Portugal’s Prime Minister, António Costa met the Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday October 8th with both calling for more Chinese investment in Portugal.
During the meeting at the Great Hall of the People, Xi told the Portuguese PM that both countries need to deepen their cooperation in investment and to explore new markets.
China is willing to encourage more investment in Portugal, especially in the areas of finance, insurance, health care and infrastructure, areas in which Chinese companies already have made significant investments.
China’s president called for maritime cooperation, saying that China supports Portugal's participation in its ‘Belt and Road’ initiative* and encourages both countries to cooperate in maritime research and port logistics.
Costa said he would like to promote all-round cooperation between Portugal and China and push forward cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative and in the energy, finance, electricity, infrastructure, agriculture, manufacture, culture and tourism sectors.
On the political front, Xi spoke highly of the bilateral ties of the past 37 years and said China supports European integration and hoped that Portugal could exert a greater influence on China-EU economic and trade relations.
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- The Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-century Maritime Silk Road, also known as The Belt and Road (abbreviated B&R), One Belt, One Road (abbreviated OBOR) or the Belt and Road Initiative is a development strategy and framework, proposed by Chinese paramount leader Xi Jinping that focuses on connectivity and cooperation among countries primarily between the People's Republic of China and the rest of Eurasia, which consists of two main components, the land-based "Silk Road Economic Belt" (SREB) and oceangoing "Maritime Silk Road" (MSR). The strategy underlines China's push to take a bigger role in global affairs, and its need for priority capacity cooperation in areas such as steel manufacturing
