Macao, an enclave of Portugal for about 400 years, has become a bridge between two of the world's biggest developing consumer blocs -- China and the Portuguese-speaking world -- since its return to China 10 years ago, says a senior Macao official.

Macao had signed cooperative agreements with most Portuguese-speaking countries and had close relations with them due to similarities in language, history, and culture, said Rita Botelho dos Santos.

Santos, a Macao-born Portuguese, is director of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) government's supporting office to the permanent secretariat of the Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and the Portuguese-speaking Countries.

Initiated in 2003 and sponsored by China's Ministry of Commerce, the forum comprises mainland China, Macao, Brazil, Portugal, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, Angola and East Timor.

Trade between China and Portuguese-speaking countries reached 77 billion U.S. dollars in 2008, five times as much as in 2003, according to the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) .

Platform role not accidental

With a land area of only 29.2 square kilometers, Macao was a bridge between China and its 1.3 billion people and the 223 million Portuguese-speaking people elsewhere in the world, said Santos.

As the only region in the world with Chinese and Portuguese as its official languages, Macao provided a sound environment with human resources and language expertise for exchanges.

"People from both the Portuguese-speaking countries and the Chinese mainland feel at home here," said Santos.

Many business people, engineers and lawyers in the region were proficient in both Portuguese and Chinese, she said.

Thanks to its advantageous location, Macao had become a distribution hub between China and other countries.

Macao had established a broad foreign trade network with stable economic and trade links to more than 120 countries and regions. It was a also a member of about 30 international economic organizations, and many international conventions or multi-lateral treaties applied to the region.

"The success of Macao's platform role should also be attributed to the 'one country, two systems' policy and a high degree of autonomy which made the consolidation and development of Macao's status as a free port and a separate customs territory possible," she said.

In the previous ministerial conference of the forum in 2006, the member nations adopted the "Action Plan for Economic and Trade Cooperation" to boost cooperation between China and the Portuguese-speaking nations.

As of November, more than 1,900 officials and technicians from Portuguese-speaking countries had participated in research and training programs in China since the establishment of the forum, far exceeding the goal of 900 set in the Action Plan, said Santos.

Trade volume between China and Portuguese-speaking countries grew to 18.27 billion U.S. dollars in 2004, 65.7 percent up from 2003.

"The 46.3 billion U.S. dollars in 2007 means we have achieved the goal of 45 billion to 50 billion U.S. dollars in trade volume between the two sides set in the Action Plan two years in advance," Santos said.

Visitors from Portuguese-speaking countries, including top officials to the mainland, routinely stopped over in Macao.

"While being an effective medium for exchanges between China and Portuguese-speaking nations, the activities at the same time boosted Macao's international status," she said.

Preparations were underway for the third ministerial conference of the forum. "We hope we can contribute more to enhancing exchanges between the two sides and help to expand cooperation," Santos said.