Portugal is “on the radar” of Chinese investors and the relationship between the two countries is in its “best moment so far”, said Filipe Santos Costa, a former Shanghai-based Delegate from AICEP Portugal Global – Trade & Investment Agency, a Portuguese state organisation.

In an interview with Portuguese news agency Lusa, Mr Costa recalled that, when he applied for the Shanghai position at the end of 2010, he did not imagine China would become one of Portugal’s main economic partners.

Mr Costa believes the current relationship between the two countries is the fruit of the internationalisation of Chinese companies – encouraged by China’s Central Government –, but also a result of “the attractiveness of the Portuguese economy and of the work of Portuguese institutions”.

Mr Costa’s latest job is to open AICEP’s delegation in San Francisco, California, in the United States. He believes there are still “many opportunities” for Portuguese companies in China, as income and consumers’ habits develop in the Asian country.

“Here [in China], and generally in Asia, we have great increases in terms of income, urbanisation levels and growing access to consumerism among the population”, Mr Costa commented, as quoted in the news report.

Economist Pedro Aires de Abreu replaced Mr Costa as AICEP’s Delegate in Shanghai, with effect from July 1.

According to Lusa, in the past three years, Portuguese exports to China have more than doubled, surpassing US$1.6 billion in 2014. Since China Three Gorges acquired 21.35 percent of Portuguese electricity generator and supplier EDP – Energias de Portugal – in December 2011, the volume of Chinese capital invested in Portugal has reached about 10 billion euros (US$11 billion).