Source: Diário do Grande ABC (SP), 25/06/2009

Brazil, the largest consumer market in Latin America with its 190 million inhabitants, has been winning more and more young foreign entrepreneurs interested in setting up their own business, attracting capital and experience to the country, in addition to generating jobs.

In the last four years, the number of foreigners with work visas in Brazil has doubled, from 1.284 to 2.722, according to official data. Of this total, half is included in the investor category.

This is the case of New Yorker Zachary Mazur, 31, who created the sandal brand Braziliano Praia to compete with the famous Havaianas. He saw in the continental dimensions of Brazil the opportunity to develop a project that, he estimates, would have been impossible in the United States, a market that is too saturated and competitive for small investors.

Just five years ago in Rio de Janeiro, Zachary already exports to Singapore, the Philippines, Japan and Australia, facilitating the contact of small factories in the interior of Brazil with companies from the most remote cantons on the planet.

“After a few years of living here, I realized that Brazil is still an isolated country from the world, despite the internet. I am creating relationships between Brazilian suppliers and buyers in Asia, ”explained Zachary to AFP, proud of the success of his venture.

“Brazil can still grow a lot. In China, every company, no matter how small, has a guy who stays at dawn at the computer trying to close deals. Here, small manufacturers don't even know what export is, ”he explained, confessing that he had to face many difficulties with the Brazilian bureaucracy to open his business.

For French microentrepreneur Julien Turri, 36, who this month celebrates the fourth anniversary of his media company in Rio, Hi-Mídia, Brazil can still improve a lot in terms of access to credit, reduced taxes and enforcement of laws , but it is attractive because it lacks in several sectors, such as the provision of services, technologies and infrastructure.

Before betting his money on Brazil, he traveled to South Africa, Vietnam and Australia, but he was not convinced: “Here it is much easier to integrate and Brazilians are willing to work”.

For the entrepreneur, the procedures to start a company, although complicated and slow, are obstacles that can be overcome with determination.

“Opening a company here is easy, but you need to adapt to the local situation. You need to hire a good lawyer and an accountant ”, advised Julien, betting that Brazil has at least another decade of strong growth ahead.

“Brazil protects small investors, because here we have the same rights and duties as the local investor. In Russia, India and China you don't have the same security, for political reasons, ”said the French entrepreneur, comparing Brazil with the other members of the so-called BRICS, the emerging countries.

To enable foreign investors to enter, the Brazilian government recently issued a resolution.

"We are working to simplify migration procedures and provide maximum transparency in visa application processes for foreign investors in Brazil," said the General Coordinator for Immigration at the Ministry of Labor, Paulo Sérgio de Almeida.

According to official data, foreigners who most seek Brazil to live, work and invest come from the USA, Philippines, United Kingdom, China, India, Germany, Japan, France, Italy and Indonesia, in that order.