São Paulo – The Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce is going to promote two seminars for Arab investors in order to present investment opportunities in Brazil, especially in the fields of tourism and infrastructure.
The events will be held in Kuwait, on April 28 and 29, and in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on May 04 and 05. The Brazilian Ministry of Tourism and the Brazilian Infrastructure and Heavy Industries Association (ABDIB) will also participate in the seminars. The Kuwaiti and Abu Dhabi chambers of commerce are also involved in the organization of the events.
Wladimir Freua, The Arab Brazilian Chamber’s Foreign Trade vice-president, claims that the primary objective of the seminars is “to raise awareness of Brazil among Arab investors.”
“There is a lack of knowledge of the way money is treated, legal security, the financial system, its level of regulation, the exchange policy, what guarantee of return on investment is, whether Brazil has reserves… Thus, the initial goal is an institutional one, namely to raise investor awareness and sensibility,” he explains.
Other topics will be investment in tourism infrastructure, in particular the hotel industry, and also investment in general infrastructure.
Freua underscores that in addition to presentations geared towards qualified investors, the group is also going to make technical visits to institutional investors. “We should talk to the Kuwait Investment Authority and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority,” he said, referring to the sovereign funds of Kuwait and Abu Dhabi.
He reports that the idea for the seminars arose out of talks between the Arab Brazilian Chamber and the Ministry of Tourism, and that the Central Bank of Brazil will also be represented at the events, in order to discuss topics such as the institutional environment for investment in the country, for instance.
According to him, the choice of Kuwait and Abu Dhabi to host the seminars was due to the fact that those are two of the largest donators of funds in the Arab world. In between the seminars, the Brazilians are also going to participate in a conference on tourism in Dubai.
Freua also claims that the Arab Brazilian Chamber intends to promote a seminar of the type every four months. The coming events should take place in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Libya.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
