S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 The Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce<\/b> should honour one of the main businessmen in the Arab community in S\u00e3o Paulo on Wednesday (21). Louren\u00e7o Chohfi, aged 86, should participate in a night of celebration with 700 guests at the Syrian Sports Club, in S\u00e3o Paulo, due to his activities as Chamber president in two terms (1983\/1984 and 1985\/1986) and for his work with the Arab community.<\/p>\n
Louren\u00e7o owned Tecidos Ragueb Chohfi, a fabric wholesaler established by his father, Syrian businessman Ragueb Chohfi. Before becoming a director at the company, Louren\u00e7o worked behind the counter and was later the manager of the shop on 25 de Mar\u00e7o Street, a traditional trade district and focal-point for the Arab community in the city. At one time, the company sold 13 million metres of fabric a month and had over 75,000 registered clients. Apart from the headquarters in the centre of S\u00e3o Paulo, Tecidos Ragueb Chohfi had branches in 15 cities around the country.<\/p>\n
Currently, Chohfi is dedicated to the family companies: Sociedade de Armaz\u00e9ns S\u00e3o Louren\u00e7o, Lobea Participa\u00e7\u00f5es, Imobili\u00e1ria S\u00e3o Louren\u00e7o and Ragueb Chohfi Empreendimentos Imobili\u00e1rios Ltda. The businessman is closely following the construction of an industrial hub in Nova Odessa, on kilometre 118 of Anhanguera Highway. The Industrial hub is receiving investment of 480 million reals (US$ 280 million) and should be in the metropolitan region of Campinas. It will host up to 100 companies. In the first phase of the works, 100,000 square metres of leasable space should be delivered. The entire complex should cover an area of 800,000 m\u00b2.<\/p>\n
Apart from being a businessman, Chohfi is also a lifelong councillor at the Syrian Sanatorium beneficent home. He has also been a councillor at Club Homs and a member of the financial committee of the Syrian-Lebanese Hospital.<\/p>\n
"I believe that he was the largest wholesaler in Latin America. He is an example in terms of character and defence of the family,\u201d said Walid Yazigi, chairman of the Arab Brazilian Chamber board of governors and former organisation president (1981\/1982, 1987\/1988 and 1989\/1990). "He followed me in the presidency at the Chamber, then was chairman of the board, president of the Syrian Sports Club and chairman of the board at the club. That is why the ceremony is organized by the chamber and hosted by the Syrian club,\u201d said Yazigi.<\/p>\n
Arab Brazilian Chamber CEO Michel Alaby recalls that it was during Chohfi\u2019s term that Brazil lived one of its main financial crises. However, he helped the country. "He was the Chamber president from 1983 to 1986, at the time of the Brazilian moratorium. Iraq guaranteed supply of oil to Brazil without requiring credit. He [Louren\u00e7o] was one of the main players in this negotiation alongside the governments of both countries,\u201d said Alaby. "He has always been open minded and dedicated. It was he who brought me to the Arab Brazilian Chamber in 1985,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n
Before the dinner, to be served in the noble hall of the Syrian Sports Club, Arab Brazilian Chamber president Salim Taufic Schahin will give a speech on the importance of Louren\u00e7o Chohfi to the Arab Brazilian Chamber, to the community and to S\u00e3o Paulo. Later a ten minute film will be shown in honour of Chohfi, who is married to Beatriz Jafet Chohfi, has three children and six grandchildren. He will be given a special present at the event.<\/p>\n
To Schahin, the honour to Chohfi is "more than deserved". "He has always been a leader in the community in S\u00e3o Paulo, a businessman of great success. Later [after leaving the Chamber presidency], he stayed on as a member of the board. He has always been progressive. He deserves to be honoured due to who he is, as well as for having been the Chamber president and for helping the community,\u201d said Schahin.<\/p>\n
*Translated by Mark Ament<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The former Arab Brazilian Chamber president, aged 86, should be honoured by 700 guests at an event at the Syrian Sports Club on Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2317,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","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":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-39345","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-economy"},"wps_subtitle":"The former Arab Brazilian Chamber president, aged 86, should be honoured by 700 guests at an event at the Syrian Sports Club on Wednesday.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39345","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\/2317"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39345\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}