São Paulo – The president of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce (ABCC), Osmar Chohfi, had appointments in Brasília on Monday and Tuesday (June 5 and 6) accompanied by the organization’s secretary-general & CEO Tamer Mansour and Institutional Relations director Fernanda Baltazar. They met with the president of the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (ApexBrasil), Jorge Viana (pictured above), the 19 Arab ambassadors to Brazil, and the Brazil-Arab Countries Parliamentary Group.
“I’d like to emphasize that the meeting with ApexBrasil was very important for us to discuss our joint projects and common initiatives in the coming months, such as the Halal Brazil project and the Global Halal Brazil (GHB) forum, among other activities we will carry out with them for implementing the project. It was a very productive meeting with the president [Jorge Viana] and the Apex staff,” said Chohfi.
The Halal Brazil project will last 30 months (until 2025) and invest BRL 15.4 million (about USD 3.11 million at the current rate) to take 500 companies to the global halal market in order to encourage Brazilian manufacturers of value-added food items to enter Muslim-majority markets. The project will pay half of the qualification costs for 50 companies.
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Another highlight on the schedule, according to Chohfi, was the meeting with the 19 Arab ambassadors in Brasília at the event with the Brazil-Arab Countries Parliamentary Group, organized by congressman David Soares, who chairs the group. Other congresspeople and executive power players participated, as well as the executive secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, Irajá Lacerda, and the president of the Federal Audit Court (TCU), minister Bruno Dantas.
“The Arab ambassadors were interested in learning how the Brazilian legislative power could cooperate with the Arab countries in all areas. Arab diplomats also presented opportunities to encourage Arab trade and investment in Brazil,” said ambassador Chohfi.
Chohfi also met with ambassador Maria Laura da Rocha, secretary-general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “to present her the ABCC’s projects for this year and the next and discuss how we can expand the already strong relationship between the Ministry and our entity,” he said. Rocha is the first woman to hold the position of secretary-general of the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
ABCC Arabic translator Saleh Hassan also participated in the meetings.
Translated by Elúsio Brasileiro
