Santa Catarina: Business Opportunities and Partnerships

Interview with Fabiana Staudinger, Director of the Department for International Travel & Logistics (Santa Catarina’s Foreign Affairs Office)

Could you explain how the International Department started 9-10 years ago and give us a little bit of background?

We started in 2003 and I joined the company in 2004. The State decided to have an international department which would work in partnership with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, to develop and show the world who Santa Catarina is, where Santa Catarina is and what we can do. And thus we decided to show Santa Catarina’s business opportunities and partnerships in education, technology, exports, etc. We also wanted to show that we are here and that we can serve as a location for companies – big companies. Santa Catarina has the infrastructure to cater for any needs connected to development. As for my part, I started with cooperation and then I moved onto international travel and logistics.

What results have you achieved during those years?

I think that Santa Catarina is one of the strongest States when talking about international companies coming and establishing themselves in Brazil. Santa Catarina has certainly been noticed by the world. My work is one of passion and I think that Santa Catarina’s economy is really growing in a positive way. There are some States that started to develop and attracted a lot of things that they didn’t want to. The case of Santa Catarina is different. Santa Catarina still has its people, its face, it still is a beautiful State and we have a lot of things to offer. I guess those are our main advantages.

How do you work in practice? How do you interact with the companies and with the world in general?

Since 2003, we have been showing the world where Santa Catarina is. We have a lot of materials that are available in all Brazilian consulates and embassies around the world.

We work in 2 ways. We check certain companies, like BMW. They announce they want to build another factory, so we meet with them and propose them Santa Catarina as a location. Or it can be a Secretary for Health or Public Safety who will come to us, request information and propose some kind of a partnership. Our office will then start to collect information and contact people and companies, that might be interested, and we will facilitate the partnership between them. Our department serves as a connection between the two sides. There are also foreign companies that come to us to find out where and what they can do in Santa Catarina. The Department for International Economics will check where a particular international company could settle down and how we could help them.

Florianopolis has a strong IT sector with digital businesses. In Blumenau, there are companies that work with fabrics and textiles. There are companies dealing with ceramics in the south and the ones dealing with mechanics are in the north. Agricultural companies are located in the western part of Santa Catarina.

As you travel a lot and organize missions abroad, what is the image that people have of Santa Catarina when you go anywhere in the world?

Well, it is quite amazing. When we talk about Brazil, they don’t have any idea of the diversity of the country. Santa Catarina is a small State but people from all over the world still like to settle down here because of the climate, the people and the opportunities. The State seems to them beautiful and people enjoy coming here; the tourism is a great factor and people really get to know more about our cities, beaches etc. These people are also amazed by our business and the quality of our people. It feels very good to hear such nice comments on Santa Catarina.

But I think it is difficult for you to sell Santa Catarina. As you said, it is a small State and people probably know better Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro or other places in Brazil. So when you arrive to a country, you have to sell it all.

I would like to say that we are a small State with a bit of the best features of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.. Santa Catarina has great universities for engineering and, again, I think the quality of our people is very high. We can work with doctors, masters or persons with a very high level of education and high quality of life. When people come from abroad to live here, I think they definitely need a certain level of quality of life as they are leaving their country, families and relatives behind. They need to look at Brazil – and Santa Catarina – as a country where they can live and enjoy their life. When foreigners come to Santa Catarina they are amazed by the structure of the State ranging from various ports to universities. There is certainly a good number of advantages that Santa Catarina has.

What would you like to achieve and what is your vision for the next 2 to 3 years?

Since I work with travel and logistics, I would like to see the start of production of a company like BMW in Santa Catarina. I would like to see the exports of meat to Japan working well. It would be great to see that all the projects we started are working. I would like to develop partnerships, more cooperation and attract new people to Santa Catarina – this is one of my main goals.