São Paulo – The assistant secretary general of the Arab League, ambassador Mohammed bin Ibrahim Al-Tuwaijri, called on the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce this Tuesday (8th) for support in the organization of the next edition of the Summit of South American-Arab Countries (ASPA, in the Portuguese and Spanish acronym) and to be the official representative for talks with the private sector. Al-Tuwaijri met with the Arab Chamber’s manager of Government Relations, Tamer Mansour, and International Relations executive for the Levant and the Nile, Denise Guirau, at the Arab League’s headquarters in Cairo.
ASPA was created in 2005 to promote the expansion of trade and diplomatic relations between South America countries and the Arabs. The last edition of the event, with the presence of heads of state, institutions and companies, was held in 2012 in Lima, Peru. The next edition, scheduled for November of this year, should take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
“Ambassador Al-Tuwaijri asked the Arab Chamber to be ASPA’s official representative with the private sector in organizing ASPA 2015, whose main topic will be the logistics and transportation sectors. There’s the intention of establishing a deal for the countries participating in ASPA to create a transportation company”, said Mansour. The goals of this company are not set yet.
Brazilian products
On Monday (7th), Mansour, Guirau and the counselor of the Brazilian embassy in Cairo, Pedro Yacoubian, visited the central office of the retail chain HyperOne. They negotiated the organization of an event to promote the sales of Brazilian products in the chain’s supermarket stores. “All kinds of products made in Brazil would be included, such as footwear, food products, cosmetics, among others, in a sales effort in September of next year. Hyper One’s executive director, Tarek Sedky, believes this to be a good proposal”, said Mansour. The general manager of the retail chain, Mohamed Kamel, also took part in the meeting.
The Arab Chamber’s staff also visited the fair of agricultural machinery and food Sahara Expo to consider the participation of Brazilian companies of the sector in the next edition of the event, which is held in Cairo.
In this trip to Egypt, Mansour and Guirau should meet with representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Arab country, to talk about exports of live cattle by Brazil, and also with technicians from the North African country’s department of investments. This meeting should take place next Thursday (10th) when Mansour and Guirau should also visit the new Suez Canal. The Arab Chamber’s executives visited Jordan and Lebanon before arriving in Egypt.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
