Government of Rio Grande do Sul wants to structure development agency

Governor Eduardo Leite (PSDB) intends to finalize the structuring of a development agency and present it to society in the first half of 2023. Currently, the government is working on benchmarking, studying agency models in other states and abroad.

The agency will be the center of the Piratini Palace’s economic development policy and investment attraction. “It will be the flagship of our investment attraction policy,” said Leite during Tá Na Mesa, an event promoted by Federasul on Wednesday.

“The process we’ve done so far is one of benchmarking, of observing how other agencies work. Secretary Ernani Polo (PP), for Economic Development, went to meetings with agencies from other states. I commissioned studies on how these agencies are organized around the world. By the end of this first semester, I intend to present the project for structuring this agency”, Leite had already stated, earlier, in a press conference.

The agency must be managed by the private sector, with participation and funding from the State. Leite wants an independent agency that can connect markets and that external buyers can have direct contact with the productive offer in Rio Grande do Sul.

“We need the technical work of a qualified agency with well-structured planning to make the ‘one-to-one’ contact. That is, connecting the supplier here with the buyer there to help close deals,” he explained. “Connecting demand from other parts of the world with what we offer here”, summarized the governor.

To illustrate the agency’s activities, the Chief Executive brought examples from agribusiness. In May 2021, the World Organization for Animal Health certified Rio Grande do Sul as an area free of foot-and-mouth disease without vaccination – a contagious disease that mainly affects cattle.

Since then, there has been a race in the sector for other countries to recognize this certificate, with the aim of opening new markets for the export of animal protein.

This is a lengthy and complex process that consists of sending delegations of health inspections from other nations to verify the safety of beef, chicken and pork production on farms and farms in Rio Grande do Sul.

Recently, this process occurred with Chile, which at the beginning of the year recognized RS as a foot-and-mouth free area without vaccination. This enables the gaucho market to export animals and animal products to the neighboring country.

The role of the agency will be to accelerate processes of this nature. Identify possible markets to be explored by products produced in the State, identify bottlenecks and main difficulties for operations and monitor possible solutions in prospecting for new businesses.

“Prospecting for new businesses and for investments in the State requires robust technical work, a very large technical effort – which the State unfortunately does not have in its own administrative capacity. And which needs to have public funding, because companies do what their work, but it is important that there be an effort also with the participation of public resources”, said Leite.

It is an agency that “watches out for opportunities”. “When we start to see some movement that is detected by newspapers, media specialized in the financial world, we have to be able to detect it quickly, have a database with information already pre-organized to respond quickly and attract business”, he stated.

The agency that aims to unite public and private is already beginning to attract the attention of business entities. So much so that, after the Governor’s lecture at Federasul, it was the first topic addressed with Leite by the new President of Federasul, Rodrigo Sousa Costa.