Thank you for tuning in, and welcome to a brandnew edition of taiwan outlook. I am the program host,raykuo. Korea is rich with Investment Opportunities and people with a lot of passion. And we are delighted to have as our guest the Deputy Director of the commercial office of brazil in taipei, to talk about the state of bilateral relations between brazil and taiwan. Look into the program. Thank you. It has been a pleasure to be here. Why dont we start by asking you to give us a general background as your beautiful country . A lot of people in taiwan know very little about brazil, even though brazil is a very important country in the international community. Can you tell us a little bit about your beautiful country . For example, land size, population. Are some of the tourist destinations . Brazil is large and diverse. Brazil has about 8. 5 million square kilometers. Almost 200 million people. Populated by europeans, africans, asians. You can imagine how we have different cultures, different geography. What we have most information from outside it is one region of brazil. When you go to brazil very diverse. You have a near continent sized country. The first thing you notice in brazil a brandnew future was developed in the culture, with a mix of european, african, and local aborigines, and asians. We have such a different mix. We have a very open society. Nobody is an outsider. Nobody is a foreigner. Nobody can say who is a brazilian, who is not a brazilian. We are very inclusive on race and religion, in every aspect. That is one of the many aspects of brazil. We have a very open culture. As you know, a very unique lifestyle. It is a very productive country. Everybody knows brazil as people who know how to be happy, notice how to be friendly, and knows how to work. Exactly. We hear about brazilian soccer, brazilian music. When you listen about brazil in brick briic, it is another aspect of brazil. Everybody is working. These are two aspects of brazilian as a country. Another aspect of brazil is its flexibility. Result is very flexible. This maybe has something to do with our education. We are focused on the humanities. We find ways to solve problems, to find similarities. Brazil is, internally, very focused on peaceful solutions. We do not have border disputes. We do not have problems with neighbors. We try to help internationally. We try to be interlocutory us. Interlocutors. As we do it internally, we try to do externally. As you mentioned at the beginning of the program, many people confine their knowledge of brazil to the soccer team, the Natural Resources you are so richly endowed with. And maybe, upcoming, the world cup, and also the 2016 olympics in rio de janeiro. That is not all the country, as you explained now. And we look at the relationships between brazil and taiwan, what is your assessment of bilateral relations, given the fact that you have so much opportunities in brazil, and so many people in taiwan that are very goal oriented, hardworking, and maybe that serves as a Good Foundation for the two places to have a closer relationship . What is your assessment . What i can say is the keyword for the relation between taiwan and brazil is, we are at opposite sides of the world. We cannot be further away on the same planet. But we do not compete in markets. Our commerce, or trade, is very good. He had a trade of about 5. 5 billion. That is larger than brazil trades with some neighbors. Brazil has a surplus in its trade. Brazil sales to taiwan mostly basic products. Taiwan sells to brazil mostly computer parts and components. What is important is, we can work with each other to become expert to let in other regions. For example, in the investment area, a lot of Companies Invest in brazil, not just in the brazilian market, but invest two sends to other markets close to brazil. There is one Company Opening a fifth plant in brazil. This is the first plant outside of asia. The first plant is in brazil. Acer expanded its plans in brazil. A lot of Taiwanese Companies are invested in brazil. Not just because of the brazilian market, but using brazil as a platform for the region. Can i say, so far, we do not have many brazilian investments in taiwan, but we have a path for that, especially in the food industry, because brazil has Strong Companies in the food industry. Taiwan also has. We have corporations in this area. We can cooperate with Taiwan Companies and Resilient Companies to export brazilian Food Products to the asian market. Taiwanese companies have a lot of knowledge about the market, a lot of penetration in the market, and know about consumer taste, consumer preference. I think we can and must cooperate. Complementary is the keyword. We do not have a single place where we compete. I think we could use the distance as a factor. It is not a disadvantage. Given that brazil has so much Natural Resources and so many opportunities available, what are some of the incentives that you can offer to prospective Foreign Investors . For example, on taxes. Also on the supply of labor and the acquisition of land for plants, for example. The first incentive that brazil provides, i think especially to Taiwanese