Representatives from UCCLA – the Union of Portuguese Language Capital Cities – met on Monday in Macao to plan activities for 2016.

According to a press release from Macao’s Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau (IACM), the UCCLA’s Executive Committee plans to develop next year several co-operation projects with Macao’s institutions; including Macao Foundation and the Forum for Economic and Trade Co-operation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries (Macao), also known as Forum Macao.

Representatives of UCCLA’s Executive Committee also highlighted the opening of the organisation’s new headquarters in Lisbon, scheduled for January or February 2016.

The annual meetings of UCCLA’s Civil Protection and Historical Heritage Protection Networks are also scheduled to take place next year. UCCLA also expects to strengthen its Economic Co-operation Office, IACM added.

Portuguese language newspaper Jornal Tribuna de Macau reported on Tuesday that UCCLA plans to organise in 2016 a meeting of Portuguese language writers. The latest such meeting is expected to take place in Praia, in Cape Verde.

UCCLA also hopes to promote what it referred to as solidarity activities in 2016, relating especially to integration into host communities around the world of the refugees currently arriving in Europe from the Middle East, said UCCLA’s General-Secretary, Vítor Ramalho, as quoted by Jornal Tribuna de Macau.

UCCLA’s membership currently includes 40 cities and 40 companies, the newspaper added.