São Paulo – This Tuesday (17th), the Brazil-Arab News Agency (ANBA), owned by the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, is turning ten. For a decade, the website has covered the most important events which have taken place in Brazil’s relations with Arab countries in trade, economics, business, diplomacy, and culture. And it has been no easy feat, seeing as the country has had an intense exchange with the region during this period of time.
In trade, Brazil’s exports have increased nearly six-fold, while imports have risen five times; in diplomacy, three editions of the Summit of South American-Arab Countries (Aspa) have taken place, and official visits and agreement signings have thrived; in culture, organizations have been established, publications have been launched, and exhibitions and festivals have been held.
All of this has taken place against the backdrop of major international change, such as the invasion of Iraq, the commodity price hike, the expansion of global trade, the rising liquidity and investment worldwide, then the financial crisis, the Arab Spring, recession in Europe, and the conflict in Syria.
ANBA was established to promote a direct flow of information between Brazilians and Arabs, discussing topics then-seldom addressed in news reports on the Middle East and North Africa aired in Brazil, and vice versa, focusing mainly on trade, business opportunities, and the economic potential of the two regions at hand.
“ANBA has played a key role in establishing closer ties between Brazil and the Arab countries, and it is one of the most up-to-date, competent sources of information on Brazil and the 22 Arab countries,” said the Arab Brazilian Chamber president Marcelo Sallum.
In 2003, the Brazilian government ascribed top priority to its diplomatic ties with the Middle East and Africa, and ANBA emerged as one of the Arab Brazilian Chamber’s initiatives to sponsor said strategy. Now, the agency boasts over 1 million monthly hits (as of August 2013).
The project was designed by Agência Meios, owned by journalists Joel Santos Guimarães and Paula Quental. Guimarães served as ANBA’s editor-in-chief up until January this year. From the start, the Arab Brazilian Chamber hired its own team for ANBA, currently composed of four journalists and two translators. The agency publishes news reports in Portuguese and English seven days a week. It sustains agreements with seven news agencies in Arab countries and with the Brazilian government outlet Agência Brasil, and is in talks to enter into three other similar agreements.
During this period, the agency has won 11 prizes, the first in 2004 and the latest in 2011, and was shortlisted or a finalist for another seven. The team’s work has been acknowledged by organizations and enterprises in different industries, such as the National Confederation of Transports (CNT), the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), Massey Ferguson, the National Railway Transporters Association (ANTF), the National Coffee Industry Confederation (CNC), the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture and the Brazilian Highway Concessionaires Association (ABCR).
In order to produce some of the material published in these ten years, ANBA journalists have travelled Brazil and a significant portion of the world. News reports have been written from out of 14 Brazilian states and the Federal District, and in 18 of the 22 existing Arab countries, as well as Argentina, Peru and Iran.
Major events covered by ANBA include the three editions of the Aspa summit, the 11th United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad), Rio+20, several Mercosur summits, a G20 meeting, heads of state visits, Arab League forums, and dozens of trade shows and business missions.
“ANBA is important to any Brazilian who works with the Arab world and vice versa,” said ambassador Cesário Melantonio Neto, Brazil’s special envoy to the Middle East. “ANBA was a great insight,” said the Brazilian ambassador to Baghdad, Iraq, Anuar Nahes.
To the dean of the Council of Arab Ambassadors to Brazil, Ibrahim Alzeben, the agency has been “very successful” in showcasing “the real Brazil to the Arabs” and in “opening the eyes of Brazil to the importance of Arabs as partners.” “I believe ANBA’s task is a sacred one,” he said.
In order to mark the anniversary, the agency’s team has produced a series of reports on how Brazil’s relations with the Arab world have evolved in the past ten years. The reports are the headlines of the ANBA homepage this Tuesday.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
