Portugal recognizes Macao's role as Portuguese wine hub

MACAO, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Portugal acknowledges the role of China's Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) as a regional hub for Portuguese wine and foodstuff as the first meeting of the Macao-Portugal Joint Committee was held in Macao, the Macao Post Daily reported on Thursday.

Portugal and Macao SAR will look for new opportunities to market Portuguese wine and foodstuff in the region, the newspaper quoted a joint statement issued by both sides as saying.

The two sides held the first meeting of the Macao-Portugal Joint Committee at Macao SAR government headquarters on Wednesday.

The Macao delegation was headed by Alexis Tam Chon Weng, chief-of-staff of the office of the Chief Executive Chui Sai On, with the Portuguese mission chaired by Antonio de Almeida Ribeiro, director-general of the external relations department of the Foreign Ministry.

The statement listed a host of cooperation areas, such as culture, sport, education, science, heritage preservation, judicial and legal affairs, technology, the training of interpreters and translators for Portuguese and Chinese.

Also, both sides decided to study the setting-up of a system for the mutual recognition of degrees granted by academic institutions in Macao SAR and Portugal, the statement added.

The second meeting of the Joint Committee is slated to be held in Portugal in April 2013.