Macau facilitates Hispanic business with China by cultural proximity

ANDentrepreneurs and representatives argue that Macau's cultural proximity to Spanish-speaking countries facilitates the approximation to the Chinese market at a time when the semi-autonomous territory strategy has been extended to the Hispanic world.

Borja Sanchez has been following what is happening in Macau for about 20 years. The businessman, born in Barcelona but rooted in Galicia, arrived in 2006 in Hong Kong to promote Spanish gastronomy in the two semi-autonomous Chinese regions and, after seven years, co-founded Los Ibericos, dedicated to the import and distribution of Spanish food.

On the other side of the Pearls River, the entrepreneur attended Macau’s successive economic diversification policies and believes that the decision to bridge China with Spanish-speaking countries “is a logical evolution”.

“The Chinese Government understood that we are a distinct cultural bloc. I think you understand very well, thanks to Macau, the world of Portuguese-speaking countries. And it is a logical and natural consequence”, he noted, in statements to Lusa on the first day of the 31st edition of the Macau International Fair (MIF).

China defined Macau as a platform for strengthening economic and commercial cooperation with the Portuguese-speaking universe in 2003, the year in which it created the Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking countries. More than two decades later, the project was extended to Spanish-speaking countries.

Whether or not the new vision for Macau is coming true, Sanchez says it “depends on the will”. “What often happens with the initiatives of the Macau Government, in my opinion, is that they are in very interesting theory, but do not end at all.”.

“Macau has all the resources to channel them in this direction. It has infrastructure, budget, needs to diversify the economy and I think it can do so, if it wants to ", reinforced, emphasizing the hotel offer, restoration and the strong presence of Portuguese culture in the territory.

The idea of cultural proximity is shared by the Consul General of Spain in Hong Kong and Macao, for whom this strategy represents for Madrid “an opportunity to expand both trade and investment in Macao and Macao” for other geographies.

“[Macau] is also a site close to Spanish, Portuguese and Iberian history, language and culture. Therefore, it is always a very welcoming place to do business”, said Jesús Gracia Aldaz.

The diplomat also highlighted the “approach between Spain and China in recent years”. The Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, visited China four times in the last four years, and the kings of Spain moved to Asia at the end of 2025.

Some 4,500 Spaniards currently live in China and, according to the diplomat, in Hong Kong there are two thousand and in Macau around 500.

Miguel Latorre, one of the directors of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, arrived in the region in 2023 and considers that enlargement offers Spanish entrepreneurs something difficult to find in other cities in the region. “The Spanish, Portuguese, we are brothers,” he said, recalling that he felt on a “family land” when he first visited Macau. This proximity creates confidence and tranquility for Spanish-speaking entrepreneurs, defends.

“ We see this as a perfect bridge between China, Hong Kong and the ecosystem that was created in the Great Bay (...) we consider this expansion a very positive sign”, he noted.

The Greater Bay is a Beijing project that aims to create a worldwide metropolis from the special Chinese administrative regions of Macau and Hong Kong and nine other cities in the neighbouring Guangdong province where more than 86 million people live.

For Victor Herrera, manager of CW CPA — Hong Kong firm focused on supporting Latin American companies interested in entering Asia — the inclusion of Spanish-speaking countries by Macau “is very important”.

When arriving in Hong Kong, where we speak mainly Cantonese and English, we lack “a muscle” to promote business focused specifically on the Spanish-speaking region, so Macau’s intention to promote these activities “would be perfect,” he said.

To Lusa, the Mexican leader listed the two greatest difficulties in the entry of Spanish-speaking countries into China: the language, although now eased by the development of new translation technologies, and the lack of legal knowledge.

“ These companies, when they come to do business, have usually already made import and export operations and had problems, because the communication was not clear, because they did not read the terms and conditions of the contracts, because there was not even a contract, there was no solid basis for them to develop the business. There was hope, trust and ‘whatever God wills’, he concluded.