Portugal seeks to expand relations with KSA

[al-Hasani]

SEEKING ROBUST TIES: Portugal Ambassador Manuel Carvalho and First Secretary Carlos Oliveira during their visit to Arab News office in Riyadh. (AN photo)

RIYADH: ABDUL HANNAN TAGO

Published — Tuesday 24 December 2013

Last update 24 December 2013 2:30 am

Portugal seeks to expand trade and investment ties with the Kingdom, the new ambassador said here recently.
Manuel Carvalho visited Arab News office in Riyadh to gain more insight into issues in Saudi Arabia and to promote his country’s businesses.
A high-profile 53-member business delegation led by Portugal’s Minister of Health Paulo Moita de Maceda visited Saudi Arabia in April this year and signed several health and economic agreements. During the visit, the minister said Portugal’s exports to the Kingdom increased 43 percent.
Carvalho said there are several Arabic terms used in the Portuguese language including “qamees” or shirt. He said Portuguese is the fifth most spoken language in the world and the number one language in the southern hemisphere. There are 250 million Portuguese speakers around the world, he said.
He said Portugal is a member of the European Union with few tariff barriers and allows the free movement of labor and capital. He said the country recently moved out of recession and its gross domestic product now stands at 1.1 percent.
It has competitive operational costs in the European context, high quality logistics, road, airport and seaport infrastructure, and an excellent telecommunications network. He said office and industrial space is widely available across the country.
He said Portugal also ranks highly in terms of European standards for the availability and sophistication of public services in Europe. Ninety percent of its services and companies are online, he said.
Quoting statistics from the World Economic Forum, he said Portugal is ranked the 25th top tourism destination in the world and has 20th position in the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report.
The country received 14 million guests in 2012 from various countries including the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, France, Brazil, the United States and Saudi Arabia.
On visa issues, the country recently approved a residence permit program in Portugal, with full access to European countries in the Schengen area, for non-EU citizens who invest in the Portuguese financial and real estate market, and those who create jobs with industrial activity.
Despite Europe’s recession, Portugal’s exports grew by 5.8 percent last year, and by 19.8 percent to non-EU countries. “The numbers are impressive and clearly show what we have done in the last two years,” he said.

Portugal seeks to expand relations with KSA | Arab News — Saudi Arabia News, Middle East News, Opinion, Economy and more.

It would be better if we Arabs could rule Portugal for a few more centuries again. Please let us do it. We will pay for your oil and gas and improve your economy. Just make Cristiano Ronaldo a stateless person before all that takes place.

In all seriouness (needed to troll and laugh a little tonight) then that is great news. I like Portugal and I am sure they would be a valuable business partner especially in terms of mutual trade and the tourism sector which KSA as of late has started (rightly so but a bit late IMO) to focus on step by step since the potential is enormous on that field.

On another note up to 20.000 Porutguese words are of Arabic origin. Quite a few.

Over 20 000 Arabic words in the Portuguese language… : Muslim in the Midst…

http://www.transeuropeennes.eu/ressources/pdfs/TIM_2011_Arabic_Portuguese_Catarina_BELO_114.pdf

One contemporary translator from Arabic into Portuguese, Adalberto Alves, is currently compiling a list of Portuguese words of Arabic origin and has found more than twenty thousand of them. This fruitful interaction between the two languages led to a linguistic phenomenon which arose in the medieval period called aljamiado, whereby Portuguese was written in Arabic characters. This medieval period could be seen as a first phase of the interaction between the Portuguese and the Arabic languages.

 

[Yzd Khalifa]

I LOVE Portugal so much!

It's one of the most peace-loving country with the friendliest country on the planet.

We should maintain strong ties with them as much as possible.

 

[al-Hasani]

I LOVE Portugal so much!

It's one of the most peace-loving country with the friendliest country on the planet.

We should maintain strong ties with them as much as possible.

I think that we can use the expertise of Portugal in the hopefully future booming tourism sector. We are already the 16th most visited country with 16 million foreign visitors each year but if our visa rules were radically changed and the tourism sector got boosted tremendously that number could quickly double and easily make us into a top 10 world destination.

Especially given the future rise of the hajj and umrah in sheer numbers after the renovations in Makkah and upcoming ones in Madinah to boos the capacity of pilgrims.

