Tripoli, 20 April 2013:
Deputy Prime Minister Abdulsalam Al-Mahdi Al-Qadi who has been in Brazil this week at the invitation of the . . .[restrict]country’s Congress and government, has called on Brazilian companies to return to Libya and complete projects interrupted by the revolution.
During meetings on Thursday in the country’s economic capital, Sao Paulo, with Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce and the Federation of Industries of the State of Sao Paulo, he said that to rebuild and expand the economy, Libya needed Brazil as a major trade partner.
Qadi’s visit follows one to Libya last December by Brazilian Congressman Adrian Mussi Ramos.
“I was invited to visit several countries, but I only accepted the Brazilian invitation, due to the country’s strength,” Qadi was quoted in the Brazilian press as saying. “We greatly count on the Brazilian presence in the Libyan reconstruction process and the Arab Brazilian Chamber may play an important part in generating closer ties between the countries and their companies, and may simplify contacts.”
While in Sao Paulo, Qadi met with the Brazilian construction companies that quit Libya during the revolution – Odebrecht, Andrade Gutierrez, Queiroz Galvão – as did its state oil company Petrobras. He also met with a number of other firms including machinery maker Weg, abattoir JBS and construction company OAS.
In particular, Qadi said, Libya was looking to Brazilian companies to invest in the country and to train Libyans.
As a result of the Sao Paulo visit, ??the head at the Arab Brazilian Chamber, Michel Alaby, indicated that it would organise a visit to Libya later this year, accompanied by Congressman Adrian Mussi, president of the Brazil-Libya Parliamentary Committee.?? A healthcare delegation to look into Brazilian help in developing the Libyan health sector was also suggested.
Qadi, accompanied on his visit to Brazil by the Brazilian Ambassador to Libya Afonso Carbonar, met with Brazilian Vice President Michel Temer in the capital Brasilia on Wednesday. He also met there with Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota, its Development, Industry and Foreign Trade Minister Fernando Pimentel, and the president of the Chamber of Representatives (the lower house of Brazil’s parliament) Henrique Eduardo Alves.
According to Mussi, Alves invited members of Libya’s General National Congress to spend a week visiting Brazil in October. The aim, he said, was to pass on Brazil’s experience in moving from dictatorship into a democracy.
The Vice President’s office are reported in the Brazilian press stating that Qadi had said Libya supported the candidacy of the Brazilian diplomat Roberto Carvalho de Azevêdo as Director-General of the World Trade Organisation.?? Temer also called on Libya to support Sao Paulo’s bid to host the 2020 World Fair. The city is running against Dubai, Izmir in Turkey, Ayutthaya in Thailand and Yekaterinburg in Russia.
Qadi was in Rio de Janeiro yesterday.
According ??to Ambassador Carbonar, Libya bought almost $450 million in products from Brazil in 2012, of which 85 percent was meat and chicken. [/restrict]
