Articles Viva Brasil

First of all, I ought to remind that the format of the LatinAsiaBiz 2005 represented a qualitative leap in relation to the one in 2004. The agency "International Enterprise (I.E.) Singapore", promoter of the event, based itself on a close interaction with the embassies of Brazil, Mexico, Peru and Panama, as well as with the honorary representations of Colombia and Ecuador, in which the Latin American representatives tried to correct structural and execution flaws occurred in the previous format. This collaboration enabled a more solid event, in which the macro-economic presentations could better combine with the micro-economic experiences of Latin American and Singaporean companies, thus facilitating direct business contact through networking.The bilateral trade of Brazil with Singapore has presented strong growth both ways, with an edge for exports from Brazil. Nevertheless, in a modern approach, it is inappropriate to assess the economic relations between two countries solely by means of the trade balance in goods, but instead from the standpoint of the current transactions. There is nowadays, in particular with Brazil but also with others in our region, an interesting flow of capital, especially in direct investments, such as, for example, the purchase by Singaporean shipyards of Brazilian shipyards, to meet the close business relations generated by PETROBRAS, the Brazilian national oil enterprise. Platforms for oil drilling and extraction in deep waters have been and are being built or reformed in Singapore and Rio de Janeiro, on the one hand benefiting PETROBRAS with the Singaporean efficiency and know-how in ship-building, and, on the other hand, the Singaporean shipyards in providing service to the only oil enterprise worldwide that masters the full cycle of exploration and production of oil in deep marine waters. Both shipyardsencompass projects assessed at 4.6 billion Singaporean dollars.Nevertheless, large corporations have advantages accruing from their scale and depend little on promotional events. What matters most is to connect, in mutual benefit, the small and medium enterprises on both sides of the Brazil-Singapore and Latin America-Singapore equations, with a view to partnerships encompassing from goods, through services, on to capital. It was rewarding for us, members of the Embassy in Singapore, to be able to rely on a comprehensive Brazilian delegation addressing from analytical insights of a social and economic nature through to the capital market. For 2006, we shall continue to cooperate with "I.E. Singapore" toward an event even more dynamic and useful in this process of confidence-building, for the concrete exploration of partnerships of all sorts and of great impact in bilateral relations.

APEX, the Brazilian equivalent of "I.E. Singapore", brought a great contribution to LatinAsiaBiz 2005, not only by taking part in the event, but also by, simultaneously, undertaking intense surveying with a view to guaranteeing adequate information to Singaporean buyers, regarding the Brazilian product. We have the best agri-business in the world, with a territorial base of 100 million arable hectares still available, without touching on the environmentally-protectable areas.By combining production efficiency with high marketing quality, we make available to Singapore, Southeast Asia and greater Asia beyond products of high quality at competitive prices. Additionally, in the industrial domain, there is a great variety of products of interest for these regions that can be brought over from Brazil, even as alternatives to traditional suppliers and with advantages for the consumer.APEX is assessing the product lines for a trial run, as well as partnerships for the creation of an exhibition and distribution centre, at which the buyers do not have to rely on indirect information and can see what is being offered to them. It is an innovative initiative, of beneficial impact in the elimination of the geographical gap between Brazil and Singapore deriving from the physical distance between both.

The opening of the office of "I.E. Singapore" in São Paulo is the flip side of the coin that brought APEX to Singapore. What we seek is the speedier overcoming of that gap aforementioned. With the Singaporean industriousness, under the leadership of Ter Yeow Ming, Representative for Latin America, there is no doubt that business deals will boom bilaterally. As put by Lee Yi Shyan, Chief Executive Officer of " I.E. Singapore", at the inauguration of the office, "... Brazil, the biggest country of Latin America, is also a market in itself, with 180 million inhabitants and GDP of US$605 billion" and "while attentive to the growth of the markets of India and of China, we should not ignore an emerging powerhouse such as Brazil".The inauguration was led by the Vice Prime Minister of Singapore, S. Jayakumar, in a clear demonstration of the political dimension of bilateral rapprochement, in which is highlighted, as a background, the meticulous diplomatic work undertaken over the years, so as to open communication channels and understanding at all levels, and crowning them with unfettered dialogue, at the highest level of the respective national governments.

The consular area is crucial, in order to facilitate tourism and direct contact between business people. The negotiations are at an advanced stage and, soon, we shall be able to announce an agreement on the matter. Civil aviation agreements are a complex matter; there is one in place, but it needs updating. The co-operation in biotechnology is highly promising. With, on the one hand, the Singaporean experience in public-private partnerships and, on the other, the academic research that has been undertaken by Brazilian research centres and the unique richness of the Brazilian biological universe, the field presents unlimited potential. In electronics, Singapore also stands out as a centre of excellence, in which it concentrated development efforts, since it is an industry that demands little space. Brazil has space and is experiencing leaps in research that deserve to be furthered. The partnerships point to joint Singaporean-Brazilian ventures of great bilateral benefit. As for duty-free zones, I believe them to be in a stage of progressive dismantling. They are no longer needed and even introduce some economic distortions. It is a matter, nowadays, of going for direct relations, economy-to-economy, in order to create synergies that do not depend on special duty-free zones. Regarding the shipyards, I trust that the reply to the second question, further up, is eloquent.

The cultural product is essential. When one buys a sandwich from a US food chain, one is buying the Hollywood film, the potent military aircraft, the pension funds’ money, that is, a chain series that is born from an image perception.Therefore, the dissemination of Brazilian culture is so important, for it creates familiarity with our realities and counteracts ill-founded, if not downright pernicious, biases frequent in the mass media, so as to raise elements of judgement previously unknown to the local population.Brazilian cinema comes from the early XXth century, marked by scarcity of means, but masterpieces of acknowledged aesthetic and artistic value. Despite the predominance of US and European cinema productions benefited by abundant financial sources, the 1950's and 1960's were characterised by a growing number of Brazilian productions, many of them internationally awarded, especially in Europe, whence we took some of our basic cultural and intellectual traits, in an authentic multi-ethnic and multicultural assemblage, in which the human groups truly mix, instead of merely co-existing. After the long phase of low production, during the military governments and their censorship (1964-1984), Brazilian cinema resurrected in the 1990's. Our productions are devoid of luxury, nevertheless with high-quality scene-production, so as to focus less on the ambiences and more on the characters and, therefore, on the message intended by the director. We have, today, as in its inception, a "director's cinema" that, in addition to entertaining, possesses substance. We are ready to meet, with films and other cultural products, such as books, the hunger of the Singaporean "Latinophiles" and "Brasilophiles".

We Brazilians are communicative and expansive, with great capacity of expression. We lack, however, the cohesion found in ethnic groups such as, for example, the Chinese. I do not think it desirable to emulate the latter, for we are structurally distinct, and in difference lies the wealth of humankind. I believe, nevertheless, that the Brazilian community abroad needs to develop a tad further a collective sense, in the conscious search for stimulation and dissemination of our social and cultural richness. We already see improvements also in this field, including the rise of a more encompassing sense of Brazilianness, derived from the inevitable admiration of the joint work we are undertaking as a nation, in Brazil.