I don't know Portugal but I do love the fact that it was Arab controlled for 500 years and have Arab heritage sites and influences. For instance 20.000 words of Arabic origin in Portuguese.

Have you visited Portugal a lot? I am much more familiar with Spain.

Don't like their national football team though.

 

[Yzd Khalifa]

Portugal does have a considerable number of Muslims who surely would be interested in visiting KSA. But we can also boost up the tourism sector by developing our tourism infrastructure.

I think that we can use the expertise of Portugal in the hopefully future booming tourism sector. We are already the 16th most visited country with 16 million foreign visitors each year but if our visa rules were radically changed and the tourism sector got boosted tremendously that number could quickly double and easily make us into a top 10 world destination.

Especially given the future rise of the hajj and umrah in sheer numbers after the renovations in Makkah and upcoming ones in Madinah to boos the capacity of pilgrims.

I don't know Portugal but I do love the fact that it was Arab controlled for 500 years and have Arab heritage sites and influences. For instance 20.000 words of Arabic origin in Portuguese.

Have you visited Portugal a lot? I am much more familiar with Spain.

Don't like their national football team though.

I don't understand why do you keep bringing Islam up in every single matter we discuses

 

[al-Hasani]

Portugal does have a considerable number of Muslims who surely would be interested in visiting KSA. But we can also boost up the tourism sector by developing our tourism infrastructure.



I don't understand why do you keep bringing Islam up in every single matter we discuses

Portugal has a small Muslim population. At least according to this link.

Islam in Portugal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

40.000

Huh?
Don't recall that we have ever discussed Islam have we or I talking about it in posts we exchanged?

I did not mention Islam I mentioned the hajj and umrah pilgrimages when I discussed the tourism sector and foreign visitors since that is the greatest source for foreigners coming to KSA. I am then saying that if a real push toward boosting the tourism sector, with help from countries like Portugal for instance as the article I posted also alludes to, that this number could greatly be exceeded and double in the upcoming years.

If certain rules (visa regulations) were changed.

That's all.

 

[Yzd Khalifa]

Portugal has a small Muslim population. At least according to this link.

Islam in Portugal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

40.000

Huh?
Don't recall that we have ever discussed Islam have we or I talking about it in posts we exchanged?

I did not mention Islam I mentioned the hajj and umrah pilgrimages when I discussed the tourism sector and foreign visitors since that is the greatest source for foreigners coming to KSA. I am then saying that if a real push toward boosting the tourism sector, with help from countries like Portugal for instance as the article I posted also alludes to, that this number could greatly be exceeded and double in the upcoming years.

If certain rules (visa regulations) were changed.

That's all.

40k isn't a small number considering the fact that Portugal is a Christian European country..

 

[al-Hasani]

40k isn't a small number considering the fact that Portugal is a Christian European country..

Well, compared to let us just say nearby Spain that has 1.5 million Muslims or other European countries (France, Germany, UK, Italy) that have MILLIONS of Muslims then that number is fairly small. But I am sure that a bond with the Muslim population in Portugal could be strengthened.

 

[Yzd Khalifa]

Well, compared to let us just say nearby Spain that has 1.5 million Muslims or other European countries (France, Germany, UK, Italy) that have MILLIONS of Muslims then that number is fairly small. But I am sure that a bond with the Muslim population in Portugal could be strengthened.

Portugal's population is too tiny compared to the 65 million French or the 81 million Germans or the 47 million Spanish bro.

 

[al-Hasani]

Portugal's population is too tiny compared to the 65 million French or the 81 million Germans or the 47 million Spanish bro.

Well, now we are getting too detailed for my liking (been studying far too much those past days so need a little bit of unserious writings) but the best way is to look at the percentages. Portugal still has 10 million people.

Muslims make up less than 0,5% of the Portuguese population if one does some quick math.

In most Western countries Muslims at least make up 1-2%, often more than 5% and some (France) nearly 10%.

Anyway let us end it here. A bit pointless. All I hope for is good ties with KSA and Portugal.

 

[al-Hasani]

The report about the 20.000 Portuguese words of Arabic origin.

http://www.transeuropeennes.eu/ressources/pdfs/TIM_2011_Arabic_Portuguese_Catarina_BELO_114.pdf

Al-Garb Al-Andalus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Aljamiado - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

@Yzd Khalifa