Brasília, March 10, 2004 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - The Export Promotion Agency (Apex) and the Brazilian Small and Medium Business Advisory Service (Sebrae) signed a cooperation agreement to expand the role of small companies in export policy. As the president of the Apex, Juan Quirós, explained, the purpose of the partnership is to discover market niches abroad, especially in Latin American countries, in order to promote the country commercially and organize demand to steer domestic production to prospective buyers.
Sebrae's job, according to the president of the entity, Silvano Giani, is set up a Commercial Intelligence system, together with the Apex, to prepare firms to adopt a professional approach to exporting. The definition of each organ's task is what will make a difference, following the agreement that was signed yesterday (9).
Last year 8,557 Brazilian firms received support from these two organs, guaranteeing the continuity of 115 thousand jobs. In 2004 the forecast is for the number of firms to grow to 9,500-9,800, with an increase in the number of jobs to between 135 thousand and 140 thousand.
However, the participation of small Brazilian firms in export activities can be considered meager. Estimates vary from 2% (if size is measured by earnings) to 12% (if classified according to the number of employees). This picture is the opposite of many other countries, such as Italy, Spain, or Taiwan. In Italy small enterprises are responsible for over half of foreign sales. In Taiwan this percentage represents 48%, and in Spain, 40%. Sebrae believes that Brazil can attain these levels by acting in retail and wholesale sectors.
Apex and Sebrae attempt to form groups of firms, based on their understanding that, united collectively, it is easier to market products. Moreover, this creates competition among firms, according to Giani. The purpose is to stimulate importers with a range of offers that are continuously available, thus assuring their interest in making purchases and holding out prospects for the future, as the president of the Apex, Juan Quirós, points out.
The president of Sebrae recalls that Brasília itself exports beach fashions. Another market that is quite promising is the production of organics, arousing the attention of the German market to the point where they may even invest in the production itself, providing direct support to small Brazilian firms. Shoes, furniture with aggregated value, cosmetics, food, beverages, honey, cotton, and cachaça (distilled sugar cane liquor) are products that can be sold well abroad.
The plan for this year is to invest R$ 130 million on the development of enterprises, in an effort to organize each state's productive vocation. Apex is already actively promoting trade in 130 countries, with support from consulting firms to identify business opportunities.
Giani emphasizes that simplifying the bureaucracy for the creation and operation of micro and small companies is an important goal of the tax reform. To this end Sebrae is giving the finishing touches to a preliminary bill that will be presented next month.
He calls on the government, in deciding to simplify things for firms, to attempt to treat small firms differently from large ones. Current laws are the same for all, and maintaining the same level of requirements inhibits the productive activity of small entrepreneurs. Until the legislation changes, Sebrae and Apex carry on, each one in its own area, while firms count on the parallel credit support of development banks, such as the Bank of Brazil, as Giani recalled. (DAS)
