São Paulo – The city of Rio de Janeiro wants to attract Arab investment. In December, representatives of Rio Negócios, an investment promotion agency based in the capital of Rio de Janeiro, met with officials from 25 companies in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The meetings took place in Doha, Abu Dhabi and Dubai and, according to Thiago Silveira, the commercial manager of Rio Negócios, the businessmen showed interest in investing in the municipality.
Two of the main talks took place in Qatar. “We were informed by Qatar Airways’ CEO that the airline will inaugurate flights from Doha to Rio,” said Silveira. “They are waiting until they receive new aircraft,” he added. According to him, operations will start before 2012 is through.
The Qatari airline has operated daily flights between the country’s capital and São Paulo since June 2010, as well as a codeshare agreement with [Brazilian airline] Gol. Its competitor, the Dubai-based Emirates Airline, has just inaugurated a direct flight to Rio.
Silveira travelled to the Middle East alongside two other Rio Negócios executives. In Doha, they also met with representatives of the Al Jazeera TV channel. “In 2012, Al Jazeera will establish an office in Rio de Janeiro. It will be a starting point,” he said.
According to Silveira, the Qatari channel chose Rio because the city will host the media centres during major sports events due in the country, such as the FIFA Confederations Cup, in 2013, the FIFA World Cup, in 2014, and the Olympic Games, in 2016.
Though he did not disclose the company’s name, Silveira also said an Arab hotel chain plans on establishing itself in Rio de Janeiro. “It is a chain which is widely present in the Middle East and wants to increase its presence,” he said. “First they want to understand the city. We have an intelligence sector which backs investors in elaborating business plans. We are not aware of how many hotels [the chain plans on having in the country], however they are interested and we are working with them,” he said.
Projects
Rio Negócios is working to attract 1 billion reals (US$ 548 million) worth of investment into the city. There are 15 projects underway, of which five are in research and development, three are in hospitality, three are in communications, three are in industry, and one in pharmaceuticals. These projects combined are expected to create 2,790 direct jobs, and a total of 9.5 billion reals (US$ 5.2 billion) in wages paid.
Silveira said the Arabs claimed that they were interested in investing in hospitality (hotels and tourism), finance (banks and investment funds), industries (energy, mining, telecommunications and IT), the creative industry (media, design, fashion) and the oil and gas industry.
“The Middle East is a target for Rio de Janeiro,” said Silveira. “The Arab world is close with Rio Negócios. Should we eventually return [to the region], we should expand into other countries,” he said.
Network
During their trip to Doha, the Rio Negócios executives signed an agreement for Rio de Janeiro to become part of the World Energy Cities Partnership (WECP), an organization comprising cities whose economies are energy-based. The executives attended a meeting of WECP mayors on behalf of the mayor of Rio, Eduardo Paes.
“Taking part in this organization may bring two advantages,” said Silveira. “The first one is to in an international network, out of which we may extract best practices from cities whose economies are energy-based, like Rio’s. The other advantage is business-related. A [foreign] company willing to enter Rio may be placed in touch with Rio Negócios as a part of this internationalization process,” he explained.
Events such as the Olympic Games and the World Cup provide a basis for attracting investment into Rio de Janeiro. They create a demand for specific construction, such as stadiums and an Olympic park, which attract the attention of investors. Still, according to Silveira, the city also wants to attract funds into infrastructure works, such as subway network expansion and public transport corridor construction, and into real estate works. “It is a vast package, and it is luring foreign investors into Rio,” he said.
Rio Negócios has been seeking investment in other parts of the world, such as Asia. Last year, the agency promoted conferences in China, Singapore and Hong Kong. The United States and Europe are on the agency’s radar.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
