São Paulo- The CEO of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, Michel Alaby, will speak at the event Invest in Oman Forum set to September 27 and 28 at the Grand Millennium Hotel, in Muscat, capital of Oman. The executive will give the lecture “Experience and opportunities in Brazilian free-trade zones” on the event’s first day. The Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry is organizing the forum in a partnership with the General Union of Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture for Arab Countries.
“The purpose of the Manaus Free Zone differs from the purposes of the Arab free zones. The first purpose of the Manaus free zone was to occupy the territory of Amazonas state. They (the founders of the free zone) weren’t concerned with searching for export opportunities but with bringing companies to produce using the local workforce and produce to the domestic market”, says Alaby.
In the Arab countries, the free zones are large areas meant to host foreign companies with a focus on the production of goods and services for the foreign market. These often companies receive full tax exemption and incentives from the government to establish themselves in these areas.
The executive says that in Brazil the areas created for the production of goods for export, which have tax exemptions, are called Export Processing Zones (EPZs). They are smaller in size compared to Manaus Free Zone.
The main Brazilian EPZs, he says, are the ones in Tabatinga, Amazonas; Macapá, Amapá; Brasiléia, Epitaciolândia and Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre; Guarujá-Mirim, Rondônia; and Boa Vista and Bonfim, Roraima. In these places, there are foreign companies that, mostly produce basic goods such as bricks, açaí berry, ice cream, coffee, milk and dairy products, non-alcoholic beverages, vegetable oils and soft drinks, among other items.
Alaby believes that now is not the best time in Brazil to create new free zones such as the one in Manaus but aiming at the foreign market, but that the country could invest in new EPZs in “areas in which there’s difficulties in job creation”.
Invest in Oman Forum will gather investors from all over the world in an event with a focus on the economic sectors that display the potential to diversify the Omani economy.
According to the newspaper Muscat Daily, among the panels that will be presented are one called Major Economic Features of the Sultanate during the Coming Period and a presentation by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) called Possible Alternatives for Diversification in the Sultanate and the Role of Foreign Investors. The Saudi Chambers Union will present the lecture The Economic Conditions in GCC States. Alaby’s presentation will take place within the panel Economic and Free Zones and the Available Investment Opportunities.
For further information on the event, contact Mohammed Al-Huseini at mk_huseini@chamberoman.com
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
