Alexandre Rocha*
alexandre.rocha@anba.com.br
São Paulo – Construction company Queiroz Galvão now has four contracts in Libya in the area of urban infrastructure for the value of US$ 500 million, according to figures supplied by the company. It is one of the Brazilian construction companies currently operating in the Arab world, together with Andrade Gutierrez and Odebrecht, with the latter also operating in Libya.
According to a spokesperson for the company, Queiroz Galvão has been present in the Arab country for a year and a half and the enterprises it is developing are in different cities in the areas of water supply, sewage, draining, public lighting, telephony, road making and urbanism. All the contracts were signed with the government of Libya.
The company judges that the Libyan market is promising, as the country is a large producer of oil and gas. In the Arab world, Queiroz Galvão currently operates in the Libyan market, but believes in the possibility of new business in the region.
Open to foreign trade, after years of a closed economy, and capitalised due to high oil prices, the Arab country is making heavy investment in infrastructure, be it in new enterprises or in the renewal of already existing works.
The country is in North Africa, is a member of the Maghreb and has the eighth largest oil reserves in the world. The commodity, according to information supplied by the market intelligence area at the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, answers to 95% of exports, one quarter of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) – estimated at US$ 58.9 billion in 2007 – and covers 60% of expenses in the public sector.
With a population of 6.2 million people, the per capita GDP is US$ 9,600. The Libyan economy grew on average 5.8% a year over the last five years, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), an economic information service by British magazine The Economist.
Queiroz Galvão was established in 1953, in the city of Recife, capital of the northeastern Brazilian state of Pernambuco, and is currently based in the state of Rio de Janeiro. According to information on the company site, it has operations in all Brazilian states, in Latin America and in Africa.
Apart from the building business, the company operates in the areas of exploration and production of oil and gas, agribusiness, concession of public services, ironworks, banking and urban cleaning.
*Translated by Mark Ament
