On 16 June, the 2026 Macao Science and Technology Innovation Competition for Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking Countries was held at the Macao Science Center Conference Center. Seventeen teams from Brazil, Portugal, Spain and Peru competed in the final via online pitch presentations, with projects spanning cutting-edge technological fields such as artificial intelligence, biomedicine, the Internet of Things and new materials. Representatives from the China-LAC Technology Transfer Center were invited to attend the event, where they actively engaged with innovation and technology resources from Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking countries to help build bridges for international scientific and technological cooperation.

The event is organized by the Economic and Technological Development Bureau of the Macao Special Administrative Region Government and hosted by the Macao Youth Entrepreneurship Incubation Center. Since the launch of this year’s competition, it has attracted more than 70 projects, carefully selected and recommended by nearly 30 incubation organizations and higher education institutions from Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking countries. Winning projects will have the opportunity to connect with high-quality capital, industrial platforms and incubation resources in mainland China, thereby opening up an efficient channel for overseas science and technology innovation projects to take root in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Qiu Runhua, Secretary for Economic and Technological Development, stated that the official renaming of this year’s competition to the “Macao Portuguese and Spanish-speaking Countries Science and Technology Innovation Competition” not only expands the scope of participation to include innovation teams from all Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking countries, but also signifies Macao’s further enhancement of its external outreach capabilities as a “precision liaison”.

This competition represents a significant initiative to support the development of the Hengqin Guangdong–Macao In-depth Cooperation Zone and to promote the exchange and sharing of science and technology resources between Guangdong and Macao. Moving forward, the China–LAC Technology Transfer Center will use this competition as an opportunity to continue integrating high-quality project resources from the event with the industrial strengths of the Greater Bay Area, precisely matching overseas innovative technologies with domestic market demand, and thereby fostering high-quality development in China–Latin America science and technology cooperation.