São Paulo – The state of Acre is receiving requests from Brazilian and foreign companies interested in producing in the state and exporting from its Export Processing Zone (ZPE), in the city of Senador Guiomard. The area will be the first in Brazil to operate as a ZPE, with incentives for export and also for the import of inputs, and the company is only awaiting approval by the Revenue Service Superintendence for the North of Brazil, which should take place this month. The Revenue Service has already completed its report showing that the structure is in accordance with the required norms for customs clearance.
According to the Economic Development, Industry and Trade secretary of Acre, Edvaldo Magalhães, 32 letters of intention of companies interested in setting up shop in the ZPE have already been received, one of them from an industrial conglomerate from Peru. Companies will have to set up a specific subsidiary to operate at the site and will receive 100% tax breaks on inputs for products made there, as well as reductions in export fees. “They must export 80% of what they produce at the ZPE", said Magalhães.
The area for installation of the companies is 120 hectares, and, according to Magalhães, it should be capable of receiving at least 200 factories. To produce there, however, you do not just have to enrol, but it is also necessary to present a business model, to be analysed firstly by a ZPE council in Acre and then by the national ZPE council, coordinated by the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade. Companies that have already sent letters of intention have up to the end of February to present their plans and projects.
Magalhães stated that the area has potential to attract companies from the food, garment, shoe, personal hygiene, cosmetics and forestry product sectors, among others. For export, products should head from the ZPE by land for some 1,600 kilometres, to the Pacific Ocean, from where they may be shipped to other continents. Due to the proximity, export to neighbouring nations, like Peru, will also be advantageous. The ZPE should be a good platform for foreign companies interested in exporting from Brazil to other South American countries.
The objective, according to the secretary, is for at least one company to be operating in the ZPE by mid 2012. Of the current candidates, only one third is from Acre. Currently, according to Magalhães, the economy of Acre is based mainly on wood and food. The idea is for the export processing zone to produce higher value added products and for the generation of around 6,000 jobs, with great social impact in the state. Nowadays, the main employer in Acre is a recently-inaugurated shopping centre with 2,200 employees.
Brazil currently has 22 ZPEs established by presidential decree. None of them, however, has yet got authorisation to operate. To get this authorisation – or customs servicing – from the Revenue Service, it is necessary to comply with a certain number of requirements, mainly in the area of infrastructure, with the construction of a ZPE administration building and structures for organisations like the Revenue Service, Federal Police, National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa), Ministry of Agriculture, as well as fencing the area for the enterprises and providing electronic inspection and fibre optic cabling, among other measures. The state of Acre invested 14 million Brazilian reals (US$ 7.8 million) in the ZPE.
*Translated by Mark Ament
