São Paulo – A Sudanese delegation headed by Siddig Moh Ali Elshiekh, the deputy governor of Khartoum, where the Sudanese capital is located, is in Brazil to progress with a cooperation agreement signed with the Federal District of Brazil, where the country capital is located. "We came to enact the memorandum of understanding,” said Elshiekh to ANBA last Friday (30), during a visit to the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, in São Paulo. The document made Brazilian capital Brasília and Khartoum into sister cities.
According to the deputy governor, also scheduled is exchange in areas like agribusiness, social programmes, projects for youths, sanitation, health, research and also sports and education. "We are going to promote what we discussed in Brasília,” said Elshiekh.
The agreement has already generated some fruit, like the travel of the team of the Federal District to Sudan for friendly matches and reciprocal visits by technicians in the area of sanitation. In sports, the deputy governor stated that he wants to organise the travel of a team from Sudan to play in Brazil and for youths from Khartoum to practice in the country.
At the Arab Brazilian Chamber, the delegation met with CEO Michel Alaby and with the Government Relations director, Tamer Mansour. The group is in the company of the ambassador of the Arab country in Brasília, Abd Elghani Elkarim. They discussed the possibility of trade and investment.
Elshiekh pointed out opportunities for investment in slaughterhouses, animal raising and supply of feed. According to him, the meat sector supplies not just Sudan, but also other countries in the region, like Egypt, the most populous nation in the Arab world.
The deputy governor also spoke about enterprises in development in the area in Khartoum that have not yet been explored and that may receive projects from different sectors. Another area in potential for foreign investors is mining, especially gold.
He also said that Sudan may export to Brazil items like cotton, gum Arabic, sesame seed and other agricultural and mineral products.
Another delegation from Sudan was in São Paulo last week, led by the minister of Oil in the country, Awad Eljazz. Both groups met at the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Arab Chamber, on Thursday.
*Translated by Mark Ament