São Paulo – The governments of Brazil and of the state of São Paulo will work together to leverage exports from the state. The partnership was made official this Tuesday (6th) at São Paulo state government seat Palácio dos Bandeirantes, in the namesake capital São Paulo, with the announcement that the state will be a part of the National Exporting Culture Plan (PNCE) and that the Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil) and the São Paulo State Agency for Promotion of Investments and Competitiveness (Investe São Paulo) will work in tandem to catapult local enterprises into foreign markets.
The federal government will supply R$ 13 million for fostering exports in São Paulo over a two-year period, via the partnership with Investe São Paulo. The agency will take part in Apex-Brasil’s actions abroad and carry out other activities, such as seminars on foreign trade. The official launch also marked the beginning of Investe São Paulo’s international promotion work.
According to Investe São Paulo chairman Juan Quirós, the work will begin in the metro area of the state, where seminars will be held to provide “quick” support to exporters. Initially, 50 companies will be selected to undergo training in order to supply supermarket and international department store chains, according to Quirós. “Brazil can rely on São Paulo for its vibrancy and dynamism,” said the Investe São Paulo chairman.
The National Exporting Culture Plan, of which the state of São Paulo will be a part, was launched by the federal government in June this year, with a set of measures designed to fuel exports, including trade promotion, foreign trade financing, and tax breaks intended to enable market access, among others. Since the PNCE was announced, the federal government has worked to garner support from the states.
Talking about the PNCE, the Foreign Trade secretary of the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade (MDIC), Daniel Godinho, said that a local committee will be organized in São Paulo to define the actions to be taken and to monitor the goals. One of the measures will be the definition of the sectors to gain support for exports. He listed some of the sectors to possibly receive the support, such as medical and pharmaceutical products, construction materials, fashion, machinery and equipment. Each company will receive support according to its needs to export, from product suitability to trading.
“São Paulo represents, directly, a prominent and significant part of the Brazilian foreign trade”, said the minister of MDIC, Armando Monteiro, who attended the launch of the partnership. São Paulo state fetched US$ 33.6 billion in exports revenues from January to September of this year. The amount is 23% of Brazil’s total revenues with foreign trade in the period, which stood at US$ 144.4 billion. According to Monteiro, this year, due to the drop in the price of the commodities, Brazil missed on US$ 30 billion exports revenues. But the country, according to him, increased its exports in volume.
The minister said that exports are an important channel for Brazil in this moment of economic adjustments. He said that the foreign exchange rate is not a solution for everything, but that the “current foreign exchange realignment” offers a “window of opportunity”. He argued for foreign trade to be seen by the country as something suited for more permanent investments.
São Paulo state governor Geraldo Alckmin, who also attended the event, supports exports and investments in infrastructure and logistics as ways of maintaining jobs in Brazil. “We will work hard so that, quickly, those that already export can do it even more and those that don’t can find the ways to do it”, said the governor. Through the partnership, around seven to eight thousand São Paulo state-based companies should receive support.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum and Sérgio Kakitani
