Doha – Brazil’s president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva spoke at the opening of the Brazil-Qatar Business Forum: Opportunities & Business in Doha, the capital city of the Arab country, on Thursday (30). In the event featuring businesspeople and officials from Brazil and Qatar, Lula stressed his interest in strengthening trade relations with the Qatari and said he hopes the Arab country diversifies its investments in Brazil.
The bilateral visit anticipates the celebration of the fifty anniversary of Brazil-Qatar diplomatic relations next year. After the forum, president Lula made an official visit to emir Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani.
“We want to look to the future together and bring in a new inflow of investments to Brazil. Our bilateral trade has grown exponentially, from USD 38 million in 2003 to USD 1.6 billion now. Qatar is currently one of the leading business gateways to the Middle East and has a thriving business community that’s keenly interested in Brazil,” said the president in his speech.
Lula sees opportunities in various industries. “There’s ample room for diversifying our trade with high value-added goods like car pieces, defense goods, and Embraer’s aircraft,” he said.
On the Brazilian agribusiness, the president said the government is committed to a sustainable agriculture in line with the best environmental practices. “We keep a careful, thorough management of halal goods, respecting the Islamic rites and Qatari culture,” he said.
“Brazil has also implemented trade facilitation measures such as an electronic system of document validation and signing for bilateral trade operations. This system – which is already in place with Egypt and Jordan – will allow us to reduce timeframes and costs of trade transactions between Brazil and Qatar,” said the president, referring to the Ellos Blockchain system developed by the Arab-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce (ABCC) that has digitized the customs clearance in the trade with the aforementioned countries.
Lula said that improving the infrastructure is an urgent challenge that Brazil has to face in order to cement its development. “We’ve launched this first year of my administration a growth acceleration plan known as PAC, which tackles investment opportunities that are open and attractive to foreigners. We want to turn Brazil into a construction site, building, expanding and modernizing ports, airports, roads, railroads, waterways. We’ll overcome the bottlenecks that undermine Brazilian competitiveness,” he said.
Lula’s chief of staff, Rui Costa, presented planned investments as high as USD 347 billion in infrastructure through the PAC, emphasizing the country’s green agenda and efforts towards a sustainable economy. Costa talked about investments opportunities in railways, roads, waterways, ports, airports and others, and the prospect of recovering 40 million hectares (100 million acres) of land to double food production in ten years.
Finance minister Fernando Haddad spoke to the press after the opening of the event and praised Brazil’s capacity to attract investments to sustainability-related projects. “Brazil can be the country with the world’s best conditions for sustainable investments, both from the social and the environmental perspective,” he said.
The trip to Qatar, Haddad says, is very likely to attract new partners to Brazil, as it occurred in Saudi Arabia. “It’s almost BRL 50 billion (USD 10 billion) that Saudi Arabia plans on investing in Brazil. This will improve the logistics and productivity of the Brazilian economy, besides creating jobs. With Qatar, we are just starting talks. In the case of Saudi Arabia, negotiations are more advanced, and the fund that the kingdom plans on establishing is already underway. Qatar is very promising, too,” concluded Haddad.
The Brazil-Qatar Economic Forum was held by the ABCC, the Qatar Chamber, and Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, via the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (ApexBrasil).
ABCC secretary-general Tamer Mansour closed the event underling the relevance of Brazil-Arab partnerships, “which is more and more strong in the business community.”
“President Lula is a legend in the Arab countries. He believes in the relations with these countries, thinking not only in economic but also cultural ties, which in turn create an economic relationship. Twenty years ago, when we talked about the Arabs and Brazil, we talked beef, chicken. Now we talk strategic partnerships,” said Mansour.
Climate
The president flies on Thursday to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where he’ll participate in the UN climate summit COP28. Lula stressed that Brazil plans on cementing its leading role in the ongoing global transition towards a sustainable economy.
“The energy transition is a new opportunity to repeat this history of success in low-carbon energy, reuse of waste, green infrastructures, and socio-biodiversity. Brazil will soon become a sustainability exporter. We have a huge potential in solar and wind power, biofuels, and green hydrogen. At COP28, I’ll call for action and ambition in tackling the climate crisis. I’m certain that Qatar can also be an important ally in this agenda,” said Lula.
Peace in the Middle East
“We share a vocation for peace,” said President Lula. “Qatar is a relevant diplomatic player due to its active, independent foreign policy, and it’s a key intermediary in several regional and global topics. At this time when war is raging again in the Middle East, Qatar plays a central role for peace in the Israel-Palestine conflict,” he said.
Lula congratulated the mediation of Qatar in the agreement announced a few days ago between Israel and Hamas that entails a temporary truce and the release of hostages from both sides, including women and children.
Read more on the visits of president Lula to Arab countries
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
