Beijing government to encourage Chinese investment in Portugal

Beijing, China, 1 Feb – The Chinese government plans to encourage Chinese companies to invest in cutting-edge industry in Portugal, such as information technology (IT), official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported Thursday.

The Chinese news agency reported that deputy trade minister, Yu Guangzhou, had guaranteed that the government would support Chinese companies that wished to invest in Portugal in the logistics, IT and automotive and electronics sectors.

China's prime minister, Wen Jiabao, also pledged Wednesday that China was focused on increasing commercial and economic ties with Portugal, in a meeting with Portuguese prime minister, José Sócrates, who is currently on an official visit to the People's Republic of China.

After the meeting, officials from the Chinese and Portuguese Finance ministries signed a memorandum of understanding to open a 300 million euro credit line to support Portuguese exports to China and which involves Portuguese bank, Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD) and the Bank of China.

The credit line is particularly aimed at contributing to Chinese imports of Portuguese equipment.

Sócrates Wednesday called for Portuguese-Chinese partnerships to be set up in order to operate in Portuguese-speaking Africa and Brazil.

Sócrates made the appeal during the opening of the Portugal-China Business Cooperation Forum 2007 and at a ceremony to launch Archway, a Chinese company owned by Portugal Telecom and a company related to the Chinese telecommunications ministry.

The Portuguese prime minister, as well as Beijing, is due to visit Shanghai and Macau. (macauhub)