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Brazil sets sights at increased services exports
Architecture, design, audiovisual, games, advertising and engineering sectors receive the most support to export - Credit: Agência Brasil
Brazil will increase the share of services in its export portfolio in the coming decades. The assessment is by the Minister of Industry, Foreign Trade and Services (MDIC), Marcelo Maia. According to the latest foreign trade survey by the Central Bank, services accounted for 1.91% of Brazilian exports and 4% of its imports in 2015.
The result poses a stark contrast to the share of services in the domestic market: services accounted for 71% of Brazil's GDP in the same year. The topic of services exports was part of the agenda during the 8th National Services Foreign Trade Meeting (EnaServ), in São Paulo (SP).
According to Maia, his ministry's goals include encouraging Brazilian companies in the architecture, design, TV and film, games, advertising, engineering and e-commerce sectors, among others, to expand their trade. The secretary explains that services generate more qualified jobs and add more value and sophistication to the goods the country produces.
“My Secretariat has been committed to putting together policies that drive more services and improve labour relations. We have made progress in the discussions for outsourcing and intermittent work," he said. “Services have a substantial weight in the domestic market, accounting for about 70% of GDP, but we are short of the country's potential abroad," he added.
According to data from the Siscoserv, MDIC's computerised system that regulates foreign trade in services, the main countries to which Brazil exports services are the United States, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom. The United States, for example, have imported Brazilian public relations, communication and professional and technical services.
For the president of Brazil's Foreign Trade Association, José Augusto de Castro, exporting services means exporting intelligence, a characteristic of developed countries.
Leonardo Pereira Rodrigues, superintendent of the foreign trade area of Brazil's National Development Bank (BNDES), said that the institution finances construction, medicine, games and consulting engineering companies, and that there is potential for growth. “Services exports are highly qualified and have no losses," he said.