Earlier this month, entrepreneurs from Brazil, South Africa, and India founded the Trilateral Business Council. The encounter among representatives of industrial and commercial federations from the three countries took place during the III Meeting of the India, Brazil, and South Africa Dialogue Forum.
The encounter this time happened in the South African legislative capital, Cape Town. The Forum will be held in Brazil in 2006.
The Council will foster the development of an investment network geared to small, medium, and micro-enterprises. This international network will facilitate the countries’ access to industrial and service sectors abroad, so long as the interchange offers advantages to all the parties involved.
The Council will also be able to back grievances in the ambit of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and domestic governmental areas.
The vice-president of International Integration of the National Confederation of Industry (CNI), Luís Eulálio Vidigal, who represented the Brazilian private sector, signed the agreement creating the Council.
He said he is optimistic about the possibilities of exchange in different areas:
“In India, especially, the areas of cutting edge technology, pharmaceuticals, computer-related areas, and even those most closely linked to mining; in South Africa, in all these areas there is much to be done.
“Brazil’s industrial park is quite diversified, in addition to our being highly developed in agriculture and agro-industry. In either of these two countries, we would have a big enough opportunity to export a great deal.”
The three countries already make up the G-3, for mutual negotiations. And they share the desire to promote reforms in the United Nations, especially in the Security Council.
Their inclination was reinforced at the Chancellors’ meeting. Brazil’s Minister of Foreign Relations, Celso Amorim, said he believes important steps were taken to make cooperation more concrete.
“I think that they are increasingly speaking with one voice as three large democracies from three continents. We are obviously not exclusive, and we want to involve more countries in all of this as well, but it is a way to begin a cooperative effort,” the Brazilian Chancellor affirmed.
Since the creation of the IBSA – the abbreviation for the union between India, Brazil, and South Africa – in 2003, the three countries have made advances in political projects in the technological field, such as the defense of free software.
Between 2003 and 2004, trade between Brazil and South Africa grew around 40%, reaching US$ 368 million (R$ 1 billion). Trade between Brazil and India experienced more modest growth, calculated at 17%.
This year, besides business expansion, agreements in the areas of health and oceanography are planned.
Translation: David Silberstein
Agência Brasil