PLATAFORMA was present at the event “Think Thanks Forum between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries”, held this week, organized by the Commissariat of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China in the MSAR and the Polytechnic University of Macau.
Firstly, praise the effort made by the organizers to enrich this platform through the participation of 19 experts and academics from Macau, Mainland China and Portuguese-speaking countries.
Second, the diversity of interventions, from scope to origin, also deserves a comment: “the awareness that Macau is undoubtedly a bridge between these geographies is justified at times like this”.
Not wanting to change the focus at all, there was a particular intervention that, in a critical tone, brought a different nuance to the event and, quite rightly, highlighted the discrimination of the Macau Government against Portuguese-speaking African countries.
It turns out that these remain marginalized by the local zero-case policy, which has already facilitated the movement of people and goods to so many others; first with the special corridor from which only Portugal and some Asian countries were considered; second in a more ostensible survey in which Brazil was included.
However, nowadays, Lusophone Africa still does not enjoy these privileges and, as such, this bridge is weak and begins to show its weaknesses.
Here, the Macau Government is responsible, which deliberately chose not to include these countries in the first tranches of the conditional reopening.
Paulo Jorge Rodrigues do Espírito Santo, author of the comment and deputy secretary general of Forum Macau, calls for “justice”, as he says that these countries also have the pandemic under control. What’s more, the non-inclusion of this Portuguese-speaking part of Macau’s list “does not benefit win-win cooperation”, as is obvious, especially now that the city needs to look at foreign markets to diversify its income.
*Executive Director of PLATAFORMA