Companies is [indiscernible] many people do not know that, but brazil is the first worldwide for computers, the fourth worldwide for mobile phones. It is not a normal market. You must have a special strategy for that. But not just that. About six months ago, resilient had a federal law making an extension of federal taxes for the production in brazil of tablets and smartphones. Speaking clearly, that aims for taiwanese and south korean companies. Good, great. We just have to work to make use of this opportunities, yes. That is a special, i think, for taiwan we have a special reason to invest. Not just for the market of brazil. In we have the special agreements with african markets. We have a special agreement with europe, that we can export from brazil to europe. Of course, in brazil, you have the protection of investment, the protection of intellectual property. You have a stable democracy. I think that is very important when you are going to make investments. We are not talking about, just about we do not want just to receive money. Brazil is eager to receive investment in technology to create jobs. But it is open to provide loans. The Brazilian Development bank has very crude conditions to provide loans for companies that want to invest in brazil. That is not a problem, but what we really want is to have investment in brazil to create jobs. I want to be clear about this area. I understand about brazilian policy, about investments in brazil. We really Want Companies to produce in brazil. Why is that . We are really worried about the quality of the quality of employment in brazil. That is the reason. We will continue in another part of the program. We need to take the first break. I will be right back. Welcome back to the second part of todays row gram. I am your host. We will continue the conversation with the current Deputy Director of the commercial office of resilient taipei. Might apologize my apologies for interrupting you earlier. Let us get back to the concept which i am very interested in, the equality of employment in brazil. As i explained, sometimes there is a misconception about the brazilian industrial policy. Why does brazil Want Companies to produce in brazil, and not just import every product . That is related to the equality of employment. Brazil, right now, is having maybe the lowest unemployment rates in its history, dissimilar to what is happening in many other countries. Why are we still so worried about the equality of employment . Brazil, historically, has two main challenges. One is its infrastructure deficit. Brazil, although it has a lot of Natural Resources, has a difficult geography. We are working on that. The other, we have a difference between rich and poor. We are working on that. We have made a lot of progress in this area, but we have a lot to do yet. Really, where we are involved, is having better jobs. Not just having jobs. Right now, we have jobs. We have jobs. Almost everybody has jobs. Most have middle income jobs. That is what we aim for. Brazil has all the Natural Resources to be a very good producer of energy, of soybeans. But every culture is not a very laborintensive industry, especially largescale agriculture. It is all mechanized, yes. And the energy is also not a laborintensive industry. We have 200 million people. That is why we are really worried about industrial jobs, where we have the middle income jobs. That is why we incentivize companies to produce in brazil, to have access to the brazilian economy. And we give them something back. That is access to the market, investment, freedom to pull out the investment. It is really an open market. I would like to make it clear that brazil is not a protectionist state. Resilience worried about its people, and that is the role of the state. We also talked just now about the number of taiwanese firms that have made substantial investments in brazil. Most of these countries are in the high tech area. Given the fact that you have such a Large Population and a huge country, you mentioned the first thing brazil can offer to prospective Foreign Investors is the sizable domestic market that you have. You also mentioned you would prefer equality employment, equality jobs. Higherpaying jobs are very important for the brazilian government. Maybe in the future we can look into, for example, Retail Businesses in brazil, since you have such a big population, a huge market. And related to Retail Business tourism, hospitality, restaurants. All of these things do you think that some of these industries will be of attraction to some of the taiwanese investors who are looking at the brazilian market . I think we have a lot of related industries that have a very open market and very protective market. Especially, initially we are really worried about the improvement of infrastructure. As brazil has grown very fast for the last years, from 2007 through 2010, in the middle of the international crisis, brazil has grown an average of 4. 