An international conference on Belt & Road financing in Portugal is bringing together key Chinese officials and executives with their Portuguese counterparts in Lisbon. Centuries ago, Portuguese explorers like Vasco da Gama reached Asia on groundbreaking voyages. Now it's China, with initiatives like the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road that is catching the eye of Portuguese investors. Al Goodman reports from Lisbon.

The first major conference in Portugal on financing for the Belt & Road projects, under China's initiative. Held at the Lisbon School of Economics and Management. Portugal has been involved with Belt – land trade routes & Road – maritime routes for three years. But participants say this conference aims to give it some urgency. With help from top officials and executives from both countries, including the Portuguese Foreign Minister, China's Ambassador to Portugal, and leading bankers and investment fund executives. The president of the Bank of China office in Lisbon sees increasing interest from Portugal for Belt and Road.

XIAO QI, PRESIDENT BANK OF CHINA, LISBON "We want to show what's the importance about the One Belt One Road initiative in Portugal and what we have done, and what we are doing now in Portugal. So more and more local companies they understand this is a very good opportunity for them to develop their business with the Chinese entities. I think this is an initial stage, we can say, but grows very, very fast."

This Portuguese professor helped organize the conference and says there's more talk now about finding cash for new projects.

FERNANDA ILHEU, PRESIDENT FRIENDS OF BELT & ROAD GROUP "You know we cannot do anything real important without knowing how we can pay it, so which kinds of funds, which kinds of banks, which kinds of multilateral finance organizations can be involved in these projects."

One of the Portuguese projects with links to Belt and Road, and getting some attention at this conference, is the huge container port at Sines, about two hours south of Lisbon.

XIAO QI, PRESIDENT BANK OF CHINA, LISBON "The Sines port is one of the most important ports in Portugal. The Bank of China already has introduced several Chinese entities as potential investors."

And those potential partners get a chance to meet here at the Lisbon conference.

AL GOODMAN LISBON "It's standard networking - during all of the break times here. Experts say Portugal wants to be a bridge between China and Portuguese-speaking countries in One Belt, One Road projects."

More conferences are expected in Portugal on Belt and Road issues, like the environment, or new technologies. But organizers say the logical place to start with is financing, the grease for growth. Al Goodman, CGTN, Lisbon.