MACAO, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- The 23rd Macao International Trade and Investment Fair (MIF) kicked off here on Thursday, with trade promotion activities between Asian countries and Portuguese-speaking countries (PSCs), and summits, forums and roundtables.

This year's MIF, with a theme of "Co-operation - Key to Business Opportunities", covers an area of 24,000 square meters and has more than 1,500 booths.

In addition to the exhibition areas for the provinces and cities of China, the countries along the "Belt and Road", PSC and Europe, this year's exhibition sets up for the first time a number of special-theme exhibition areas, including the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Business Zone.

The exhibition covers a variety of domains such as "Belt and Road Initiative, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area, the platform between China and PSCs, small- and medium-sized enterprises, youth entrepreneurship, E-commerce, and traditional Chinese medicine.

The MIF hosted the 2018 Portuguese-speaking Countries Products and Services Exhibition (PLPEX) at the same time. Its exhibition area has increased to over 6,000 square meters, and more than 250 booths were set up to attract companies from eight PSCs, as well as products and services agents from Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Macao SARs.

The three-day events also hosted the 8th Asian Trade Promotion Forum (ATPF) Exhibition as a sub-exhibition. The representatives of the trade promotion organizations of ATPF came here to discuss cooperation, seek common development and share opportunities between the Asian countries and regions.

The MIF is organised by the Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute and co-organized by 15 economic and commercial departments as well as business associations from Macao, the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong. In 2005, it became Macao's first event approved by the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry.