Macau will allow starting from today (Friday), in an exceptional measure, the entry of Portuguese non-residents into the territory, and businessmen are divided with a decision that still requires a “quite long” quarantine period.

António Pereira, a Portuguese businessman, made his last business trip to Macau in December 2019, but admits that he will only return to the region, where he has an office, “when there is no longer any quarantine”.

The general director of TrevoTech International, an Angolan company focused on the distribution and marketing of heavy machinery, does not believe that the new measure of the Macau Government, which allows non-resident Portuguese citizens to enter the territory from Friday, could benefit the business.

“It can be an advantage in general, for me it’s not, I’m not going to stay 14 days in quarantine”, noted the businessman, who lives between Luanda and Lisbon, and who used to travel “once or twice” a year to China, TrevoTech’s supplier country.

After two years of closed doors to foreigners without resident status, Macau launched an entry exception measure that allows Portuguese nationals to enter the territory without prior authorization from the local health services.

The program is limited to those who, in the 21 days prior to entry, have been in China, Hong Kong and Portugal and requires 14 days of quarantine in a hotel.

For the president of CESL Asia, a company based in Macau and an “activity of 30 million euros running in Portugal”, the measure “is still quite restrictive”, due to the quarantines, although “it has some use”.

To Lusa, António Trindade defended the need for greater mobility between Portugal and Macau and less quarantines, pointing out that, although online platforms have allowed “to greatly streamline travel” during the pandemic, it is not possible for entrepreneurs to “stop have contact with the market and the people to serve them”.

The return to normality is, moreover, “very important” for the Chinese administrative region: “Macau’s role in the Greater Bay development plan, which is a platform with Lusophony, and in relations with Portugal and so on, all this needs this opening”, concluded the director of CESL Asia, a company with around 500 workers and which operates in different business areas, ranging from services to technological solutions.

The Portugal-China Young Entrepreneurs Association (AJEPC) considers that the decision “will allow the business community to start mobilizing and return to Macau” and that “it will still be possible, during this year, to compensate the trade balance and increase the exports”.

“The quarantine period continues to be quite extended”, said the president of AJEPC, Alberto Carvalho Neto, noting, however, that for entrepreneurs “who are trying to recover business”, medical observation in a hotel will not be a limitation.

“In the agri-food sector, I believe that there are entrepreneurs who are extremely interested in quickly reactivating the relationship”, he stressed.

Regarding the requirements to enter mainland China via Macau, businessmen are more pessimistic.

Once in Macau, a non-resident Portuguese national can apply for a visa to cross the border, China Travel Service, an agency authorized to issue travel documents to China, confirmed to Lusa.

If you are a businessman, in addition to being fully vaccinated, you will have to stay in Macau for at least 28 days before travelling, requiring the presentation of “a letter of invitation from the company” in China, “the certification of the company and the copy of the legal representative’s identification document,” explained an employee of China Travel Service.

For both tourist and business visas, a single entry is allowed for a maximum period of 30 days in the country, and the granting of the visa “is not 100% guaranteed”, she reinforced.

“These are very long periods”, reacted the general manager of TrevoTech.

“Unless they are too big deals, I don’t see businessmen going through that period, I think that this restructuring with the Chinese side will still wait a while”, added Alberto Neto Carvalho.

in Macao Bussiness.com, 27 Maio 2022

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