São Paulo – The president of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, Rubens Hannun (6th from left to right, in the picture above), was in Damascus, Syria, from Saturday (15) to Monday (17) and had a series of meetings with local authorities and corporate leadership, aiming to identify opportunities for Brazil in the Arab country’s reconstruction process.
“There are many opportunities and they (Syrians) are very open to Brazil,” said Hannun via phone to ANBA. “Brazil is very welcome in Syria’s reconstruction process, is one of the countries that they are open to,” he added.
According to him, Brazilian companies and organizations can enter the construction sector itself, but also participate in the recovery of infrastructure, cooperation in labor and social programs, the supply of equipment, food products and other goods and technical cooperation.
To the Arab Chamber’s president, Brazilians can take part in the Arab country’s reconstruction process in a broader sense. “Syrians are open to do a number of deals with Brazil and are very much committed in this sense,” said Hannun.
Accompanied by the Arab Chamber’s advisor of special projects, Tamer Mansour (1st from left to right, in the picture above), and director Sami Roumieh (4th from left to right), Hannun met the ministers of Internal Trade and Consumer Protection, Abdullah Al Gharbi (5th from left to right), of Oil and Mineral Resources, Ali Soulaiman Ghanem, of Health, Nizar Yazigi, of Social Affairs and Labor, Rima Kadri, the deputy minister of Economy and Foreign Trade, Rania Khodr Ahmad, with the general director of the investments promotion agency, Median Ali Diab, with the president of the Federation of Syrian Chambers of Commerce and of the Damascus Chamber of Commerce, Mohammad Ghassan Al Qalla, and with local entrepreneurs.
He also met the chargé d’affaires of business of Brazil’s embassy in Damascus and visited the Damascus International Fair, which ended on September 15, and where the Arab Chamber and the embassy had a stand for Brazilian exhibiting companies for the second straight year.
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Next week, ANBA will publish a series of news features detailing the existing opportunities for Brazilian companies in Syria, based on information surveyed by the Arab Chamber’s representatives.
Hannun is taking a tour through the Levant region. This Tuesday (18), he’s in Lebanon, where he already met the minister of Economy and Trade and the president of the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture of Beirut and Mount Lebanon. He will still meet with representatives of the Audi bank, of the Union of Arab Chambers and of the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK), a university that has signed a cooperation agreement with the Arab Chamber to digitize the memory of the Syrian-Lebanese immigration in Brazil.
The Arab Chamber’s president will also visit Jordan, where he will meet the president of the Union of Arab Chambers, Nael Kabariti, and local authorities.
Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
