São Paulo – Brazil has appointed a new ambassador to Khartoum, Sudan. Patrícia Maria Oliveira Lima do Nascimento Pedro plans to arrive in the Sudanese capital (picture above) between the end of December and beginning of January, as she is holding preparatory meetings before taking up her post. This Friday (23), she visited the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, in São Paulo.
“The prospects are very positive,” said the diplomat to ANBA. She’s very familiar with Sudan, since she served as minister counsellor at the Brazilian embassy in Khartoum, and is married with Antônio Carlos do Nascimento Pedro, former ambassador, now retired, of Brazil in the African country. “It is not unfamiliar to me, I really like the country, it is like coming back home,” she said.
Patrícia pointed out that Brazil and Sudan have good complementary options that might generate businesses and cooperation initiatives. “There are niches of trade opportunities that are worth being explored,” she emphasized.
As an example, she mentioned the pharmaceutical industry, in which Brazil has experience and Sudan has a demand. “They used to have a pharmaceutical industry some time ago that disappeared in a bombing of Khartoum and never recovered. To reestablish [this industry] might be a good cooperation partnership,” she declared.
The food security area is another one of these niches. Brazil can be either the supplier of products for human and animal feed or operate in the development of agricultural projects in the Arab country, the latter a role already taken up by the country in the past. “Projects like these could serve not only to boost local production, but also to increase productivity and introduce new crops,” said the ambassador.
She also discussed the sectors of mining, services and cooperation for professional training. “There could be interesting partnerships in the training area,” she said. The diplomat visited recently the Federal Institute of Brasília (IFB, in the Portuguese acronym) to discuss the topic. The institution, an arm of the Ministry of Education, offers free technical training courses.
To explore the business potential, Patrícia plans to organize trade missions and B2B meetings between Brazilian and Sudanese entrepreneurs, with the support of organizations such as the Arab Chamber and the Afro Brazilian Chamber of Commerce (Afrochamber). She also plans to increase the knowledge on Sudan in Brazil.
This will be Patrícia’s first mission as a resident ambassador, but she already worked in Brazilian diplomatic representations in Kuwait, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Chile and Peru, plus Sudan.
Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
