|
During their visit to Brazil, the executives of three great state-owned companies of Saudi Arabia started their moves for the formation of partnerships with Brazilian companies.
The aim is to make joint investments to ensure the supply of raw materials to the Saudi steelworks sector, and of petrochemical products to the Brazilian industry. These investments may be made both in operations in the Arab country, and in Brazil. Forming the Saudi delegation are Abdallah Dabbagh, president of the Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Maaden); Homood Al-Tuwaijri, vice president of the Saudi Arabian Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic), which acts in the area of petrochemicals, fertilizers and steelworks; and Abdulwahab Al-Sadoun, director of the investments authority in the Arab country, Sagia. They have already been to Rio de Janeiro, Brasília and São Paulo and visited companies such as Unipar, in the petrochemical sector, oil giant Petrobras, mining company Vale do Rio Doce, the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) and the Bank of Brazil. Thursday, February 2, Al-Tuwaijri and Al-Sadoun had meetings at the petrochemical company Braskem and the trading company Comexport, one of the largest in Brazil. Their visit is in response to two missions the Brazilian Foreign Office (Itamaraty) organized to Saudi Arabia and other countries in the region last year, which counted on the participation of directors of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce. "At Braskem they analyzed the possibilities of technological cooperation. The company has great know-how in the petrochemical sector and they were impressed," said Rodrigo de Azeredo Santos, deputy head at the trade promotion operations division at the Itamaraty, the Brazilian foreign office, who is accompanying the Saudis. At Comexport the topic was the possible sales of Saudi fertilizers to Brazil. Al-Tuwaijri and Al-Sadoun visited the headquarters of the Chamber in São Paulo and were hosted by the entity's president, Antonio Sarkis Jr., the secretary general, Michel Alaby, the international relations vice president, Helmi Mohammed Ibraim Nasr, and the director, Toufic Sleiman. They were accompanied by the chargé d'affaires at the Saudi embassy in Brasília, Abdallah Alowaifer. "Now mission exchanges like this one will become an all the time greater tradition," said Sarkis. The Saudi executives will stay in Brazil until Saturday. Today they will go to Porto Alegre, city in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul. "They are feeling very optimistic with the journey's results", he added. In the meeting, Al-Sadoun spoke, amongst other things, of the work done by Sagia, which regulates the foreign investments in the country. "With Saudi Arabia entering the World Trade Organization (WTO), some sectors will be opened, like steel, aluminum and the petrochemical industry," said Alaby. Education Another topic discussed was the exchange in the education area, especially concerning teaching languages. "Great entrepreneurs from Saudi Arabia are interested in helping promote the Arab language," said Sarkis. Al-Sadoun received as a gift a copy of the Arabic-Portuguese dictionary elaborated by professor Helmi Nasr, of the University of São Paulo (USP), and published by the Chamber. One of the ideas in this field is to take Brazilian youngsters to see the Arab country, following the example of the group of Saudi students that was in Brazil in 2005, trip organized by the Saudi Science Club and the Arab Chamber. "The Chamber has committed to preparing a study to take the matter forward," stated Sarkis. "Teaching the language is a way towards business and is important also so that trade doesn't become the only reason for strengthening the ties," he added. During the meeting, the Arab Chamber directors made also a presentation on the entity's activities and objective, that of bringing Brazil and the Arab countries closer, economically and culturally. Anba - www.anba.com.br
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Brazil received a huge boost in its international image with its selection as the host of the 2016 Olympics, but it was really just the cherry on top of the overall recognition of the country's ascension to the ranks of one of the world's most important countries. Now, as it finally takes its place on the world scene, there has been a great deal of concern about what kind of image Brazil hopes to project, now that the world is really paying attention. 
The only good thing to say about the visit to Brazil of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on Monday November 23, is that it was mercifully short and lasted less than 24 hours. Ahmadinejad had his picture taken being hugged by president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who gave him a warm welcome and said Iran had every right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. 
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose.