According to the Bank of Portugal (BdP), China has been the fourth largest foreign direct investor in Portugal for many years, with a global position worth €11.2 billion by the end of 2022.
The Asian giant, the world’s second largest economy after the United States, is still the fourth largest seller of goods to Portugal, having surpassed the Netherlands in this ranking last year. And it wants to gain weight in exports.
Tourism will be one of the key levers in a plan that aims to reach “one million Chinese tourists” a year within four years, according to the Chinese Association of Tourism in Portugal, which met with the Secretary of State for Tourism less than a month ago. Nuno Fazenda.
The Vice President of the People’s Republic of China, Han Zheng, arrives in Portugal today (Sunday, May 7) for a four-day visit.
On the agenda, of course, will be the deepening of economic relations between the two countries, which, despite their close relations, have been beset by greater difficulties in recent years. The idea is more than overcoming these setbacks.
First, the pandemic, which held back economies and trade expansion. Then, more recently, in 2022, Russia’s war against Ukraine. China is a historic ally of Russia and has been heavily criticized for not being more critical of the Kremlin. But even this environment seems to be settling down a bit.
Recently, the President of the European Commission (EC), Ursula von der Leyen, went to China where he met the country’s president, Xi Jinping. With her was French President Emmanuel Macron. And they came out more excited.
Brussels and Paris were more enthusiastic
After that meeting, von der Leyen proceeded with what appears to be a kind of restart of the bilateral relationship with Europe.
“We don’t want to cut economic, social, political and scientific ties. We have many strong ties and China is a vital trading partner – our trade represents about €2.3 billion a day,” said the head of the European executive.
“Most of our trade in goods and services remains mutually beneficial”, but “there is an urgent need to rebalance relations between the European Union (EU) and China based on transparency, predictability and reciprocity” and ” Our future strategy for China must be economic risk reduction”.
In China, Macron announced the opening of a new Airbus aircraft factory and sold the brand’s helicopters. It will have been a valuable deal.
Han Zheng, Xi’s deputy, who until recently was responsible for relations with Hong Kong, is coming to Portugal, which is also a very friendly country and has been around for a long time. On all levels.
In recent hours, he may have contacted, albeit informally, the President of the Portuguese Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. Both were in London to attend the coronation of King Charles III.
Here, Han will have high-level meetings with leaders of the Portuguese authorities (Government and Presidency of the Republic) and with business representatives. Meetings are concentrated on Mondays and Tuesdays.
Taking into account the existing partnership, there is still much to explore. China wants to invest more in Portugal. In addition to the interests it already has in many high-quality companies, there are other sectors in which it wants to strengthen its presence.
For example in national seaports (Sines). They are a priority way to consolidate the so-called New Silk Road, a global economic and trade connectivity strategy initiated by Beijing in 2013.
According to the Ministry of Economic Affairs (GEE – Cabinet for Strategy and Studies), which analyzed official data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE), Portugal will buy 5.5 billion euros worth of goods from China in 2022, the equivalent of 5 .1% of total domestic imports. As mentioned, he passed the Netherlands and wants to continue to rise in the rankings.
In exports, China’s position, also in 2022, is still relatively low (it is the 19th largest customer), with 629 million euros in purchases from Portuguese companies. Worth 0.8% of the total. But there are plans to climb the rankings.
As mentioned, one of the vectors for Portugal’s exports is tourism. With China lifting travel restrictions on its nationals in March, the number of Chinese tourists has skyrocketed.
Before the pandemic, more than 385,000 Chinese visited Portugal in 2019, according to Turismo de Portugal. The estimate says they spent a total of €224 million in the country, a 20% increase from 2018.
As mentioned, the idea now is to double the number of annual visits, to a million tourists from China, or more.
Portuguese companies with Chinese capital
Whether through state entities or through Fosun, a private group, China has a presence in several strategic Portuguese companies, many of which are listed on the stock exchange, such as BCP, EDP, EDP Renováveis, REN, Mota-Engil, Martifer, Inapa, Reditus, among others.
“Fosun, a Hong Kong-listed holding company, part of one of the most reputable Chinese private investment groups, is the majority shareholder of Fidelidade,” says the former CGD insurer. The holding company is also a reference shareholder of Grupo Luz Saúde, which has several private hospitals in Portugal.
After the bankruptcy of BES, the Chinese also took over the company from the former BES Investimento, now Haitong Bank.
There are many names and many will be mentioned during the official visit of the Chinese delegate, four years after the Chinese head of state Xi came to Portugal.
Luís Reis Ribeiro is a journalist for Dinheiro Vivo
Source: DN
