An ex-official of Forum Macao has drawn attention to the potential for widening the scope of economic engagement by China and the Portuguese-speaking world beyond building infrastructure and farming, to include e-commerce and the application of telecommunication technology, Xinhua reports.

Xinhua says the ex-official is Wang Cheng’an, formerly secretary-general of the Forum for Economic and Trade Co-operation between China and the Portuguese Language Countries, known as Forum Macao.

The report quotes Mr Wang as saying potential for engagement in e-commerce lies in Brazil being the biggest e-commerce market in Latin America.

In addition, postal packages for online orders average 200,000 a year in Cabo Verde and account for 40 percent of the nation’s total postal packages and mails, he said.

Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd of China has already seen the potential for engagement in the application of telecommunication technology, selling its mobile phones in Portuguese-speaking countries and equipping fifth-generation networks to connect them in Portugal and eventually, perhaps, in Brazil, Xinhua quotes Mr Wang as saying.