São Paulo – Around 70 companies, including company representatives and sectorial and government organisations, are going to participate in a delegation promoted by the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade to the Middle East from February 12th to 16th. Businessmen and organisations had a preparatory meeting on Tuesday (31) at the offices of the National Confederation of Industries (CNI), in São Paulo.
The delegation should visit Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, including Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and some of the companies will then head on to Qatar. The mission should include a total of 46 companies of four different types: exporters of different kinds of products, building companies, organisations in the defence sector and organisations interested in investment in projects in Brazil.
Minister Fernando Pimentel should lead the group and will have meetings with members of local governments. Organisation is in the hands of the Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex), connected to the Development Ministry, with the support of the CNI and the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce. The CEO at the Chamber, Michel Alaby, made a presentation about how to negotiate with the Arabs on Tuesday.
In the area of exporters, four areas are contemplated: food and beverages, auto parts, machinery and equipment and housing and construction. According to Bassel Amaneddine, general manager at IFP Emirates, a company specialized in event promotion hired to organize the meetings in the Emirates, over 100 local companies have enrolled to participate in business roundtables with the Brazilians.
In the case of businessmen interested in presenting investment projects in infrastructure and real estate development, representatives of 60 companies plan to participate in the seminar. Amaneddine pointed out that the figures may rise before the meetings. “There has been good response [to the invitations]. This reflects the interest of the Middle East in Brazil,” said the executive.
Still in the Emirates, the delegation will have meetings with businessmen from other countries organized by consultancy company Euromonitor. Up to now, meetings have been scheduled with representatives of 20 companies from Jordan, Bahrain, Lebanon, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman.
In Saudi Arabia, up to now, 37 companies have confirmed participation in business roundtables with Brazilians and nine investment seminars. “We will have more [companies confirmed by the date of the meetings]”, said Anas Hussien, manager at Marcom, an event promotion organisation chosen to organise the agenda in Riyadh. He added that over 94 businessmen are expected to confirm presence in the roundtables and some 20 others should participate in the seminar.
According to Hussien, the business environment in Saudi Arabia “is competitive” and the economy is growing, despite the international turbulence. He pointed out that there are many large projects under development in the country, especially in industry, real estate development and infrastructure.
To exporters, the manger pointed out that the Saudis “are consumers by nature” and that there is great demand for consumer goods, mainly food and beverages.
Construction companies and those in the areas of defence will have separate agendas. The former are going to Qatar. According to the head of the Apex business centre in Dubai and Doha, Sidney Costa, they are going to participate in a seminar to show authorities in Qatar the experience of Brazilian companies in infrastructure works, and should also meet with representatives of banks, law firms and local construction companies. The objective is to open opportunities in the country’s projects for the 2022 World Cup.
*Translated by Mark Ament
