São Paulo – Brazil’s vice president Michel Temer should visit the United Arab Emirates starting next Sunday (10). In the agenda, meetings are scheduled with the prime minister of the Emirates and emir of Dubai, Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, with Brazilian businessmen and Temer should also visit the construction site of a BRF factory, the owner of brands Sadia and Perdigão, in Abu Dhabi.
According to information disclosed by the Brazilian Foreign Office (Itamaraty), Temer and Maktoum should discuss future technical and legal-institutional cooperation, in case the meeting is confirmed.
Regarding the BRF factory, the forecast is for the unit to start operating in early 2014 and for it to reach maximum production capacity in 2017, when around 80,000 tonnes of breaded and marinated products, as well as pizzas and hamburgers, will be made.
The first high-level visit of a Brazilian authority to the Emirates was promoted by former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2003. Since then, trade exchange between both countries has multiplied. In 2003, Brazil exported US$ 551.3 million to the Emirates, a value that grew to US$ 2.4 billion in 2012.
On the opposite lane, the Emirates exported US$ 18.7 million to Brazil in 2003, and US$ 309.6 million last year, according to figures disclosed by the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade.
Still according to the Itamaraty, since Lula’s trip, the Emirates have been visited by 14 Brazilian governors and 25 cabinet ministers. It is the Arab country most visited by Brazilian authorities.
Temer’s trip to the Emirates should conclude a trip to the Middle East, which began on the 1st. Temer went to China, where he met with local heads in Macau, Canton and Beijing. After China, the vice president’s committee should head to the Emirates and then return to Brazil.
*Translated by Mark Ament
