Arab Brazilian Chamber to organize trade delegation to North Africa in 2007
ANBA, Brazil
One of the countries to be visited will be Morocco. Yesterday the ambassador of the African Arab country to Brazil, Farida Jaïdi, visited the organization’s offices in São Paulo. According to the president of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, Antonio Sarkis Jr., the diplomat wants assistance to promote trade and tourism.
São Paulo – The Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce and the Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex) are going to promote, in early 2007, a trade mission to North Africa, to include Morocco and at least two other countries. The information was disclosed yesterday (19) during a meeting between the ambassador of the Arab country to BrasÃlia, Farida Faïdi, and the board of the Arab Brazilian Chamber. Farida made an official visit to São Paulo for the first time this week since having been inaugurated at the embassy at the end of February.
“A trip to Morocco by a large delegation of Brazilian businessmen is important,” she said. The idea is to take to the Arab country representatives of various sectors that are in development, among them infrastructure, civil construction, agroindustry, transformation of fishery and mining products, as well as the automotive, aeronautics, electronic, textile and leather industries and the service sector.
The delegation should include not only exporters and companies interested in partnerships, but also importers. “Apart from expanding bilateral trade, the ambassador also discussed the need of reducing the deficit there is on the Moroccan side and asked for help from the Chamber to find potential importers, as well as strengthening tourism,” stated the president at the Arab Brazilian Chamber, Antonio Sarkis Jr.
Among the sectors most mentioned by Farida are handicraft. “She believes that consumption of Moroccan handicraft in Brazil may be expanded significantly,” stated Sarkis. “The idea is to take export companies and trading companies that may also buy, mainly handicraft, phosphates and sardines,” added the secretary general at the Arab Brazilian Chamber, Michel Alaby.
Apart from Sarkis and Alaby, the meeting at the Chamber also included the organization’s foreign relations vice president, Helmi Nasr, marketing vice president Rubens Hannun, and directors Mustapha Abdouni and Walter Nori.
Morocco is already one of the main Brazilian trade partners in the Arab world. According to figures supplied by the Federal Government Foreign Trade Secretariat (Secex), Brazilian exports to the country generated US$ 282.3 million between January and August this year, and imports totalled US$ 206.4 million.
The main products shipped by Brazil are sugar, iron and steel bars, soy in grain, soy oil and vehicles. The main imports from Morocco, in turn, are fertilizers, naphtha for the petrochemical industry, sardines and electronic components.
Help in industry
To organize the delegation, the Arab Brazilian Chamber and the Moroccan ambassador are going to count on the help of the Centre of Industries of the State of São Paulo (Ciesp). Yesterday afternoon, Farida met with the president at the Ciesp, Cláudio Vaz. “Together with the Chamber we are going to organize the participation of companies connected to sectors like fishing, food, components for vehicles and construction services,” said Vaz to ANBA.
He believes in the possibility of establishing joint businesses, with Brazilian and Moroccan capital. “We must identify the sectors in which Moroccan capital is relevant, which are not dominated by multinational companies, and we must make a bridge with Brazilian capital,” he said. One example may be found in company Randon, a maker of road equipment, which has an assembly line in the North African country in partnership with a local company.
The Kingdom of Morocco is in North Africa, and is separated from Spain by the Strait of Gibraltar. According to information supplied by the Arab Brazilian Chamber, the main industries in the country are mining, food – with strong participation of the fishery sector -, and textile. The country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) reached US$ 55.2 billion last year. The country has 31.5 million inhabitants.