Sharjah – The Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce’s (ABCC) mission in Dubai started an agenda of visits to chambers of commerce in different emirates to strengthen the organization’s work to bring the entire Arab country closer together. One of the destinations was the emirate of Sharjah. The president of the Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Abdullah Sultan Al Owais, received the president of the ABCC, ambassador Osmar Chohfi, and the organization’s secretary-general, Tamer Mansour, for a conversation at the institution’s headquarters, in the emirate of Sharjah.
Osmar Chohfi said this was his third visit to Sharjah and informed Al Owais Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro would visit the Brazil pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai on November 15. The ambassador invited a mission from the Sharjah Chamber to visit São Paulo in July next year, on the 70th anniversary of the ABCC, when there will be a new edition of the Brazil-Arab Countries Economic Forum. “It will be a great opportunity to get to know the market and companies in Brazil better,” he said.
Sharjah is known as the emirate of culture, arts, and literature, and Chohfi recalled the ABCC has a sector dedicated to culture, and the organization’s cultural director, Silvia Antibas, received the UNESCO-Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture in may last year for her work promoting Arab culture around the world. “Culture helps everything, even business,” said Chohfi.
The president of the Sharjah Chamber informed the organization has almost 70,000 members, and in addition to certificates of origin and other services, it also has an export center, the Sharjah Exports Development Centre, which already exports about 2,000 products, and the institution intends to expand this range. The main destinations of exports are the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and West Africa. The organization seeks to attract more companies and become a new export and re-export hub in the region.
Issues such as food security, agriculture, and commodity exports were discussed. Chohfi stated that Brazil, in addition to being the largest producer and exporter of halal protein globally, has the potential to increase trade in other halal sectors, such as cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and tourism. Chohfi made the ABCC available to the Sharjah Chamber to help in matters of business with Brazilian companies.
The Sharjah Chamber building is a palace with Islamic architecture. Built in 2008, it was initially designed to become a library, but the government decided to install their chamber of commerce there due to the economic recession. Inside, the decoration of the palace is modern and displays references to Arab architecture. The Emir of Sharjah, Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi, enjoys maintaining Islamic culture and tradition.
The meeting was also attended by the head of the ABCC’s international office in Dubai, Rafael Solimeo, the Institutional Relations manager at the organization, Fernanda Baltazar, and the regional advisor for the countries of the GCC, Iraq, and Yemen, Shaheen Ali Shaheen. After the meeting, Al Owais offered a tour of the Chamber building.
The following visits will be to the Chambers of Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah.
Translated by Elúsio Brasileiro
