The Greater Bay is a Beijing project that aims to create a global metropolis from Hong Kong, Macau and nine cities in the province of Guangdong (Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Huizhou, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Jiangmen and Zhaoqing), with more than 60 million inhabitants.

Noting that this is "a market with a dimension equivalent to or even slightly larger than Iberia itself", Pedro Reis considered that, "given the articulation of projects, geographical proximity and intentionality on the part of China", for Portuguese companies in Macau this is a "broader, more natural access to a larger market".

He stressed, however, that the contact with the other side of the border does not intend to affect the "specificity and identity of Macau", but to expand "its natural space and nearby market".

"It is not about seeing a paradigm shift, it is about expanding the natural space that can be accessed through Macau, which always seems to me to be a privilege for Portuguese companies to have this long-standing relationship".

Regarding areas that may be of interest to the Portuguese business fabric, the minister mentioned that economic agents have pointed out different sectors, namely infrastructure, such as "recycling projects, bridges, hospitals, construction", in addition to agriculture and technology.

"It would be interesting, if there is interest and openness here to receive our most developed technology companies or patents or 'startups', perhaps to seize the important financial market of the Greater Bay to accelerate the financing of these projects, it is not so much the financial sector, but the financing of the projects", said the official, who is in Macau representing the Portuguese Government at the sixth ministerial conference of the Economic and Trade Cooperation Forum between China and Portuguese-Speaking Countries, known as the Macau Forum.

Another sector "very much pointed out" as a "future and robust bet" is "the entire health 'cluster'", added the official, highlighting the presence in Macau of "very strong companies", namely pharmaceutical companies "and even the development of new molecules".

"Also interesting for Portugal, which has invested heavily in biotechnology", he recalled.

The Portuguese pharmaceutical company Hovione, founded in 1959 and established in Macau since the 1980s, received in January the Industrial and Commercial Merit Medal from the Macau Government, on the occasion of the 24th anniversary of the transfer of the territory to China.

At that time, the local Government stated that the expansion of Hovione's business "in the Asian market is already taking advantage of the opportunities provided by the development of the Guangdong-Macau In-depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin", contributing to the development of local economic diversification.

The Guangdong-Macau In-depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin is another project launched by Beijing in 2021, jointly managed by the province of Guangdong and Macau, with an area of about 106 square kilometers and a population of over 53 thousand inhabitants.

The Macau Forum includes, in addition to China, nine Portuguese-speaking countries: Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe and Timor-Leste.

Five ministerial conferences were held in the territory in 2003, 2006, 2010, 2013 and 2016, during which Action Plans for Economic and Trade Cooperation were approved.

Initially scheduled for 2019, the sixth ministerial conference, which ends on Tuesday, was postponed to June 2020, due to the elections for the Macau parliament, but with the covid-19 pandemic it ended up not taking place.

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