The Arab-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce (ABCC) has appointed former Ambassador Osmar Chohfi as its new president, replacing Rubens Hannun, who helmed the ABCC in the past four years.

Chohfi was Brazil’s diplomatic representative to Spain and Ecuador during his time at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was also assigned to the embassies of Brazil in France, Argentina, Bolivia and Venezuela.

He was the Secretary General to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs during the final years of the Fernando Henrique Cardoso administration and the Head of Brazil’s permanent mission to the Organization of American States (OAS).

As Chohfi assumes the ABCC’s presidency, he vowed to lead the Arab Chamber towards Trade 4.0. Part of his plans is to implement ‘Ellos Blockchain platform,’ a chain of records of commercial, banking, trade and export transactions to revolutionize the business transactions between Brazil and the Arab countries, which is set to go live on the second half of the year.

By the end of 2021, he also aims to establish a local ABCC office in Brasília and international offices in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Cairo, Egypt.