{"id":157227,"date":"2018-04-05T20:16:07","date_gmt":"2018-04-05T22:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/?p=157227"},"modified":"2018-04-05T20:56:14","modified_gmt":"2018-04-05T22:56:14","slug":"brazil-arab-trade-rise-another-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/brazil-arab-trade-rise-another-level\/","title":{"rendered":"Brazil-Arab trade could rise to another level"},"content":{"rendered":"

S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 After the Brazil-Arab Countries Economic Forum, held last Monday (02), in S\u00e3o Paulo, the secretary-general of the Union of Arab Chambers, Khaled Hanafy (pictured above, in the center), expects trade between Brazil and Arabs to rise to another level. \u201cThe forum suggested the change from simple trade to a strategic alliance,\u201d he said to ANBA this Thursday (05) during a visit to the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce<\/strong> in S\u00e3o Paulo.<\/p>\n

Hanafy came to Brazil to attend the forum and for other commitments scheduled by the Arab Chamber. A former minister of Supply and Domestic Trade of Egypt, Hanafy recently took the position of secretary-general of the Union, which is the main pan-Arab corporate organization. It gathers the chambers of commerce of Arab nations and the joint chambers, such as the Arab Brazilian Chamber.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Hanafy (L) greets the Arab Chamber’s CEO, Michel Alaby, during the forum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cStrategic partnership is the new name of the game, to increase a basic level trade balance of USD 20 billion ad reach a level that is representative of the USD 5 trillion of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of both sides,\u201d said the executive. The USD 20 billion is the trade balance between Brazil and the Arabs in 2017 and the USD 5 trillion is the sum of the GDPs of Brazil and the region\u2019s nations.<\/p>\n

He pointed out that the massive participation of Brazilian and Arabs authorities and business owners in the forum was a demonstration that there is an interest in broadening the relations. The event was attended by over 700 people, with at least 100 of them coming from the Arab countries, plus the presence of president Michel Temer, the Finance minister, Henrique Meirelles, and other high-ranking Brazilian government officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrazil is a relatively closed-off market relative to the size of its economy, since international trade amounts to only 17%, so there is room for improvement. The Arab world, on the other hand, is very open, at 70%, and some of that openness could be directed towards Brazil in a strategic alliance,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

According to Hanafy, Brazilian companies can set up branches in Arab countries, \u201cnot only to tap into the region\u2019s 400 million residents, but to a market of 2 billion people via trade agreements.\u201d Middle East and North Africa countries sustain free-trade or association agreements with the European Union, African blocs and amongst themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe forum opened doors for the future, but we need to move forward in implementing the great ideas that came up [during the event],\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Priority<\/strong><\/p>\n

Regarding his priorities at the General Union of Arab Chambers, Hanafy said the strategy is to \u201cachieve the old dream of a common market, but using modern technology.\u201d He explained that an economy and trade \u201cdigitization megaproject\u201d is underway to get suppliers and buyers in touch, not only via Arab chambers, but also through joint chambers like Brazil\u2019s.<\/p>\n

This week, at a meeting of joint chamber secretary generals in S\u00e3o Paulo, it was agreed that a mobile phone app will be designed to connect those organizations and their members, and eventually the chambers in Arab countries themselves, thereby establishing a major online network of business contacts.<\/p>\n

Translated by S\u00e9rgio Kakitani & Gabriel Pomerancblum<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rodrigo Rodrigues\/C\u00e2mara \u00c1rabe<\/div>\n
S\u00e9rgio Tomisaki\/ANBA<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That is the assessment made by the secretary-general of the Union of Arab Chambers, Khaled Hanafy, who attended, this week, an economic forum in S\u00e3o Paulo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1454,"featured_media":157216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[107,91],"tags":[439,443,516,232,524,223,376,32087,377,1806,1810],"class_list":{"0":"post-157227","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business-opportunities","8":"category-economy","9":"tag-arab-chamber","10":"tag-union-of-arab-chambers","11":"tag-arabs","12":"tag-brazil","13":"tag-brazil-arab-countries-economic-forum","14":"tag-comercio-en","15":"tag-exports","16":"tag-forum-economico-brasil-paises-arabes-en-2","17":"tag-imports","18":"tag-khaled-hanafy","19":"tag-trade"},"wps_subtitle":"That is the assessment made by the secretary-general of the Union of Arab Chambers, Khaled Hanafy, who attended, this week, an economic forum in S\u00e3o Paulo.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1454"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}