The Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce launched this Wednesday an Arabic version of its news agency, ANBA. For almost 16 years, the website has published information in both Portuguese and English, and now it starts to speak the language of the Middle East and North Africa as well. “Solid relations are built upon respect to the cultures involved, so we have ANBA in Arabic for the Arabs, ANBA in Portuguese for the Brazilians, and ANBA in English for the world at large,” said the Arab Brazilian Chamber president Rubens Hannun in an event for diplomats, journalists and guests in Brasília. The agency intends to increase the Arabic-speaking audience in order to connect Brazilians and Arabs wherever they are. “This new ANBA initiative will be very important, because now, news from Brazil will reach roughly 400 million Arabic-speaking people, creating a better understanding in that part of the world,” stressed the ambassador of Lebanon to Brasília, Joseph Sayah, who represented the Council of Arab Ambassadors in Brazil.

For the launch, ANBA made a series of exclusive interviews that went online this Wednesday. Brazilian vice president Hamilton Mourão said that Brazil will uphold its strong ties with Arab countries in culture and trade and stressed the country’s role as a major food producer and the region’s as a significant food importer. “This creates a very strong connection,” he said. He also mentioned that Brazil must be a “facilitator” of agreements in the Middle East.

In turn, Agriculture minister Tereza Cristina confirmed she’ll travel to three or four Arab countries next month and that she intends to discuss the trade of more agribusiness products. “I believe we can make progress in this market,” she said. “There are some requests for entry of some products," she added. She also argued that Brazil should receive more Arab products, such as fertilizers.

Union of Arab Chambers secretary-general Khaled Hanafy talked about the Arabic version of ANBA and stressed that the website may impact relations between these regions like never before. “We expect direct and indirect impacts on various levels of economic and trade relations like never before,” said Hanafy. The Union is the main business organization of the Middle East and North Africa.

The interviews were made for the launch of the Arabic website, but you can also read them on ANBA in both Portuguese and English.