São Paulo – The Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce will host on June 25th, in the city of São Paulo, a workshop for businessmen about the new online certification system created by the organization. The goal is to show how the new system works and detail the benefits it brings to exporters.
“It’s a totally electronic system,” emphasized the Arab Chamber’s CEO, Michel Alaby. This means that, when completely implemented, it will end the need of sending paper documents and the use of messengers, post office and other transportation, resulting in an economy of time and money.
The Arab Chamber is the only institution in Brazil recognized by the Arab League to issue certification of origin for Brazilian products about to be sent to Arab countries, and also to certificate documents for exports to the region.
Currently, the exporter needs to bring paper documents to the organization’s office and, after the certification, the paper still has to be sent for legalization at the Arab embassies in Brasília, before being returned to the interested party. This process as a whole takes, on average, 15 days.
With the online system, everything will be done via the web, starting with the registration of the scanned documents into the system’s interface, continuing with the Chamber’s certification, legalization at the embassies, and ending with the returning of the material to the exporter. The estimation is that the processing time will be reduced to five days.
“The only requirement is for the company to own a scanner”, declared the Chamber’s Certification manager Leandro Salgueiro, who is going to make the presentation on June 25th. “There won’t be any more physical procedures”, he added.
Besides the time reduction, Alaby estimates a 35% cost decrease. Although the values charged by the certification remain the same, the costs with the transportation of documents will be eliminated, which represents meaningful savings, especially for companies based outside of São Paulo.
The system has been completed and approved by the Arab League and the General Union of Arab Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture, to which the Arab Brazilian Chamber is affiliated.
Implementation, however, will be rolled out in several stages, since there are many destination countries, and the service may be available to some before others. “At first, the two systems [traditional and online] will coexist,” said Alaby.
Full implementation will require that a broad range of Arab Chamber clients and partners achieve mastery of the system’s workings, and this is what the workshop on the 25th is about. “The lecture will be like a training session,” Salgueiro noted. This, however, will not be the sole event. Other actions to make the new tool public will take place in months to come.
The workshop will take place from 8:30 to 11:00 am at the Renaissance Hotel. Admission is free for Arab Chamber members. Non-member companies looking to attend can get in touch with the organization for further information.
Workshop on the Advantages of Online Certification
June 25th from 8:30 to 11:30 am
Place: Renaissance Hotel, Alameda Santos, 2233, São Paulo, São Paulo
Free admission for Arab Chamber members
Registration and additional information:
Arab Chamber, C/O Edson Mattar Jr.
Phone: (55 11) 3147-4115
Email: emattar@ccab.org.br
For questions regarding the online certification system:
Arab Chamber, C/O Leandro Salgueiro
Phone: (11) 3147-4060
Email: leandro_salgueiro@ccab.org.br
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani & Gabriel Pomerancblum
