São Paulo – The minister of Industry, Energy and Mining of Tunisia, Kamel Ben Naceur, visited the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce this Tuesday night (6th), in São Paulo, as the last appointment of his two-day visit to Brazil. He had gave a positive assessment of the trip. “In the near future we want Brazil to be one of the top ten business partners of Tunisia”, he pointed out.
Over the last two days, Naceur went to the opening of the São Paulo State Supermarket Association’s (Apas) fair, which has Arab exhibitors, including Tunisians; he also took part in the Forum “Brazil-Tunisia Partnership at the Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo (Fiesp), and had meetings with representatives from the Brazilian mining company Vale and the government of São Paulo.
Naceur is optimistic about the possibility of his country attracting more Brazilian investments. “We believe Tunisia has advantages for this model of collaboration”, he pointed out. Besides the domestic market, he also cited as attractive the possibility of doing business with other African and European nations.
“It can bring an opportunity for Brazilian companies to sell to Africa and European Union, through [Tunisia’s trade] deals”, observed the CEO of the Arab Brazilian Chamber, Michel Alaby.
According to the minister, the cost of doing business in Tunisia is lower than in countries “North of the Mediterranean”, that is, Europe, and in neighboring nations. He added that this advantage will remain during and after the country’s political transition.
“[We] found a way to have a national dialog that is working and I hope will bring about the elections, but the country’s strategy to attract investments and open the economy will not change”, he declared.
Naceur also said economic development is one of the demands from the Tunisian population, and one of the ways to reach this goal is to cooperate with other countries.
For the Tunisian ambassador in Brazil, Sabri Bachtobji, the events on Monday and Tuesday are “a new step” in the relations between the two countries, which now possess “a superior level of collaboration”.
The Arab Chamber Foreign Trade vice president and honorary consul of Tunisia in São Paulo, Rubens Hannun, added that “the moment is most favorable” for creating an “action plan” for Brazil-Tunisia relations. “The opportunities will be quite clear”, he said.
*Translated by Rodrigo Mendonça
