São Paulo – The Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce hosted a dinner event on Thursday evening (14) in honor of the ambassador of Qatar to Brasília, Mohammed Alhayki (pictured above on the left), who’s leaving his post after a stint of nearly six years in Brazil. “The ambassador did outstanding work in each and every field,” said Arab Chamber president Rubens Hannun (on the right in the picture) in addressing the diners.
As a case in point, he mentioned the advances seen in bilateral trade from 2012, when the diplomat took charge of the embassy, until last year. Exports from Brazil to the Arab country soared by 32.7%.
“Qatar went from being the 11th to being the 6th leading Arab destination of exports from Brazil,” Hannun told ANBA. “Product variety also went up significantly, from 244 to 288 items, an 18% increase. There was diversification and an increase in added value,” he said.
On the other hand, Hannun remarked that Qatar moved from 6th to 4th on the list of Arab suppliers of goods to Brazil, and the number of products shipped from Qatar to Brazil increased from 14 to 18. “We work hard in partnership with you (the Arab Chamber) to achieve these results, and the numbers will keep increasing,” Alhayki told the diners.
He told ANBA that as of 2020, Qatar will supply 1.4 million tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) per year to Brazil’s Sergipe state under a 25-year contract. Some of the gas will fuel a thermoelectric central and some will be distributed, according to Alhayki. “This will have a big impact on Sergipe and nearby states,” the ambassador stressed.
He said the contract was signed in 2014, during a visit of then-Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff to Qatar. Alhayki said Brazilian authorities have travelled to Qatar on several occasions since 2012, including the ministers of Culture, Sports, Agriculture and Defense and members of parliament. “This brought relations between the two countries to a strategic level,” he asserted.
According to Alhayki, the visit of Brazil’s Agriculture minister Blairo Maggi to Doha in May of last year “ensured the continuation of meat exports from Brazil to Qatar, especially poultry.” The trip happened in the wake of the Brazilian Federal Police’s Operation Weak Flesh, a probe into meat packers and Agriculture Ministry inspectors that prompted several countries to ban or threaten to ban imports of product from Brazil.
“The ambassador played a crucial role in Qatar’s decision to keep buying,” said Hannun, who travelled alongside Maggi. The Arab Chamber worked hard to prevent Arab countries from halting their imports. It got Arab diplomats, Brazilian government officials and private sector players in touch with one another and encouraged the minister of Agriculture to take trips to Arab countries.
Investment
Hannun also discussed Qatari investments in Brazil during Alhayki’s stint in the embassy, including the purchase of a 10% stake in airline Latam by Qatar Airways. The ambassador mentioned Qatari investments in Brazil’s mining company Vale, in oil exploration and production, and in agribusiness projects.
The diplomat also said investments will keep happening. According to him, a commission has been formed by officials from Qatari ministries and executives from Qatari funds to look into making additional investments in Brazil. “I guarantee that we will increase our investments here,” Alhayki told the dinner guests.
The ambassador also pointed out that since 2017, Brazilians travelling to Qatar can get visas on arrival at the Doha Airport, and are no longer required to get their visas beforehand. Today we have a big community of Brazilians in Qatar, and we have also witnessed major growth in tourism, particularly after the visas were made easier,” he said.
Hannun mentioned Brazilian business missions to Qatar and vice-versa, plus the fact that Qatar was featured in the Arab Chamber stand at the trade show of the São Paulo Supermarkets Association (Apas Show) and in World Travel Market Latin America. The Qatar Development Bank (QDB) played a pivotal role in some of these actions.
Culture
When it comes to culture, Hannun noted that 2014 was the Year of Qatar in Brazil, with events including an exhibit of pearls from Qatar at Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado (FAAP)’s Brazilian Art Museum in São Paulo, featuring rare jewellery; a tribute to Qatar at the Pan-Amazonian Book Fair in Belém do Pará; and 1001 Invenções (1001 Inventions), a program designed to showcase technological advances in Muslim countries to Brazilian children.
The Arab Chamber president also said that Casa Catar (the Qatar House), a space created by the Qatar Olympic Committee during the Rio Olympics in 2016, won a prize from the Rio de Janeiro Commercial Association in the Cultural Promotion category.
The dean of the Council of Arab Ambassadors in Brazil, Ibrahim Alzeben, who attended the dinner event, stressed that Alhayki played a prominent role in supporting the Palestinian cause and Arab causes in general during his time in Brazil. Alzeben is the ambassador of Palestine to Brazil.
Alhayki said he will be replaced by diplomat Ahmad Al Abdallah, the current deputy director of the Asia Department at the Qatar Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a former ambassador to India.
Also attending dinner were the Arab Chamber’s CEO Michel Alaby, vice presidents Osmar Chohfi and Riad Younes, former president Orlando Sarhan and directors Sílvia Antibas, Willian Atui, Mohamed Orra Mourad and Sami Roumieh.
Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
