Chinese and Portuguese Heads of State Witness Signing of Cooperation Agreement for COFCO Center of Excellence in Portugal Release Time : 2018-12-07
On December 5 local time, Chinese President Xi Jinping, who was on a state visit to Portugal, and Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa attended the signing of cooperation MOU by COFCO party secretary and chairman Lv Jun and Portugal’s Trade and Investment Agency CEO Luis Castro Henriques.

Under the MOU, COFCO Corporation’s subsidiary COFCO International will establish Center of Excellence for corporate shared services in the Porto region, Portugal. This move will accelerate COFCO’s drive to become a world-class grain trader.

In his address to the reception that followed the signing ceremony, Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa gave a detailed briefing on COFCO’s “Center of Excellence” project. He noted that this project will contribute to local economic growth.  

During his stay in Portugal, Lv Jun, who listened to a report on the progress of COFCO International’s “Center of Excellence” project in Porto region, raised three expectations for the Center. First, build the “Center of Excellence” into a training base for youth; second, develop “Center of Excellence” model into a template for COFCO to explore its management model; third, empower the “Center of Excellence” to make greater contribution to the economic and trade cooperation between China and Portugal in the future.    

The Center is scheduled to start operation this month and will create up to 400 new jobs across IT, procurement, HR and finance, providing unified, professional, transparent and standardized efficient services to COFCO International businesses globally ranging from trade, warehousing, logistics and processing of grain, oils, cotton and sugar.