New association wants to help Portuguese-speaking companies overcome obstacles in China

A new chamber of commerce and industry based in Macau wants to help companies from Portuguese-speaking countries overcome barriers to accessing the Chinese market, President Luse said.

The Lusophone Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Greater Bay Area of ​​Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau (China) is the first association that aims to bring together companies from all Lusophone markets, said Rodrigo Brum.

Exports from Portuguese-speaking countries to China reached $147.5 billion (€136.1 billion) in 2023, a new historical record. Brazil is China’s largest Portuguese-speaking partner (82.2%), followed by Angola (10.4%).

As for other countries, including Portugal, they are “very small and therefore” can and should “already benefit from joint action and a common position” in dealing with China, Broome said.

The chamber’s goal, according to the Portuguese leader, is to help businessmen overcome “lack of scale” to enter the world’s second-largest economy, as well as “lack of knowledge or even lack of definition regarding Chinese rules and legislation.”

Broome also highlighted the language barrier, differences in “the way business is done” and the “known difficulties in exporting food products” to the Chinese market.

Portuguese beef remains unable to reach mainland China, despite Lisbon signing an agreement in 2019 to simplify food exports to China, including lamb and beef.

Broome said he believes that “the coordinated position of companies from nine countries [de língua portuguesa] determines an active position in those structures that have already been created and which need to be used.”

In 2003, China created the Macau Special Administrative Region (SAR) as a platform to strengthen economic and trade cooperation with Portuguese-speaking countries.

That same year, China also created the Forum for Economic and Commercial Cooperation between China and Lusophone Countries, better known as the Macau Forum, of which Broome served as Deputy Secretary General.

“The chamber’s ultimate goal is to gain a critical mass so that it is heard by the authorities who determine the rules of the game” and explain the proposals and difficulties faced by Portuguese-speaking businessmen, the leader said.

This year marks the fifth anniversary of the creation of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, one of Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s three major regional integration strategies.

The project covers the special administrative regions of Macau and Hong Kong, as well as nine cities in Guangdong province, by creating a single market and expanding connectivity.

The Greater Bay Area, home to about 70 million people, has a gross domestic product of more than $1.5 billion (€1.3 billion), larger than the economies of Australia, Indonesia or Mexico, all G20 countries.