Participation in the 14th MIF
2009-10-26

The 14th Macao International Trade and Investment Fair (MIF) was held from 22nd to 25th October 2009 at the Venetian Macao-Resort-Hotel. MIF is the largest annual international economic event in Macao and is an integrated exposition comprised of trade and investment exhibitions, high level political and economic forums, international economic and trade conferences, business matching activities, buyers’ corner as well as professional seminars and presentations. Over the years, MIF has played an active role in promoting trade and investment, economic co-operation, diverting investment, increasing imports and exports and information exchange for Macao and international investors.

The theme of this year’s MIF, “Diversity – Key to Extending a Decade of Prosperity”, was aimed at capitalizing on the advantages of Macao’s platform. In particular, MIF highlighted the roles of Macao as an economic and trade co-operation service platform between China and the Portuguese-speaking countries, a regional co-operation service platform for the Pan Pearl River Delta regions as well as a liaison service platform for international Chinese entrepreneurs. The fair showcased the enormous business opportunities and favorable prospects in Mainland China, Portuguese-speaking countries and Macao, engendering more exchanges and mutual co-operation among all parties, and achieving joint development and progress.

Same as previous years, an EU Pavilion was set up to consolidate the European companies, Consulates General and business associations serving in Hong Kong and Macao. Invited by the EUBIP, our Contact Point together with the Institute of European Studies of Macao organized a booth in the EU Pavilion. Altogether there were more than 30 entities, including the Office of the European Commission, several EU Consulate General Offices and Chambers of Commerce of different European countries. Each office had representatives from the trade or economic section to answer the enquiries of the visitors of the booth. There were also individual European companies participating in the Pavilion in order to capture the opportunities to develop their business with the visitors worldwide. The purpose for our booth was to introduce our information and networking services to the interested parties and the various EU-related courses organized by IEEM. We also took this occasion to familiarize our network with the various EU representatives in Hong Kong and Macao so as to develop future co-operation.

Finally, the 4-day fair was able to attract more than 60,000 visitors from all over the world and 60 contracts were signed with total amount of 4.3 billion patacas.