São Paulo – The Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce presented this Tuesday morning (16) its 2018 activities calendar to members, exporting companies and partners over breakfast at its headquarters in São Paulo. “We are building the future together,” Arab Chamber president Rubens Hannun told attendees. The 85-strong audience included business owners and executives, delegates from industry-specific organizations, consultants, diplomats and journalists.
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Hannun stressed that next week, on the 22nd, the Chamber will host the seminar “Principles and Strategies in Islamic Economy,” by the Dubai Islamic Economy Development Center (DIEDC). “They will go over what Islamic economy is and the expanded notion of halal, which extends beyond food products. It’s a lifestyle,” the president remarked.
In February, Hannun pointed out that the Arab Chamber will hold the Brazilian Festival – a promotional event featuring Brazilian goods, as well as cultural and sports attractions – at the Yas Mall in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates. Yas Mall is the world’s fourth biggest mall. “Anyone who might be interest should join along. This will add value to the event,” he said.
The Chamber will also carry out similar promotional actions in hypermarkets in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, under the name Brazilian Week. “We’ll bring value-added products for end buyers to sample,” he said.
Hannun also noted that April in São Paulo will see the Brazil-Arab Countries Economic Forum, organized in partnership by the Chamber, the General Union of Arab Chambers of Commerce and the League of Arab States. “Delegates from several countries will gather to discuss subjects including food security, the halal market, the importance of branding and image and other subjects,” said Hannun. All panels will feature one Brazilian and one Arab specialist.
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The central theme of the Forum will be “Building the Future.” Arab Chamber marketing coordinator Juliana Burza added that discussions will also cover economic scenarios in Brazil and the Arab countries, innovation and technology, logistics and investments.
Regarding investments, Hannun asserted that this year, the Chamber will keep working to steer Arab investors towards Brazil, since the country is a major manufacturer, with a particularly big agricultural output, and Arab funds boast the resources to import these goods and supply their own markets.
He also said the Chamber is planning to open an office in Dubai, the UAE and another in Itajaí, a port city in Santa Catarina, Brazil. “We will open an office in Dubai this year, ‘inshallah’ (Arabic for God willing), to provide support to our members. It will be our first office in an Arab country,” he said. “We also plan on opening offices outside São Paulo, the first one being in Itajaí, to streamline our certification activities,” he added.
Outlook
Arab chamber CEO Michel Alaby told the audience about the economic outlook for the Arab world this year. He expects the Gulf countries, which are major oil exporters, to see 2.2% growth, with the remainder Arab nations growing in the 3%-to-4% range. Alaby said the countries whose Gross Domestic Product (GDP) should widen the most are Saudi Arabia (1.6%), the UAE (3.1%) and Egypt (4.3%).
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Attendees also watched presentations delivered by the managers of different Arab Chamber departments. Certification coordinator Ianna Pimentel said the certificates of origin and export paper certifications issued by the organization “are guarantees to Brazilian exporters as well as to Arab importers,” attesting that processes meet the requirements in place in each of the destination countries.
Special projects advisor to the president Tamer Mansour pointed out that all of the companies that rely on the Arab Chamber’s certification services are also its members, and thus are entitled to a range of other services.
Presentations were also given on ANBA, on the Chamber’s new membership policy and its activities calendar. The Chamber will carry out at least 27 different commercial promotion actions, spanning at least 13 of the 22 Arab countries. “Further actions which are not in the plans may take place throughout the year, including a mission to Qatar,” said Hannun.
Goal fulfilled
The president said the meeting with members fulfilled the goal of bringing the Arab Chamber and clients closer together. “They had to see the Chamber’s facilities that they have available to them. More than just our activities, they had to see what’s behind them,” he said. The idea is for the organization to provide increasingly customized services to meet the needs of each partner. As Tamer Mansour put it, the motto is “Our member is our sheikh.”
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Arab Chamber International Relations vice president Osmar Chohfi added that members were able to see “the wide range of initiatives scheduled in myriad fields in 2018. “And the presentations also showed that the Arab Chamber has a vast set of tools to help them achieve their goals,” he said. “They were given a very comprehensive overview of the opportunities available to Brazilian exporters in Arab markets,” he concluded.
Also attending the event were Chamber board members Mohammed Mourad and William Atui, and the commercial consul of Egypt to São Paulo, Mohamed Elkhatib.
The presentation by CEO Michel Alaby on the economic outlook for the Arab world and the Arab Chamber’s full activities calendar will be available for download soon at www.ccab.org.br.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
