Dutch brewer Heineken NV is expected to invest up to US$40 million to build a manufacturing plant in East Timor, says the Government. The brewer, through Singapore-based Heineken Asia Pacific Pte Ltd, will produce beer and other alcoholic, low-alcohol and non-alcoholic beverages, as well as drinkable water, the Government said in a statement.

A consortium involving state-owned China Road and Bridge Corp won a bid for US$110 million to build a bridge in Angola, according to the Economic and Commercial Counsellor’s Office of the Chinese Embassy in Angola.

Portugal’s proposed national budget for 2015 was approved in parliament by Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho’s centre-right Social Democrats (PSD) and CDS, its junior partner in the governing coalition.

The European Union (EU) and Guinea-Bissau signed this week a new three-year protocol as part of the Fisheries Partnership Agreement, said the European Commission in Brussels.

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) has granted a loan of US$120 million to Angola, to be used to finance a real estate project on the outskirts of the capital Luanda, according to a presidential order quoted by online news portal Macauhub.

The projects selected by the Government of Angola to speed up the country’s economic diversification away from its oil sector will cost US$22.7 billion over the next three years. The Angola Minister of Economy, Abraão Gourgel, provided the estimate last week during a meeting with lawmakers to discuss the country’s budget for 2015.

East Timor is the most tax-competitive economy for businesses among Portuguese-speaking countries. That is according to the “Paying Taxes 2015″ study by international consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers, published on November 20 and quoted by online portal Macauhub.

Brazil wants to increase exports of fashion items to China, with about 20 Brazilian companies last week travelling to Shanghai for an exploratory field trip, an initiative supported by the Brazilian Government.

The Prime Minister of Cape Verde José Maria Neves has restated the government’s strategy of making the country an “open door” to Africa and called for more public-private partnerships and an increase in foreign investment into the archipelago.

The number of Chinese tourists who visited Portugal in the first half of 2014 was up 69 percent on the same period of 2013 to about 55,000. They also spent more than twice as much, at 33 million euros (US$40.9 million), according to an official study quoted by Portuguese news agency Lusa.

China’s State Council pledges to help enterprises reduce their funding costs. The measures include giving banks more flexibility to lend to the enterprises.

The border crossing between Macau and mainland China’s Hengqin Island will start operating round-the-clock on December 18, Macau’s government spokesperson Alexis Tam Chon Weng announced on November 20.