Macau’s Talents Development Committee is discussing further partnerships with higher education institutions in Portugal. This is in order to help develop the professional skills of people bilingual in Chinese and Portuguese, the committee said this week in a statement.

According to the press release, the committee is currently working with Portugal’s University of Coimbra to launch a grants programme for master’s courses. It would provide three additional scholarships places aside from the postgraduate scholarships already provided by the Macau Government. The initiative would create “more opportunities for Macao students to further their studies in Portugal,” the committee said.

In addition, the committee is planning to launch a Lisbon MBA Funding, in an effort “to develop Macao elites in business administration”. The New University of Lisbon, the Portuguese Catholic University and the Sloan School of Management of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States, jointly teach the courses in the Lisbon MBA programme.

The Talents Development Committee’s members discussed details related to the two programmes this week. Participants in the meeting agreed the initiatives would “act as positive examples” for Macao young people and inspire them to seek to upgrade their professional skills.