Brazil offers technical support in social sector uplift

In an effort to bring a positive change in the living of poor Pakistanis, Brazil has offered technical support in the social sector development. Ambassador of Brazil to Pakistan informed this in a meeting with local businessmen at Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industries on Tuesday.
He said that embassy wrote a letter to Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani which suggested the government to initiate a pilot project in line with Zero Hunger Strategy in Brazil. He said, "Brazil is the largest commercial partner of Pakistan in Latin America. Including sugar, our balance of trade is 400 million dollars. Without sugar, this amounts to 250 million dollars."
Ambassador said a team of experts had been scheduled to visit Pakistan in May. The objectives of their visit, he said, were to share technical aspects and general information regarding production of ethanol (bio-fuel) by sugarcane and its usage in cars and power generation. This would help Pakistan in reducing dependence on petroleum products, he said.
He assured the audience that there was plenty of room for improvement. Those Pakistani businessmen who are interested in doing business with Brazilian partners must register themselves on braziltradenet.gov.br and become a member and a player of the biggest database available in Brazil involving international trading companies, market studies and information on fairs, Brazilian companies and trade offers.
The ambassador recognised that the big distance between the two countries has always been the biggest disadvantage for the improvement of trade relation of two countries. But, he said this was not a hurdle. "This fact is less important today with the multiple means of communication, such as the BrazilTradeNet, and the facilities of flights to Brazil." He said that the image of Pakistan being tarnished by the international media was hammering the relations and trade between the two countries which need immediate attention.
President Chamber of Commerce, Mahfooz Elahi in his welcome address said that trade activities between Pakistan and Brazil showed that bilateral trade was much below the true potential which was hardly 200 million dollars. "We think that in a number of areas both countries can enhance its co-operation by increasing people to people contact," he said. He said, "Since it is an era of fast communication, therefore, we would commend your embassy for keeping close liaison through email and passing on information to us about interested Brazilian companies." It was the first visit of Brazilian ambassador to any chamber of commerce and industry in Pakistan, which was attended by large business community.