São Paulo – Established in the second half of 2024, Invest RS, an agency created to promote development and attract investment to Brazil’s southernmost state Rio Grande do Sul, is seeking partnerships to develop projects in 12 sectors of the state’s economy. On Tuesday (19), Invest RS Vice President Eduardo Lorea presented the agency’s plans to Mohamad Mourad, Vice President of International Relations & Secretary-General of the Arab-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce (ABCC).
Also present at the meeting was Fernanda Baltazar, Director of Institutional Relations at the ABCC. Lucila Pellegrini, Invest RS’s Strategy Manager, joined the meeting online.
Lorea is based at Invest RS’s newly opened office in São Paulo, where the agency plans to carry out investment attraction activities in the coming months. He presented the sectors that are a priority for the agency: energy transition; agribusiness chain; automotive; forestry, paper, and pulp; machinery, equipment, and semiconductors; fertilizers; petrochemical chain; agricultural machinery; digital products and services; regional niche products; tourism; and healthcare.
“The partnership [of Rio Grande do Sul] with Arab countries is already significant, especially in the food sector, with exports of chicken and beef, and imports of fertilizers. More sectors can be developed, such as energy, a topic that is very important to Arab countries,” Lorea told ANBA after the meeting.
Lorea said Rio Grande do Sul has great potential for wind power development, abundant water resources, and space for investments in the sector. The state has initiatives to promote green hydrogen production and is expected to soon introduce incentives for investments in biofuels. He also mentioned that there are opportunities in industry and agribusiness.
“Historically, Rio Grande do Sul is one of Brazil’s wealthiest states, but it has faced a very difficult fiscal situation over the past two decades. During this period, the state lost its capacity to invest, and consequently to attract investments. Recently, over the past five years, the state has implemented administrative reforms that allowed for fiscal recovery and restored its investment capacity—and in this sense, also its ability to attract investments. Invest RS was created to catalyze this process.”
Baltazar and Mourad stated that they can support the state’s initiatives in meeting with potential partners. The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA), Baltazar said, is seeking to expand contacts with Brazilian institutions and will be represented at global climate summit COP30 in November. “We can help coordinate an agenda with them,” said the ABCC executive.
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Translated by Guilherme Miranda
