Portugal's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Paulo Rangel, promised on March 28, during a meeting with the authorities of the Macau Special Administrative Region, to strengthen Chinese language teaching in Portugal, something he described as decisive for the country's future.

"The situation today is much better than it was 20 years ago (...). We already have, in fact, a training capacity that we didn't have at all," said Paulo Rangel, at a reception for the Portuguese community in Macau.

In addition to degrees in Chinese language and culture, the Confucius Institute, under the tutelage of a government agency, provides free Mandarin courses at five Portuguese universities: Porto, Aveiro, Coimbra, Lisbon and Minho.

At the end of February, the rector of the University of the Azores, Susana Mira Leal, announced her intention to open a branch of the Confucius Institute at the institution.

(Source: SAPO, on March 28)