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Business leaders plug Canada to Brazilian companies Add to ...
STEPHANIE NOLEN
RIO DE JANEIRO — The Globe and Mail
Published Friday, Mar. 21 2014, 6:03 PM EDT
Canada is a stable, predictable country where “some of the rules are tough, but you know what they are,” and Brazilian companies will find it astoundingly easy to set up shop here, an audience of business leaders heard in Rio de Janeiro this week.
That ringing endorsement came from no less an authority than Luciano Siani, chief financial officer of Vale SA, which has the highest-profile Brazilian investment in Canada.
Mr. Siani described his company’s move to set up potash operations in Saskatchewan in 2009: “We were promptly welcomed by a central agency of the government that provided us in a few months with a contract for gas, water, energy – there was no difficulty whatsoever to get all of the logistics for the project. And these are things that would have taken several years here in Brazil … it would be a nightmare.”
Mr. Siani made this unexpected plug for Canada at an event organized by the Canadian consulate in Rio, which brought BMO Financial Group vice-chairperson Kevin Lynch to town to talk up Canada as its “investment champion.” Canada’s trade with Brazil is currently $6-billion a year. That’s up 25 per cent from where it was five years ago, but it is still only the equivalent of four days of Canada-U.S. trade, Mr. Lynch noted.
His presentation was affably low-key (“Canada: at the intersection of stability and growth”), but could have been alternatively titled “Why Canada is better than the United States.” He presented a blizzard of pie charts showing Canada’s lower corporate taxes, stronger banking system, lower debt, better-educated work force and an array of other favourables compared to the United States – intended to persuade the Brazilians to look past the country that dominates their thinking about North America.
STEPHANIE NOLEN
RIO DE JANEIRO — The Globe and Mail
Published Friday, Mar. 21 2014, 6:03 PM EDT
Canada is a stable, predictable country where “some of the rules are tough, but you know what they are,” and Brazilian companies will find it astoundingly easy to set up shop here, an audience of business leaders heard in Rio de Janeiro this week.
That ringing endorsement came from no less an authority than Luciano Siani, chief financial officer of Vale SA, which has the highest-profile Brazilian investment in Canada.
Mr. Siani described his company’s move to set up potash operations in Saskatchewan in 2009: “We were promptly welcomed by a central agency of the government that provided us in a few months with a contract for gas, water, energy – there was no difficulty whatsoever to get all of the logistics for the project. And these are things that would have taken several years here in Brazil … it would be a nightmare.”
Mr. Siani made this unexpected plug for Canada at an event organized by the Canadian consulate in Rio, which brought BMO Financial Group vice-chairperson Kevin Lynch to town to talk up Canada as its “investment champion.” Canada’s trade with Brazil is currently $6-billion a year. That’s up 25 per cent from where it was five years ago, but it is still only the equivalent of four days of Canada-U.S. trade, Mr. Lynch noted.
His presentation was affably low-key (“Canada: at the intersection of stability and growth”), but could have been alternatively titled “Why Canada is better than the United States.” He presented a blizzard of pie charts showing Canada’s lower corporate taxes, stronger banking system, lower debt, better-educated work force and an array of other favourables compared to the United States – intended to persuade the Brazilians to look past the country that dominates their thinking about North America.
