RIYADH, 26 April — Brazilian Ambassador Luiz Figuera conferred on a Saudi businessman and a Brazilian here Wednesday night the Rio Branco Order for their respective roles in promoting Saudi-Brazilian relations.
Abdulrahman Al-Arifi, chairman of the agricultural committee of the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Humberto Martins da Silveira, received the medals from the ambassador following the decision of Brazil’s President Fernando Henrique Cardoso to honor them for their contributions to bilateral economic and cultural ties.
As chairman of the Riyadh chamber’s agricultural committee and Saudi director of the Brazilian Arab Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Al-Arifi played a key role in boosting Brazilian exports to the Kingdom which, at $570 million last year, were the highest ever.
Humberto da Silveira, known as “Brazilian bedouin” for his extensive travels in the Saudi countryside, was honored for promoting bilateral relations through his photography and two books on the bedouin and the Najd region.
He is currently working on a third book on the Nabateans, in which he portrays Petra in Jordan and Madain Saleh in Saudi Arabia.
