São Paulo – A delegation from Oman headed by the Arab country’s minister of Industry and Trade, Ali Bin Masoud Bin Ali Al-Sunaidy, will be in Brazil this week for a series of meetings with business owners and Brazilian government officials. Several authorities and executives from Omani companies are taking part in the mission.
On Wednesday (3) morning, the delegation will visit the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce in the city of São Paulo, where business matchmaking between Brazilian and Omani business owners will take place. “Omani business owners are interested in importing and exporting”, said the Arab Chamber CEO, Michel Alaby.
Representatives of nine companies from the Arab nation will be in Brazil, among them importers of foodstuff, auto parts and pharmaceutical, exporters of marble and business owners from the oil and gas industries.
In the afternoon, the Business Seminar Brazil-Oman is set to take place at the Federation of Industries of São Paulo State (Fiesp), organized by Fiesp in a partnership with the Arab Chamber and the Oman embassy in Brasília, with the support of Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Itamaraty) and the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade (MDIC).
According to Alaby, besides bilateral trade, the seminar will discuss the investment opportunities in both countries. Omani business owners also want to visit livestock farms.
On Thursday (4), the delegation will be in Brasília for the first meeting of the Brazil-Oman Bilateral Joint Commission at Itamaraty. According to the director of the Middle East Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lígia Maria Scherer, the mechanism for the creation of the commission was signed when vice-president Michel Temer visited the Arab nation in 2013.
The ambassador underlined that bilateral relations are stronger now and pointed out that Brazilian mining company Vale has an iron ore pellet plant and a sea terminal in Oman, in a total of USD 2 billion in investments, which generated approximately 3,000 jobs in the country.
She added that Omanis have great interest in the Brazilian agricultural sector and that Brazil is interested in attracting investments from the Arab nation to the sector. As other countries in the Gulf, Oman is a food importer and is greatly concerned with food security.
Also planned are meetings of Sunaidy and his delegation with Armando Monteiro Neto, minister of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, and Kátia Abreu, minister of Agriculture.
Another interesting area for cooperation, according to the diplomat, is education. Also in the meeting’s agenda are discussions on technical cooperation, a visa agreement and trilateral cooperation (involving a third country). “The outlook is very promising”, declared Scherer.
Trade balance
Brazil’s exports to Oman totaled USD 584 million last year, a decline of 32% over 2014. Even so, the country appeared at the fifth position among the main markets of the Arab world. The most important product on the trade list is iron ore, followed by poultry, iron and steel pipe fittings, machinery and soy bran.
On the other hand, Brazilian imports of products from Oman totaled USD 72.11 million, a decline of 70% in the same comparison. The main imported items were fertilizers, frozen fish, plastics, sulphur, and raw aluminum.
Service
For information about participation in the business matchmaking at the Arab Chamber, contact Natalie Garcia via phone (+55 11) 3147-4073 or email ngarcia@ccab.org.br.
For further information and to register at the seminar at Fiesp, go to http://www.fiesp.com.br/agenda/seminario-empresarial-brasil-oma/?utm_source=fiesp&utm_medium=email&utm_content=programacao-22.01.16&utm_campaign=seminario-empresarial-brasil-oma and https://apps2.fiesp.com.br/sce/InscricaoEventos/asp/InscricaoEvento.asp?codigo=3314&mobile&utm_source=fiesp&utm_medium=email&utm_content=inscricao-22.01.16&utm_campaign=seminario-empresarial-brasil-oma
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