6 a year. That is very fast. Very impressive. We have reached a problem, which is the wattle neck of infrastructure. It happened also in our history sometimes before. But we are not in the same situation, because we made an investment of about half 1 trillion at the same time in infrastructure. That is very large. That is amazing. We knew what we were doing was not necessary. It was called the program for the acceleration of growth. It was three programs, with investment from the government and private. I think the first aspect in brazil no doubt, we will have a return in infrastructure. We have investment in airports, in roads, railroads, subways. Why is that . Because we are investing a lot. Everything we are investing is being used. Everything that is being invested, right now, we have a sure return. And Infrastructure Investment is also open to Foreign Investors. Also, we give you all the necessary information for investment. It is very easy to get. We help with projects. We are working to present our project, looking for investors in infrastructure. We went to about 10 countries, to present our infrastructure products. Open to investors. Not just open. We are looking for partners. Let us talk about sports. We understand brazil is ready to host the 2014 world cup for soccer, and the 2016 Olympic Games in rio de janeiro. Given the fact you have so much world attention on the Upcoming International sporting events, are there any Investment Opportunities that you can share with us that are related to some of these sporting events that are coming up in brazil . They can get a little repetitive. The investments we made for the world cup about 30 were for the stadiums. About 70 were infrastructure, urban development. That is why we are sure we will have a return. The provision is that it will be fully used by the time they are read. In any investment in exploration it is really welcome. Of course, we will use it, and we will have a very fast return. We assess that the world cup will have an impact on our gdp of about 90 billion. The Olympic Games will have an impact of about 50 billion. Both very sizable. We understand that brazil is getting many sports. Of course, top of the list is soccer, football. Other than football, recently brazil has done very well in the sport of baseball. For example, the recently concluded world baseball classic, team brazil has done very, very well. In taiwan, traditionally, baseball is considered our National Sport will stop is there any room or possibilities for the places to cooperate together in sports exchanges and cooperation . Your Coaching Staff may be able to come to teach our younger players to help play the game better. Maybe we can do the same in baseball. When we have space for that, it is really a good idea. We have baseball. A lot of brazilians do not know that. We have done it forever. For the first time, we joined in the world baseball classic. Now, we are 15 in the ranking. Taiwan is number four. We have about 100 teams. Most are amateur, but we have about 300 people playing baseball in sao paulo. We have a lot of players, especially because we have a lot of japanese immigrants many years ago. We have a center of training in sao paulo that is developing a lot of baseball. We have a lot of places to learn about that. A brazilian friend of ours, every two or three months, has a program of exchange of cultures. They go to brazil and have two weeks or three weeks of seminars and workshops. We talk about coaching styles. A taiwanese soccer coach could surely enjoy that. We could find some Common Ground for exchanges, especially at the Baseball Training Center in san paolo. We need to take another break. We will be right back. Welcome back to todays program on the taiwan outlook. We will continue our discussion with the Deputy Director of the commercial office of brazil in taipei. Let us talk a little bit about tourism. We set at the beginning that even though brazil is a very, very important country, a lot of people in taiwan do not know much about it. Tourism could be very effective for people on both sides to get to know each other better. What are some of the world class tourist destinations you have in brazil . I will talk to you a little about the most known place. And a little about the secret ones. The ones brazilians like. That i think you will like to. Too. The most known place is our wonderful city, as we call it rio de janeiro. It is most known for its carnival. But it is beautiful all year long. It is a great city by the sea, with beautiful mountains. The most important is that it is brazils future capital. You have the brazilian lifestyle. You have beaches. You have a lot of music. Brazil is the original home of somber and bossa nova samba and bossa nova. You really have the brazilian feeling that you can walk around the beach. People are friendly. You can go to a soccer game. We can enjoy it with a whole heart. What is really interesting is that brazil is going to a new golden age. It is having a lot of investment. The cities have been renovated. It is one of the Top Destinations in the world. It is worth going. It is already worth it. But brazil is very diverse. If you go to brazil, stay longer. You will have a lot of good surprises. Another is the amazon rain forest. It is amazing. It is diverse. One of the seven wonders of the world. It it takes