São Paulo – Peruvian businessmen forecast strong growth in trade with the Arab countries after the creation of the Peruvian Arab Chamber of Commerce and Industry, on Wednesday (18), in Lima, and the promotion of the 3rd Summit of South American-Arab Countries (Aspa), in February 2011, in the capital of the Andean country. "We decided to set up the Chamber to have better trade relations with the Arab nations," said to ANBA, by telephone, the president of the recently established organisation, Miguel Atala Herrera.
According to him, the Chamber will simplify trade as it will expand the contact with businessmen in the Middle East and North Africa, as well as the exchange of information and the support to bilateral trade.
According to the businessman, estimates presented during the ceremony inaugurating the organisation, show that exports from Peru to the Arab nations may reach US$ 1 billion a year in the year after the February summit. This expansion should be sustained by three pillars: political, economic and social.
Bilateral trade is small, having totalled US$ 84 million in 2009, being US$ 48.6 million Peruvian exports. Herrera believes, however, that it is possible to expand the figures, mainly by exporting the metallic ores that are abundant in the Andean country, among them zinc, gold, silver, copper and lead.
Apart from the exchange of products, Herrera believes it is possible to attract investment from the Arab world. Two large Arab companies, Dubai Ports World (DP World), the port operator from the United Arab Emirates, and Sonatrach, the Algerian state-owned company, already do business with the Andean country. Investment by both total US$ 1 billion, according to an article published by Peruvian news agency Andina.
The executive added that he hopes to reach December with the Chamber operating and prepared to answer to businessmen’s enquiries. For such, he counts on the support of the Lima Chamber of Commerce (CCL), "the sponsor and sister" of the new organisation. He also said that he counts on the "strategic support of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce to continue growing".
Arab Brazilian Chamber president Salim Taufic Schahin, former president Orlando Sarhan and secretary general Michel Alaby participated in the ceremony for creation of the Peruvian organisation and even signed the charter establishing the enterprise.
Herrera said that the new organisation has the support of local businessmen and should bring together at least 100 associates in the beginning.
The president of the Peruvian Arab Chamber is a businessman in the textile and agricultural sectors and is also vice president at Petroperu, the state-owned oil company of the Andean country. Of Palestinian and Lebanese descent, he already exports grapes to the Arab world through an intermediary in the Netherlands. “We have the necessary experience to make trade grow," he said.
*Translated by Mark Ament
