The newly struck European Union (EU)-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment may increase the performance by Macao of its function as a place to do business, Bank of China Macao Branch Strategic Planning Department analyst Qi Wenhao says.

In an article he wrote for a newspaper, the Macao Daily News, Mr Qi says Macao can facilitate capital flows between China and the European Union in general and between China and Portugal in particular, and make investment by one party in the other more convenient.

The analyst says Macao can do so by improving its cross-border financial and consulting services, tapping its pool of qualified people knowledgeable about trade and other aspects of the economies of the Portuguese-speaking world, and about the legal systems there.

The Sino-EU agreement may also increase the performance by Macao of its renminbi clearing function, Mr Qi wrote in the Macao Daily News on Monday.