Academics, businesspeople and officials representing Mainland China and Macao, along with Brazil, Portugal and other lusophone countries, gathered in Beijing this week to discuss the Portuguese-speaking world, the People’s Daily reports.

The Communist Party of China newspaper says they attended the annual Joint Academic Conference on Portuguese-speaking Countries, put on by the Chinese University of International Business and Economics’ Research Centre of China and Portuguese-speaking Countries, and the International Institute of Macao.

The report says the theme of the conference was “Blue Partnership between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries: Enhancing Trade and Investment, Facilitating Industrial Capacity Cooperation”.

A former Chinese Vice-Minister of Commerce, Sun Zhenyu, spoke of the potential for cooperation in exploiting the sea, namely for tourism, the report says.

Macao and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area can serve to facilitate such cooperation, the People’s Daily quotes Mr Sun as saying.