Mayor Huang Zhihao of the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai has promised to work with neighbouring Macao to establish this year a centre for scientific and technological exchanges between China and the Portuguese-speaking world, the Macao Daily says.

Mr Huang told the Zhuhai Municipal People’s Congress in an annual presentation that the centre will be in the Guangdong-Macao Intensive Cooperation Zone on the Zhuhai island of Hengqin, which abuts Macao, the newspaper reported yesterday.

The mayor said he would also urge the formation on Hengqin of an alliance of private enterprises and institutions of higher education in Macao and Zhuhai, which would do innovative research, the Macao Daily says.