To strengthen cultural exchanges and cooperation, the General Manager of The Commercial Press, Mr. Yu Dianli and his delegation visited MPI on 12 October and they were warmly received by President Lei Heong Iok. Both parties held an in-depth discussion on the publication and promotion of Portuguese language teaching materials, Chinese, Portuguese and foreign culture related books. They both reached a consensus on the publication plan. The meeting took place in a pleasant atmosphere.

Professor Lei Heong Iok, President of MPI, warmly welcomed Mr. Yu Dianli and his delegation to attend the book launch ceremony presided by Mr. António Costa, Prime Minister of the Portuguese Republic on October 11. The ceremony includes the launching of two Portuguese books entitled Português Global I and Português Global II, jointly published by MPI and The Commercial Press. With the rapid development of economic and trade relations between China and Lusophone countries, cooperation has become more frequent in talent development and cultural exchanges. In mainland China, the number of higher education institutions offering bachelor’s degree programmes in Portuguese language has risen to 33; Macao higher education institutions have also launched various Portuguese language training courses. President Lei said that in order to solve the problem of the lack of Portuguese language teaching materials, MPI and the University of Lisbon have jointly compiled three sets of teaching materials for students and teachers, entitled Português Global, with audio-visual discs for teaching. This textbook is specially designed for students whose native language is Chinese. In response to the demand from Macao and higher education institutions of foreign language teaching in mainland China, MPI and The Commercial Press have jointly offered Português Global to be distributed in China. The book launch ceremony was held on 11 October at MPI. The first printing is 8000 copies and is available for sale at the bookstores in China and Macao starting on the same day. The textbook is also available in the three online stores: Amazon, Joybuy and Dangdang.

The General Manager, Mr. Yu Dianli introduced The Commercial Press, which was founded in Shanghai at 1897, and is the longest-standing modern publishing house in China. It is dedicated to promoting education and emphasises extensive searching for and nurturing new ideas. The Commercial Press, with centuries of history, has a huge and far-reaching impact on Chinese Modern Culture and Education. Mr. Yu also introduced the business development of The Commercial Press in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Both parties had an in-depth discussion and consensus on the issue of publishing Português Global, other Portuguese language teaching materials, and Chinese and Portuguese culture related books. The meeting atmosphere was pleasant.

During the meeting, Mr. Yu Dianli presented a Chinese large-scale dictionary entitled Etymology (volume I and II) as a gift to MPI Library and Professor Lei Heong Iok received it on behalf of MPI. .The Commercial Press (H.K.) published the third revision of Etymology in 2015. This dictionary records the ancient Chinese words till 1840, general words, commonly used terms, idioms, allusions and a variety of terminology, names, geographical names, book titles, cultural relics, laws and regulations. Based on the foundation of the first two revisions, this third revision has recorded nearly hundreds of thousands of Chinese terms, with explanations reaching 1200 million words. Guests attending the meeting include Ms. Cui Yan, Director of Foreign Languages Books; Ms. Yang Xiaoming, Editor; Professor Carlos André, Director of Portuguese Teaching and Research Centre and Dr. Han Lili, Sub Director of School of Languages and Translation.