Business opportunities in Brazil will be the focus of a full-day seminar to be held Wednesday, June 28, at the Ritz Carlton downtown providing the first overview in Atlanta of the largest economy in Latin America since Fernando Henrique Cardoso assumed the presidency this year.
The main sponsor of the conference is Varig Brazilian Airlines which maintains an office in Atlanta and has a reservation sharing agreement with Delta Air Lines.
Atlanta and Brazil have maintained close relations through a number of organizations including the Sister Cities Association and the Georgia Partners of the Americas. Atlanta is a “Sister City” of Rio de Janeiro and Georgia is a partner of the state of Pernambuco, which is located in Brazil’s northeast.
Although Atlanta-Brazil ties weakened when Brazil closed its Consulate General here in November 1990 because of budgetary constraints, they are strengthening with the increasing cultural and educational exchanges and the formation of a Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce.
The chamber is being organized by Jaime G. de Araujo, an international business consultant who moved to Atlanta in 1991 and first considered the potential for such an organization while attending a Comdex computer show here last year. Mr. Araujo said that the chamber will represent Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, North and South Carolina.
Under Mr. Cardoso’s leadership as Brazil’s minister of finance last year, the government sheared inflation from a monthly rate of 50% in June to 1% in December. Despite its gains, Atlanta firms are generally more hesitant about committing to Brazil than they are to its neighbors Argentina and Chile.
“Brazil has the bigger job of proving what it can do,” says William R. Finney, an Equifax vice president, who is based in Buenos Aires but promotes Equifax information products in Chile as well as Argentina.
The seminar will focus primarily on opportunities in the areas of energy, franchising, software, telecommunications, tourism and transportation.
The cost of the seminar is $70 per person. Fax registrations to (404) 656-3571. Mr. Araujo may be reached by calling (404) 933-8979.