Interview with Luciano Santos Tavares de Almeida, President of Investe Sao Paulo (Agencia Paulista de Promoção de Investimentos e Competitividade)

How do you assess investment appeal of Sao Paulo?

When you decide to make an investment in a country you want to go to the most developed state of that country. Brazil is a huge investment opportunity in the world now since we haven't suffered as many crises as Europe or the United States.

Sao Paulo is the most important state of Brazil. We have 33% of the total GDP of Brazil, 41 million consumers, world-class infrastructure, a huge industrial sector, energy supply, environmental responsibility, and so on. This makes us very important for investment and the most important companies are already here or they are already considering making an investment here.

In addition, the state of Sao Paulo is now the third biggest economy in Latin America; behind Brazil as the biggest economy and Mexico as the second biggest one. With all these advantages, I think Sao Paulo is ready to welcome any kind of investment here.

What are some of the problems that you are facing more than other states in Brazil, such as higher taxes, and how are you trying to resolve these issues?

I prefer to say that Sao Paulo has a huge opportunity. We still have problems, of course, but we also have a lot of opportunities. When we talk about investment we are not talking about short term; we are talking about long term. Brazil has a very strong currency and while we have high interest rates, some bureaucracy, etc., this is something we can change in Brazil and, of course, in the state of Sao Paulo. So, we are working on these issues and they are improving.
If you consider it now, we may not be the most competitive in the world but we have the most local consumers - Brazil has now close to 200 million people - whose wants and needs are increasing and these millions of people are turning into very strong consumers.

What about other challenges? You have higher state tax in Sao Paulo and there are fewer fiscal incentives for companies. How are you trying to overcome these challenges as well?

There is huge support for the states at the federal level to reorganize the tax system in Brazil. It is very complicated; I have my own business and this system is not only difficult for foreigners, it is also difficult for us who actually live here. However, it is something we are working on and trying to change, making it clearer with lower costs and more competitive at the same time.

The investment promotion agency of the state of Sao Paulo – Investe Sao Paulo - is ready to explain to foreign investors all the tax system and how they can obtain any tax benefits.

Your mandate in Investe Sao Paulo is to help investors to invest in Sao Paulo. When you present Sao Paulo, what is the feedback you receive from investors?

Investe Sao Paulo is a company we created a year and a half ago; it is very young. The idea of the governor is that Investe Sao Paulo is a one-stop shop, which means people who are looking to invest in Sao Paulo don't need to go anywhere else, they just come here and Investe Sao Paulo tries to ease the investment process for them.

Investe Sao Paulo provides the same support for the companies that would pay advisers to carry out expansion projects here. Furthermore, Investe Sao Paulo is a free of charge consultancy that provides everything investors need and this kind of advisory costs a lot of money when provided by other organizations.

And why does Investe Sao Paulo do that? Because the aim of the state of Sao Paulo and government is to create jobs and balanced economic development for all regions.

Can you explain sector by sector the investments you are seeking?

We don't say which sectors we are seeking because of our competitors. The state of Sao Paulo has the most industry and services of all the states in Brazil; we have a huge diversified economy. Sao Paulo state is known for being industrialized and it is also the biggest producer of agribusiness.

We have some strategic sectors that we believe we can support and there are a lot of foreign companies coming here and looking for us to make their investment.

To have an idea, the state of Sao Paulo accounts for more than 50% of the Brazilian finance companies, has the 4th largest stock exchange in the world (BM & F), 50% of oil and gas supply companies, the third largest airplane producer in the world and important research in producing green energy from biomass and solar energy. This is one of the most important centers in the world for bio-fuel development, which is the reason why many jet companies are coming here now.

What are the strategic sectors that you are looking for companies to make their investment in?

IT, oil and gas, green economy, aerospace and healthcare are sectors that we are developing. However, the infrastructure is equally important to investors and the state government wants to establish PPPs – public-private partnerships.

We have a lot of investment opportunities and we are looking for people to talk about making a partnership to invest in infrastructure. About $40 to $60 billion have been allocated to the investment in railroads, roads, airports, subways - public transportation, in general.

What are the guarantees that you are prepared to offer to investors in these infrastructure projects?

It's a direct partnership with the state government of Sao Paulo, which has a healthy economy, tradition in PPPs and partnerships with the federal government and financial institutions. Big companies around the world have made their investment in PPPs in Sao Paulo, which entitles us as an excellent destination for new projects.

What would be your vision for Investe Sao Paulo in the next five years? What would you really like to achieve?

We would like Investe Sao Paulo to be one of the ten most important agencies in the world. To do that we need to help people come here, make investment in the state as something easy for them and increase development in the state of Sao Paulo in a sustainable way.

We have a lot of people coming here now in a variety of sectors and we hope that by making investment easier we will have quick results. People love to come to Brazil, because we are very friendly people; this may be one of the only places in the world where different cultures and religions live together without fighting. Our target now is to make the business environment as friendly as we are as people.