São Paulo – The workshop covering non-governmental relations between the Arabian Gulf and Latin America should take place at Cambridge University, in the United Kingdom, from July 2nd to 5th. A researcher from the University of Brasilia (UNB), the French-Chilean Cecilia Baeza, will be one of the speakers and will talk about the formation of business networks and the creation of inter-regional spaces that have emerged in recent years, regardless of government initiatives. The panel by Baeza should take place on July 3rd, from 2:30 pm to 4:00 pm.
According to Baeza, the Summit of South American-Arab Countries (Aspa) played a role in this process. "After the Aspa, many economic projects have emerged," said the researcher. She mentioned, among them, the promotion of investment forums that were promoted by the private sector and international organizations, such as the Latin America Mid-East Investors Forum, organized by the Gulf Latin America Leaders Council (GLLC) and Latin Finance, and the Arab-Latin American Forum, sponsored by think tank Global Foundation for Democracy and Development.
Baeza recalls that, despite growing, relations between Latin America and the Gulf are not a priority. "They are not natural markets, neither for one, nor for the other side," said the scholar. To the Gulf, currently, among the emerging regions, the most important are Asia and Africa, explained the UNB researcher. She added that excluding some multinationals that have operations in countries in the region, like Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, economic flows are still weak.
There are, however, closer microeconomic ties, with businesses in the Gulf and Latin America having points in common, like the appreciation of interpersonal relationships and family companies. The presence of the Arab diaspora in the Latin American corporate sector has been proactive in generation of closer ties with the Gulf. "However, the majority of the diaspora in Brazil is from Syria, Lebanon and Palestine," says the expert. She also noted that the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce also works on bringing the private initiative closer to the Gulf.
Workshop "The Relationship between the Gulf Countries and Latin America: The Role of Non-State Actors" will be directed by researcher Alejandra Galindo Marines, from the University of Monterrey, Mexico. On the site of the Gulf Research Meeting, the event to host the workshop, the organizers emphasize the importance of the non-governmental players in international relations and draws attention to the differences between the private sector in Latin America, very significant in decision-making, and in the Gulf, which has made several reforms in this sense, but is still greatly centralized on the government.
The Gulf Research Meeting is promoted annually by the Gulf Research Centre Cambridge, aiming at increasing knowledge and research about the Gulf. The idea is to promote studies on the region and encourage academic exchange of knowledge in the area.
Baeza was born in France and completed her studies in the country. Daughter of a Chilean sociologist father and a French mother, she holds a degree in Political Science and a doctorate in International Relations from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Science Po). She is currently developing her postdoctoral research studies at UNB, and will, this year, start teaching International Relations at Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV), in São Paulo. The doctor is also a researcher in think tank New Generation Consulting (NGC), based in Lebanon, which brings together scholars on the relations of Latin America and the Arab world.
Baeza came to Latin America for her postdoctoral studies and currently shares her time between Brazil, Chile and Argentina. In Argentina, she works for the Network for Interdisciplinary Research on the Arab World and Latin America (Rimaal), of which she is one of the founders, at Tres de Febrero University, in Buenos Aires. In France, the French-Chilean’s studies also involved the presence of the Palestinian diaspora in South America, in Brazil and Chile, and Central America, in Honduras. The postdoctoral project developed at UNB covers Brazil’s role as mediator of the conflicts in the Middle East.
Service
Gulf Research Meeting 2013
From July 2nd to 5th
Cambridge University – UK
Info: http://grm.grc.net/
*Translated by Mark Ament
