On the second anniversary of the release of the “Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Development Plan Outline”, the Macao Polytechnic Institute, together with the Guangdong University of Foreign Studies and the School of Professional and Continuing Education of the University of Hong Kong (HKU SPACE), organized the “Cooperation and Innovation: Annual Conference 2021 of the Greater Bay Area Portuguese Language Education Alliance” on 30th March through a combination of on-site and online methods. At the conference, the three parties discussed in depth the opportunities brought by the development of Portuguese-speaking education in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and discussed and planned the joint strengths of talent training, scientific research innovation, education cooperation, innovation and development in the Bay Area. Experts and scholars interacted with each other and offered suggestions and strategies. The Macao Polytechnic Institute looked forward to cooperating with higher education institutions in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, taking advantage of Macao as a Sino-Portuguese platform, and taking the Greater Bay Area as the starting point to actively connect with Portuguese-speaking countries, so that China and Portuguese-speaking countries would reach a new level of academic cooperation.
At the annual conference 2021 of the Greater Bay Area Portuguese Language Education Alliance, Shi Youqi, President of the Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, said that the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is an important measure to promote the formation of a new pattern of domestic and international dual-cycle development in the new era. The Greater Bay Area has put forward higher requirements on talent training whether it is on the industrial, consumer, trade or innovation side. Under the superimposed impact of the Coronavirus epidemic and major changes unseen in a century, we must continue to reform and innovate, strengthen cooperation and exchanges, and always keep pace with national development, resonate at the same frequency, and help the construction of the Bay Area. The first priority is to explore and promote the construction of the “Bay Area Virtual Campus” and the “Bay Area Mobile Campus”; the second is to explore the training model of “Portuguese+” high-level compound international talents; the third is to strengthen cooperation and exchanges and build a Portuguese-speaking world circle of friends. The three higher education institutions are working together to create a road of integration, innovation, sharing and development of Portuguese-speaking education in line with the characteristics of the Greater Bay Area.
Lo Shiu Hing, Deputy Director of the School of Professional and Continuing Education of the University of Hong Kong, believed that this annual conference is both academically and practically significant as it brings together all the Portuguese language experts in the Greater Bay Area to exchange their ideas on teaching and learning, and on how different institutions and scholars can cooperate and innovate in the new era of the Greater Bay Area. The development of the Greater Bay Area is a strategic and national plan of China. Both Macao and Hong Kong are playing an important role in the social, educational and economic development of the Greater Bay Area. The Greater Bay Area also provides a very important platform for the people in the South China region to interact with the Portuguese-speaking countries. As such, this Greater Bay Area Portuguese Language Education Alliance has special significance, playing the role as an intermediary to connect all the Portuguese-speaking teachers, scholars and researchers, and exploring ways of further cooperation and innovation starting from now and continuing in the coming five to ten years. The HKU SPACE is very keen to send students to Macao and the Greater Bay Area for field visits, thereby enriching their knowledge about the Portuguese culture and life-style.
Im Sio Kei, the President of Macao Polytechnic Institute, introduced that under the framework of the “Greater Bay Area Portuguese Language Education Alliance”, the Macao Polytechnic Institute plans to hold the “Greater Bay Area Portuguese Language and Sino-Portuguese Academic Cooperation Online Forum” and “Bay Area Portuguese Language Teachers Workshop” and so on, as a series of academic activities this year. In addition, there will be a “Special Award for Higher Education Institutions in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area” in the 5th World Chinese-Portuguese Translation Competition, to further develop the exchange and interaction of Portuguese-speaking teachers and students in higher education institutions in the Greater Bay Area. It is hoped that the cooperating higher education institutions of the Alliance will continue to support and participate in these activities. Through the “Greater Bay Area Portuguese Language Education Alliance”, the higher education institutions can continuously gather the strengths of the three places, develop the further advancement of higher education in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, play a leading role in the cooperation of higher education in the Bay Area, strengthen the integration of Bay Area colleges into the overall development of the country, and contribute to deepening the cooperation between the Greater Bay Area and Portuguese-speaking countries.
Participants in the annual conference of the Alliance also included: Ke Xiaohua, Director of the Office of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan Affairs of the Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, and Chen Yunliang, Dean of the School of Legal Studies; Irene Lacasa, Programme Director of the English and European Languages of HKU SPACE; Zhang Yunfeng, Director of the Centre for Portuguese Studies, Joaquim Carvalho, Director of the International Portuguese Training Centre, Mok Sao In, Head of the Institutional Affairs Department, and so on.
