São Paulo – The Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex) has been named the world’s best commercial promotion agency among developing countries. The TPO Network Awards, granted by the International Trade Centre (ITC), was received last Thursday (14th) in Mexico City by the organization’s Business director, Maurício Borges. The ITC is the United Nations (UN) agency responsible for helping countries to attain human development through exports.
The prize was awarded to the Brazilian agency for its "Programa Extensão Industrial Exportadora" (PEIEX), which is providing export-oriented training to 5,300 micro, small and medium businesses, with significant results.
Through partnerships with universities and research institutes, the project has specialists diagnose the main problems facing the enterprises and suggest measures so that they may export more efficiently.
"This prize results from the hard work of all who work for the agency. It shows the effort that the agency has been putting in to provide services that suit the needs of Brazilian exporter companies. The award that the PEIEX received is a crowning of those efforts," said Borges according to a statement issued by the Apex.
In the first leg of the prize’s selection process, the Apex competed against 11 countries. In the final phase, the Brazilian agency competed against organizations based in Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia and Armenia. According to information supplied by the Apex, the CEO of the ITC, Patricia Francis, stated that the agency deserved the award "because it presented a unique programme to train small and medium businesses to export, making them more competitive and internationalized."
To select the award-winner, the ITC evaluated projects that either contributed to increase the competitiveness of exporting companies or prompted a significant positive change in order for that goal to be reached. The award also included two other categories: developed countries, won by a United Kingdom-based agency (UKTI); and small islands in development, won by Enterprise Mauritius, based in the Mauritius Islands.
Still according to the Apex’s statement, Patricia Francis claimed that the developing countries category was the most competitive. "That is why the Apex should be proud of what it has earned. The Apex’s work is completely geared toward meeting the needs of its clients. The agency has developed a sophisticated methodology for measuring the impact of its actions on the enterprises that it supports."
The TPO Network Awards are granted every two years during the World Conference of Trade Promotion Organizations, which brings together agencies from 60 different countries. The award jury is comprised of ITC specialists and agencies that won the award in previous editions. This is the first time that Brazil is awarded.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
