The Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency Apex (Apex) announced the signing of 26 agreements with entities in various sectors for carrying out commercial promotion projects.
Seven of these agreements are new, and the remaining ones are renewals of existing partnerships. "To export is to consolidate. Consumers must be certain of product availability, and any retreat entails loss of market space," said the president of the agency, Juan Quirós, during a luncheon in São Paulo.
According to Quirós, the projects signed, which will receive US$ 88.415 million worth of investments, are going to ensure commercial promotion actions until 2008 for the contemplated sectors, which accounts for 80% of Apex’s work.
That, and the recently launched strategic plan, which forecasts actions until 2010, guarantees that the agency will continue working in the current mold, in the case of eventual changes in the board of directors, said Quirós.
"Businessmen only invest when they know things are not going to change halfway through," he says. In the projects of Apex, which is a state-owned organization, the private sector traditionally accounts for 50% of investments. "These measures show that exports will continue to be a priority," he said, referring to the second term of president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
In his assessment, Brazilian exports should increase 8% to 12% next year, even if exchange rates remain at current levels. The real (the Brazilian currency) saw a sharp appreciation relative to the dollar in 2006, which theoretically should make Brazilian products more expensive abroad.
The seven new projects were signed with the sectors of visual arts, tourism and real estate in Northeastern Brazil, the craftsmanship sector in the northeastern Brazilian state of Ceará, the electro-electronic sector in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais, ethnic products and car parts sectors.
Agreements were renewed with the sectors of food and derivatives for animals, sisal fibre, fruit, chicken meat, cookies, textile and fashion, personal hygiene products and cosmetics, advertising and marketing, musical instruments, medical and hospital equipment, molds for thermoplastics/thermo-fixed and non-iron metals, ornamental rocks, ceramic coatings, plaster, furniture components, glass, decoration objects and gifts, craftwork from the Northern Brazilian state of Pará, and industrialized wood.
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