The Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce (ABCC) office in Cairo, which is the institution's second base in an Arab country, was inaugurated on Wednesday (29) by Brazil's vice president, Hamilton Mouro, and Egypt's minister of trade and industry, Nevin Gamea. The ABCC already has a presence in the United Arab Emirates, in Dubai.
The launching ceremony was attended by Antonio Patriota, Brazilian ambassador to Cairo; ambassador Kamal Hassan Ali, assistant secretary-general for Economic Affairs of the Arab League; Khaled Hanafy, secretary-general of the Union of Arab Chambers (UAC); Ibrahim Al- Arabi, president of the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce (FEDCOC); and ambassador Osmar Chohfi, president of the ABCC, among other authorities.
Minister Nevin Gamea emphasised her government's admiration for the two nations' long-standing ties, with Brazil serving as one of Egypt's most important political and economic partners in Latin America. Gamea also emphasised the importance of the private sector and business organisations in forging bilateral trade, industrial, and investment ties between the two countries.
She said that the concept for Egypt's new administrative capital, which she described as "one of the Egyptian government's most significant and remarkable endeavours in recent times," is remarkably similar to the building of Brazil's new capital, Braslia, in 1960. According to Gamea, this is the most important national initiative that President Abdul Fattah Al-Sisi has planned and implemented, among countless others that are currently under implementation.
Gamea went on to say that the Mercosur-Egypt free trade agreement, which took effect in September 2017, helped to strengthen trade ties between the two nations, particularly during the new coronavirus outbreak. She also mentioned that the Egypt-Mercosur Commission's second meeting, which took place in mid-September and was attended by key Egyptian and Mercosur officials, was a big success.
The minister emphasized the necessity of collaborative effort between the two countries and putting it into action in cooperative projects to create jobs and achieve urban, industrial, tourist, and agricultural goals in the Egyptian and Brazilian people's and economies' best interests.
Gamea also expressed how pleased the Egyptian government and commercial sector, including FEDCOC, were to see ABCC's Cairo office open. She stated that the office will serve the mutual interests of Brazilian and Egyptian entrepreneurs by expanding trade cooperation and increasing the flow of goods and services between the two countries.
The minister also emphasized the importance of the office in developing Egypt-Brazil trade, noting that Egypt can serve as a stepping stone for Brazilian products on their way to other African markets, allowing them to take advantage of Egypt's free trade agreements with other African countries, such as the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the African Continental Free Trade Zone (AfCFTA).
In the context of the Mercosur-Egypt free trade agreement, Ibrahim El-Araby, chairman of both the FEDCOC and Cairo Chamber of Commerce (CCC), emphasized the importance of expanding economic cooperation between Egypt and Brazil at the bilateral and multilateral levels, stating that Brazil will continue to be a great partner for Egypt in various productive sectors. He stated that collaborative investments in the cement, bus, trailer, food, agriculture, and electrical power industries totaled more than USD 1 billion.
According to El-Araby, the Egyptian government supported the important local market by establishing free trade agreements that gave Egyptian products free access to markets with a combined population of more than 3.1 billion people, including the Arab League, the European Union (EU), the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), the African Union (AU), Mercosur, and the United States. He mentioned that the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) countries' free trade deal is nearing completion.
