisbon

Macao and Portugal have signed five co-operation agreements at the second Macao-Portugal Joint Committee meeting held in Lisbon. A joint communiqué issued after yesterday's meeting in the Portuguese capital said the parties signed agreements on education, environmental protection, consumer rights, and tourism. The meeting addressed the importance of the bilateral relationship development and increasing reciprocal visits and co-operation between the public and private sectors, it said. Before discussing further future co-operation, the both sides reviewed and concluded the works on culture, education, law, security, tourism, environmental protection, sports, consumer rights, and cartography and land survey standards. On the training for teachers of Portuguese, following the wide use of the language internationally, Macao would continue to serve as a platform to train and to spread Portuguese, which is one of the two official languages of Macao. The Portugal government would assist Macao in the training of teachers. On tertiary education, the relevant departments on both sides would deepen collaborations to enhance the quality of tertiary education in Macao. The communiqué said both sides have agreed to strengthen co-operation in heritage, cultural and creative industries, and in contemporary art. It was also confirmed that Portugal's contemporary architecture art exhibition will be held in Macao. Officials from the Macao's Consumer Council and the Portugal Consumer Protection Bureau would commence training in consumer disputes arbitration techniques.
Meanwhile, Macao's Institute for Tourism Studies and Portugal's tourism authority - Turismo de Portugal – have agreed to strengthen the exchanges of teachers and students, and to provide opportunities for internship.
A new milestone has been achieved in environmental protection which reflected co-operation on the control of emissions of air pollutants. Working on past co-operation, there will an increase in the exchange of judicial officials and experience-sharing meetings between members of the profession. In the economic area, both sides have investigated the co-operation in culture and creative industry. Entrepreneurs from Macao and Portugal held a round table meeting one day before the meeting to discuss the linkages of cultural heritage, innovation and techniques between the creative industry in the past and in the future. The delegations were led by the Chief-of-Cabinet of the Office of the Chief Executive of the Macao SAR, Mr Tam Chon Weng, and the Portuguese Foreign Ministry's Director General for Foreign Policy, Mr Rui Macieira. The two governments recorded that they were satisfied with the results and confirmed that the third meeting will be held in Macao. The first joint committee meeting was held in Lisbon in April 2011.