São Paulo – In July this year, the government of the state of Piauí is going to start building the Export Processing Zone (EPZ) of Parnaíba, a city located 336 kilometres away from the state capital Teresina. Once the first phase of the EPZ is ready, by July next year, it should receive ten companies. EPZs exist all over the world and are designed to receive exporting companies, usually with tax breaks.
After the inauguration, the government of the state of Piauí is expecting to double its exports, which reached US$ 167.4 million (1% of the national total) in 2010. The main products exported by the state include soy and its products, vegetable waxes, honey, hides and skins, cashew nut, ornamental stones and Pilocarpine (a compound used in medication manufacturing). These products account for 95% of the state’s exports.
The state of Piauí ranks only 22nd in the ranking of top Brazilian exporting states to the Arab market, having sold US$ 4.8 million last year. The state shipped soy and vegetable wax to the Arabs. Revenues from exports of waxes, however, reached US$ 39,000.
The Managing Company of the Parnaíba Export Processing Zone should submit the customs project to the Federal Revenues by the 20th this month. Environmental impact and architecture and urbanism projects are still being elaborated.
The Parnaíba unit covers a 315-hectare area. The first phase of the project should cover 50 hectares. According to the chairman of the Managing Company of the EPZ of Parnaíba, Mirocles Veras, the remaining area will house warehouses and companies at a further stage. "Our project contemplates the entire area, which will be enlarged on an as-needed basis. In the first phase, we will inaugurate 50 hectares," he claims.
According to Mirocles, there already are companies interested in setting up plants at the Parnaíba EPZ. Two of them already operate in the state and are in advanced stages of negotiation to become part of the EPZ. "We want investors to feel free to operate here, without a specific area getting in the way of others," he says.
"The EPZ will be near the port (of Luís Correia, in Parnaíba’s neighbouring city) and an international airport. It is strategically located for foreign companies interested in making the region into an export base from which to export to other continents," he says. Works at the port have already begun.
Brazilian EPZs exempt companies from collecting certain taxes. On the other hand, those benefited should export at least 80% of their production at the EPZs. The state government estimates that 1,000 direct jobs and 3,000 indirect ones will be created with the EPZ’s establishment.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
