{"id":216692,"date":"2019-06-28T13:27:22","date_gmt":"2019-06-28T16:27:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/?p=216692"},"modified":"2019-07-01T08:29:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-01T11:29:00","slug":"arab-chamber-apex-discuss-renewal-of-partnership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/arab-chamber-apex-discuss-renewal-of-partnership\/","title":{"rendered":"Arab Chamber, Apex discuss renewal of partnership"},"content":{"rendered":"

S\u00e3o Paulo – Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil<\/a>) incoming president Sergio Segovia (pictured above)<\/em> visited the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0headquarters this Friday (28), where he spoke with C-level executives about renewing the agency\u2019s partnership with the Chamber. Segovia also told ANBA about his plans for Apex, such as creating a new strategic plan to increase efficiency.<\/p>\n

Arab Brazilian Chamber president Rubens Hannun and CEO Tamer Mansour had met with Segovia last Wednesday (26) in Bras\u00edlia. This Friday, they resumed their talks, this time featuring the Chamber\u2019s foreign trade vice president Ruy Cury, administrative vice president Mohamad Orra Mourad and marketing and strategy director Janine Bezerra de Menezes. Apex exports manager Maria Paula Sobral Belloso and chief-of-staff cabinet manager Odilon Leite also sat in.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Segovia e Hannun: talks for commerce<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Segovia told ANBA that following these meetings, the Arab Chamber will submit a partnership and agreement proposal to Apex. \u201cThe Arab market is fantastic for Brazil, especially for the agribusiness sector, with the sale of meat,\u201d he said. Segovia noted that the joint work with the Arab Brazilian Chamber has everything to be a win-win situation. \u201cAfter all, we both want Brazil exporting and attracting currency,\u201d Segovia said.<\/p>\n

The Apex\u2019s president said he intends to look for new niches to explore in Brazilian products promotion in the Arab market, now quite focused on agribusiness. He\u2019s got his radar locked on the defense industry, because of its high technology. \u201cThe Arab market consumes defense products and we have very, very good companies here in S\u00e3o Paulo even, such as Avibras, which supplies high-quality material,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Arab Brazilian Chamber staff and APEX-Brasil<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When asked about his plans for Apex-Brasil, where he took office less than two months ago, Segovia pointed out that the agency already has a defined mission statement \u2013 which includes promoting exports of goods from Brazil, helping local companies go international, and attracting foreign investment to Brazil \u2013 and it\u2019s up to the president only to define how to achieve those goals.<\/p>\n

Segovia wants to make these processes more efficient. He says that, by listening to staff over these first weeks in the job, he realized a change of vision is in order. \u201cTo change Apex\u2019s 20th<\/sup>-century vision into a 21st<\/sup>-century one,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In order to put that in practice, they are drawing up a new strategic plan, whose draft will be presented to the agency\u2019s advisory board and should be ready in November. The idea is to change processes and paradigms. \u201cThe Apex is recognized for its technical work, but with our highly skilled human resources and new tools, especially in information technology, we can increase our efficiency,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Apex executives were welcomed over breakfast<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Apart from in-house personnel, input in drafting the plan is coming from clients and institutions involved in Apex\u2019s governance, including Brazil\u2019s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply, Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Confederation of Industry (CNI), the Brazilian Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock (CNA) and the Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service (Sebrae). \u201cWe will listen to these people and then put in place new processes, a new workflow, so as to increase efficiency,\u201d said Segovia.<\/p>\n

According to him, this won\u2019t be a disruptive action. The goal is to work with \u201cthe old and the new,\u201d until the entire transformation has been rolled out. Segovia expects this to take place by the time his term as president ends. The new practices will become effective fully and immediately wherever they are easier to implement, while other fields will see a more gradual process.<\/p>\n

Sergio Segovia said that, being a Brazilian, he wishes the country to be an exporter of knowledge, but he claimed Apex will work to promote everything that gets made in Brazil. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t be worthy of sitting in the chair as the Apex president if I didn\u2019t help with each legal commercial activity that creates a job and brings in a cent of a dollar to Brazil,\u201d he told ANBA.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Segovia (R) was told about the Chamber’s work<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The incoming president expresses his desire to see Brazil add value to the commodities it exports, but in his view that doesn\u2019t depend on the Apex. \u201cIt depends on public policies with increased funding for research, development and innovation. That breeds products that appeal to users, and those are easier to sell,\u201d he says. According to him, this process hinges on several players and factors, like universities and the availability of funds conducive to a more sophisticated industry.<\/p>\n

Segovia also plans to make clear that the Apex is not an agency designed to provide funding for companies to go to industry shows, and that businesses must get ready for the international market before going to those shows \u2013 and the Apex can help with that. \u201cBefore going on showcase in an exhibition, a product must have undergone a process whereby it gets market-ready, and the market needs to be understood,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Sergio Segovia took office on May 6. A Brazilian Navy rear admiral, he did foreign trade work while in charge of logistics and international purchases, according to the Apex website. He holds a postgraduate degree in Policy and Strategy from Brazil\u2019s War College. He told ANBA he hadn\u2019t had much contact with the Arab world before joining Apex \u2013 he had been to a fair in Doha, Qatar in 2008 \u2013, but said he admires the Arab culture and cuisine. \u201cI am a consumer of Arab cuisine in Bras\u00edlia,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Translated by Guilherme Miranda & Gabriel Pomerancblum<\/strong><\/p>\n

Isaura Daniel\/ANBA<\/div>\n
Isaura Daniel\/ANBA<\/div>\n
T\u00e2mara Machado\/C\u00e2mara \u00c1rabe<\/div>\n
T\u00e2mara Machado\/C\u00e2mara \u00c1rabe<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The agency\u2019s new president Sergio Segovia visited the Arab Brazilian Chamber this Friday and talked to its leaders about their joint work. Segovia told ANBA that he\u2019s developing a new strategic plan to make APEX-Brasil more efficient.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1455,"featured_media":216680,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[28824,283,6010,9333],"class_list":{"0":"post-216692","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-foreign-affairs","8":"tag-apex-en-2","9":"tag-apex-brasil","10":"tag-president","11":"tag-sergio-segovia"},"wps_subtitle":"The agency\u2019s new president Sergio Segovia visited the Arab Brazilian Chamber this Friday and talked to its leaders about their joint work. Segovia told ANBA that he\u2019s developing a new strategic plan to make APEX-Brasil more efficient.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216692","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\/1455"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}