On August 14, Qingdao municipal government signed a cooperation agreement?with the Permanent Secretariat of the Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries in Maocao.

Under the agreement entitled Memorandum of Understanding for International?Industrial Capacity Cooperation Within Qingdao’s Industry Park for Eurasia Economic and Trade Cooperation, the two signing parties will use the park to promote investment, trade and industrial capacity cooperation between Qingdao and Portuguese-speaking countries under the Belt and Road Initiative.

The eight Portuguese-speaking countries in the world, namely Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Caper Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Sao Tome and Principe and East Timor, is an emerging market with a combined population of 280 million.

In the first half of this year, trade between Qingdao and the eight countries totaled 2.11 billion US dollars, up 70.1 percent year on year.