São Paulo – Sudan’s Ambassador Ahmed Eltigani Mohamed Swar has recently settled into Brazil to start working towards expanding the cooperation between the two countries.
On Tuesday (18), he visited the Arab-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce (ABCC) in São Paulo to ask for the support of the institution – whose focus is fostering trade between the Latin American giant and Arab League states, which Sudan is a member of – in attracting Brazilian investment to Sudan and promoting trade exchange opportunities.
Straightforward and soft-spoken as most professional diplomats, Mohamed Swar told ANBA he wants to see Brazil aiding in the rehabilitation of Sudan when the civil war it’s been facing comes to an end. The diplomat says the two countries share a tendency to produce and export agricultural goods, and the Brazilian experience in the sector could be crucial in the economic resumption.
Since last April, the conflict has hampered the economic production across different regions in Sudan. Swar says one of the world’s largest cotton planting and processing productive projects established in the country was discontinued. Farms owned by Brazilians who settled there in the 2000s, lured by land availability and pest-control conductive conditions, were some of the affected.
The conflict has impaired exports of Sudanese’s leading product, gum arabic, which has various uses in the food industry. Most of the production currently reaches the international market via Egypt and European countries, where it’s powered or reduced, processes that used to be performed in Sudan.
Besides earning support from the South American country to the economic rebound, the diplomat wants to step up trade exchanges. Last year, Sudanese exports to Brazil added up to USD 33,000, mostly in gum arabic. Five years ago, it reached USD 506,000, also including steel pipes and perfume raw materials.
In his view, the recovery depends on rebuilding the infrastructure as the conflict ends. For Swar, the Latin American state could contribute with the expertise of its construction – and particularly – agribusiness firms, a sector he seeks support from the Brazilian government to provide workforce training and access to production technologies.
Most urgently needed are sows, breeders, genetic material of animals and agricultural cultivars that have previously been proved to thrive in the Sudanese environment. The African state also wants to improve its sugar refining capabilities and establish a local production of sugarcane ethanol.
Check out some snippets of the interview Mohamed Swar gave ANBA.
ANBA – Could you please tell me which posts you had in the past and what jobs you developed in them?
Ahmed Eltigani Mohamed Swar – I started my first mission in Beirut in 1992. It was a very important station for me, because at that time the conflict between Arabs and Israel was unfolding amid the the Oslo Accords talks. I learned a lot during this agreement. Then I came back to Sudan and from there I took up a post in Libya, as a general consul in Benghazi. Our relations with Libya at that time allowed Sudanese citizens to work there, and I believe we did a good job. From Libya, I went back to Sudan, where I stayed for two years before moving on to China. I stayed there for two years, and I even learned some Chinese.
Then I went back to Africa. I served in Mauritania for four years and Gana for two. Then I went to Riyadh [Saudi Arabia]. I went back to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs [of Sudan] to run the protocol department. Then I was assigned to Egypt, as human resource director of the embassy in the country. And now I was nominated as ambassador to Brazil.
You have the challenge of fostering Brazil-Sudan bilateral relations amid a conflict. How do you see this situation?
My country is currently facing a [civil] conflict that I hope will end soon. This is one of our biggest challenges – war. There’s no stability. If you have to contact the central governments or some ministries, sometimes its hard, thus really hinding foreign relations. As for Brazil’s relations with Sudan, trade is mostly based on agricultural goods. We have cooperation in animal products, a little in mining, too. We don’t always manage to receive responses from the central government because of the war. But we’re confident that it’ll soon be over. And so we’ll work with Brazilian diplomacy towards the Sudanese rehabilitation.
Trade between our countries is based on agricultural goods. We hope this exchange can provides us with expertise and tools that foster the rehabilitation of our country.
Sudan also contributes to our economy by supplying crucial goods for our food industry. How do you believe Brazil and Sudan could aid in each other’s development?
Sudan has several goods that could be exported here, such as different types of gum arabic [of which Sudan is the world’s top exporter], sesame oil, and hibiscus. Brazil now supplies Sudan with agricultural machinery, for instance. We have companies in Sudan growing sugarcane that could use Brazil’s experience. Furthermore, you also have more experience in livestock and animal raising compared to Sudan. We are trying to pave the way in Brasília for this expertise exchange, and we believe that we’ll have the conditions to implement them as the war ends.
Rebuilding wouldn’t also create opportunities for Brazil’s construction industry?
Brazil doesn’t have the same agenda of Western countries [on their diplomatic relations with Sudan]. We’ve spoken plainly with our friends [in Brazil’s Foreign Ministry] in Brasília that Brazilian companies could perfectly share their experience with us. As the war ends, I believe we’ll have to rebuild infrastructure, particularly roads, bridges, and hotels. For that, we’ll certainly need the expertise of companies [including] from Brazil. In the agriculture sector, Brazilian companies and government could be of help.
We’ve discussed an agreement between the ministries of agriculture from Sudan and Brazil to implement a workforce training program in Sudan based on the Brazilian agricultural expertise. We could activate this program after the war, so that Sudanese workers can train here in Brazil. The workforce will also be crucial in Sudan’s rehabilitation process.
How are the Brazilian farmers who migrated to Sudan a couple of decades ago to settle there?
In fact, we’ve had for some years companies from here investing in Sudan’s estates to grow cereals and cotton. Unfortunately, most are in areas of conflict. We’ve had a very good history of exchange with Brazilian agricultural companies contributing to Sudan’s development, especially in cotton. We hope that after the war, we can pave the way for these companies to resume their operations and come back to our country.
Read more:
Sudanese seek partnership with Brazilian firms
*Report by Daniel Medeiros for ANBA
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
