In the Global Investment Promotion Benchmarking, disclosed by the World Bank (IBRD), earlier this week, Brazil stood out. The Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil) came in first place among the organizations of the kind in the Latin American and the Caribbean ranking and in the second position in the case of responding to investors' information inquiries, losing only to Austria.
The study is 86 pages long, developed by Bird technicians between March and September 2008, and evaluated the work of 181 institutions of promotion and attraction of investment worldwide. The Brazilian agency received 82.7 points in the evaluation of efforts for investor information. The report concluded that 70% of the countries researched may be missing foreign investment opportunities due to lack of information and services to potential investors.
With regard to the Brazilian agency, the study shows the quality of answers and the high level of attention and additional information to customers. Two inquiries were made to the Apex during the research. In the first, regarding the beverage sector, Brazil received the highest grade in the ranking, 88%.
"The submission revealed the winning formula for investment promotion: It responded specifically to the questions asked. It provided relevant, comprehensive, and substantiated statistical and industry trend data to support its claims. Brazil even provided beverage consumption patterns by industry segment along with forecasts at the state level. APEX displayed organizational professionalism by meeting deadlines and providing a well-constructed report," says the study.
According to information disclosed by the Apex press department, the agency's good performance is the result of efforts for restructuring the investment attraction area, which began two years ago. "Since we started this work, Brazil has risen from US$ 34.6 billion to US$ 45 billion in foreign direct investment, whereas global investment dropped 15%," said the organization's president, Alessandro Teixeira, in a press statement.
Still according to the press statement, at Apex services to investors are developed by a team specialized in several areas of the economy, aiding investors throughout the decision-making process for investment in Brazil.
Apex provides information from the size of the sector researched to where to find qualified labor, including legislation, taxes, the main companies and also promotes and accompanies technical visits by potential investors, guiding in the planning and development of projects, recommending domestic financing sources and establishing contact with states to help investors find the ideal site for installation of the unit.
Apart from that, the Apex also promotes seminars in several countries in the world in the Invest in Brasil project, with specialists in areas that show technical and strategic information, which works as a platform for promotion of the country image and investment opportunities.
Anba
