The governments of Macau and East Timor are willing to strengthen further their bilateral co-operation in the fields of education, welfare and culture.
Macau’s Secretary of Social Affairs and Culture, Alexis Tam, met last week with East Timor’s Minister of State, Co-ordinator of Social Affairs, António da Conceição, who is also the nation’s Minister of Education. The meeting was held in East Timor.
According to a press release by the Macau government, both officials agreed there was room to expand bilateral co-operation in a number of areas, including the training of East Timor’s human resources, especially in the field of scientific research.
Mr da Conceição said his government was planning to open in the country a new polytechnic institution for agriculture, as well as a faculty of letters. He added that Macau could be an important partner to East Timor in language training.
While in East Timor, Mr Tam took part in the 26th annual meeting of the Association of Universities of Portuguese Language. He said Macau was committed to expanding its role as a platform for the training of people wishing to become bilingual in Chinese and Portuguese. Macao could in particular help East Timor students develop such skills, he added.
