[dropcap]P[/dropcap]reparations are in final stages here for next week’s Brazilian Parliamentary and Entrepreneurial Mission to Saint Lucia and the OECS, which hopes to open brand new streams of business through a new window of opportunities based on investments and services between the South American nation and its small island neighbors to the north. The Brazilian Embassy here last month unveiled plans to bring a large group of Brazilian investors and parliamentarians to the island from November 11 to 17.
Entitled ‘Um Porto De Opportunidades’ (A Port of Opportunities) the mission plans to explore direct and joint investment opportunities in over 11 areas ranging from alternative energy and tourism to pharmaceuticals and construction.
Also on the table will be investments in rainwater collection and desalination, food distribution, language and related consultancies. The Saint Lucia Government, the island’s top state investment body Invest Saint Lucia (ISL) and the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), are working together to ensure the Brazilian mission achieves its goals here and eventually in the sub-region.
The Brazilians will be coming to Saint Lucia from some of Brazil’s large federal states: Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná, Goiás and Pará.
Ambassador of the Brazilian Federal Republic to Saint Lucia Sergio Couri says, “Plans are well advanced. The Ministry of Commerce, Industry, Investment Enterprise Development and Consumer Affairs is on board, as is ISL (Invest Saint Lucia) and the OECS Commission’s Secretariat.”
He added: “What we are working towards is to open the way for the visiting entrepreneurs and parliamentarians from Brazil to meet, greet and eat with their local counterparts, arrange visits and do what’s needed to do business. We are laying the finishing touches to the foundations for the week-long event that will allow the visiting entities and interested local counterparts to make those direct acquaintances and exchanges that will work for both and all sides.”
Ambassador Couri says the mission will be particularly interested in “investment and service exports between Brazil, Saint Lucia and the OECS, of which Saint Lucia is the headquarters. He pointed out that “a week-long schedule has been arranged for the Brazilian mission that will take them to Vieux Fort and Soufriere, Canaries and Castries, to get a better feel and sight of the landscape within which their investments will be expected to thrive.”
The schedule will include a November 14 seminar on ‘How to do Business with Saint Lucia’ — and the OECS sub-region, which will include presentations by government, ISL and OECS.
The visiting parliamentarians and entrepreneurs will also discuss while here the creation of a proposed Brazil-OECS Parliamentary Group.
