The Macao SAR Government plans to enhance judicial co-operation with Portuguese-speaking Countries including transfer of convicted prisoners so that they serve their sentences in their home jurisdiction, Portuguese news agency Lusa reported.

Macao’s Secretary of Administration and Justice, Sónia Chan, announced on Monday that the SAR Government would start negotiating with other countries, “giving priority to negotiations with Lusophone Countries”.

She said negotiations would be done “taking into account the standard agreement on the transferring of convicted individuals and on judiciary co-operation in civic and trade matters, as [previously] approved by China’s Central Government”.

Ms Chan was addressing Macao’s legislators in a session where she presented her secretariat’s policies for 2016.

According to Lusa, Portugal is currently the only country with which Macao has an agreement on the transfer of convicted individuals. That deal was signed in 1999, before Macao’s handover to China, the media outlet added.