São Paulo – The Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce turns 65 years old this Sunday (2). While celebrating what it achieved since its inception in 1952, the organization keeps its sights on the future. “This is a very special moment, because we’re in a new home, and it’s not just an adequate place, it’s one that allows us to evolve all that we want to,” said Chamber president Rubens Hannun, in a reference to the opening of the new headquarters on Avenida Paulista, São Paulo, in April this year.
He believes the Arab Chamber achieved its goal of becoming a landmark organization when it comes to Brazilian-Arab relations. “Over the years, the distance, the language, the access to the Arab market have ceased to be significant barriers,” said Hannun, adding that trade has grown hundreds of times since the organization was established, and that the sharing of information meant that the Arab and Brazilian cultures grew better acquainted with one another.
“The Arab bloc is Brazil’s fourth biggest partner in trade right now,” said Arab Brazilian Chamber CEO Michel Alaby, stressing that bilateral trade soared over the past few years, especially since 2004.
“We have earned the respect of governments and of Brazilian and Arab business owners as an effective, transparent and fair partner,” added the president. But that doesn’t mean the organization will stop here. “To keep this respect sometimes is even harder than to earn it in the first place, since the responsibility is greater, the stakes are higher, and if it [the organization] stops, it loses it,” he said.
Therefore, Hannun pointed out that the Arab Chamber must always be improving. “We always have to do something the companies are not expecting, to identify the needs of business owners and governments. We can’t just keep doing what was done yesterday,” he said. According to him, the organization will strive for “creative improvement”, for innovation.
In a message to the board of directors, the executive also said that the organization is on its way to “generating ideas, planting knowledge and reaping the rewards of actions that we will perform to bring Brazil even closer to the Arab countries.”
The Arab Chamber is the only Brazilian organization acknowledged by the League of the Arab States as representative of Brazil’s and the Arab nations’ interests in the commercial relations between the parties.
ANBA will soon publish a special report on the 65 years of the organization.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum and Sérgio Kakitani