A facility set up by the Portuguese Institute of the Orient, Macau, or IPOR Macau, has begun teaching the Portuguese language in Chengdu, capital of the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan, Ponto Final reports.

The Macao newspaper quotes IPOR Macau Director Joaquim Ramos Coelho as saying in an interview that the Chengdu facility is already giving classes, even though it has yet to be formally declared open.

In another development, IPOR Macau and a language school in Sichuan are cooperating in teaching Portuguese to health professionals there, Ponto Final quotes Mr Ramos Coelho as saying.

Last week a Chinese state-run newspaper, the Sichuan Daily, reported that since 1976 the authorities in the province had sent almost 800 of its people on 67 medical missions to Portuguese-speaking parts of Africa, and that the missions had given medical attention to 7 million people there.