Bethlehem – Businessman Fernando de Arruda Botelho, a shareholder at Camargo Correa construction company, one of the largest in Brazil, said that companies in the country could hire engineers and other professionals from Palestine. “Four building companies are present here and we have a problem of [lack of] labour in Brazil,” said Botelho today (16), during the Brazil-Palestine Business Seminar, in Bethlehem, West Bank.
Apart from Camargo Correa, also present were Andrade Gutierrez, OAS and Queiroz Galvão. “Camargo is ready to do that (hiring Palestinians),” said Botelho. “The building industry is going to boom this year,” he added. The sector is living a boom in Brazil and the market is lacking specialized professionals, and companies are being obliged to import labour.
According to Botelho, the companies need people not just for works in Brazil, but also for other countries, especially Africa. One of the main problems of Palestine is unemployment, including professionals with higher education. “Good professionals can get a job,” he said.
The Minister of Economics of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), Hasan Abu Libdeh, said that it is an “excellent proposal” that “may be a great contribution of Brazilian industry to the Palestinian cause”. “It is an excellent idea to reduce unemployment,” he said to ANBA. “We have many engineers here who have no jobs,” he added.
The minister pointed out that the PNA and the government of Brazil should discuss the matter to establish an agreement establishing that the workers go to Brazil and then return to Palestine. He wants the Palestinians to bring back to the country the experience acquired abroad.
Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce president Salim Taufic Schahin, who is also a businessman in the building sector and vice president at the Brazilian Association of Infrastructure and Basic Industries (Abdib), said that “engineers and technicians who want to work in Brazil will be very welcome.”
He spoke about figures in the Brazilian infrastructure sector, which is living great growth, and needs annual investment of around US$ 110 billion. Apart from exploration of new Brazilian oil frontiers, Schahin mentioned projects in the Growth Acceleration Program of the government of Brazil and works necessary for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics, in Rio de Janeiro.
*Translated by Mark Ament