about 40 of the territory of brazil. You can stay in the middle of the forest. People go into the forest to see how the indians live, to achieve food, and to have a real contact with nature. It is a lifechanging experience. I would imagine. What would be the best time to visit brazil . If you are going to brazil for the first time, like myself, what is the recommended length of stay on the first trip . I think to the amazon we have a special time to go. It is better to go from july to december. It is called the equatorial summer. The summers and the winters are reversed. It is a time that it does not rain. That is not true. It is a rain forest. The people that live there tell a joke. In the winter, it rains all day. From july to december, it rains about half an hour at the end of the day. You can enjoy the trip very well. Outside of the amazon and rio de janeiro, a lot of taiwanese people in the south of brazil, very beautiful waterfalls. Close to the falls, you can go to a place that is not very known. It is the Worlds Largest wetland. If you go to that place, you are going to hire a horse. If you go for one hour, two hours, you are going to see dozens of different kinds of animals in their habitat. It is like you are in a zoo, in an open zoo. It is amazing. You are going to see really dozens and dozens of animals. More than in the amazon. The diversity is incredible. It is really incredible. If you are going to the falls, there is a large colony of taiwanese People Living close to paraguay. If you go there, go to the waterfall. It is close and it is really worth it. Resilient people really like to go to the northeast. It is very nice to go to. It is a state that had a lot of african influence. You are going to have very interesting music, food, and historical places. A beautiful place. A secret place is an island that every brazilian dreams to go to. It is an amazing preserved place , with limpid water, sky diving. Just beautiful. Amazing. How many tours do you receive in a year . Taiwan householders are now granted visafree status in 132 countries and places around the world. Unfortunately, brazil is not one of them. Can we see maybe the possibility that in the foreseeable future that taiwan householders can have visa free status to brazil . I am sure that would help. Tourism from taiwan to brazil. We provide about 600 visas or month. That gives about 8000 visas a year. But most of them are business visas. Maybe because it is not so easy to fly to brazil. You have to take at least 212 hour flights. And you go to america first. The fastest way is to go to america. Most of the flights go through europe or doha. You have to make adjustment in time. And transfers. Many times it takes more than 30 hours. It is a long trip. It is a long trip. You cannot be further away on the same planet will stop the same planet. And you travel one more hour on the way back home. But for business, it is a lot of trips. We still do not have a visafree system, but we have made a lot of regrets on that. In the past, we took 10 to five days to have a visa. Right now, in one day, you have a visa. It is very time efficient. We have a lot of progress on that. Right now, we are moving to a new office here. We are going to provide better service. It is three times the size of the office we had before. We are going to have more people to help. We want to make better service, and more efficient. Brazilians, when they come to taiwan, still have to have a visa, and still need a visa when they come to europe. This is an area that we still can have better talks, better improvements. I think we can have improvements in this area in the future. Finally, before we end this part of the program we talked about the program initiated by your government, called academics without borders. There have been some exchanges between the academic communities on both sides. What is some progress in the future that we can look forward to, in terms of accelerating and expanding the contacts between the academic communities . The program academics without borders is a program from the brazilian government. It aims to send 100,000 brazilian students to study in top universities outside. Especially in science, technology, engineering, and math areas. Why these areas . These areas have Strong Industrial interest. It is directly related to the quality of employment. That is a huge project. 100,000 students until two thousand 15, starting from 2010. We know that is a huge goal. We are on the way to do that. We had the pleasure to receive, last year, the president of the Taiwan National university in brazil. He made an agreement with some brazilian universities. Probably next year, we are going to have some exchange of students from brazil. In these academics without borders programs, the brazilian government is paying the tuitions. It is to provide highquality students studying outside, and coming back to brazil. That is one art of the investment in education. Inside brazil, we have a similar product that has given one million one million free tuitions to students in brazil. The education will certainly be useful, in terms of brazilian growth and development. The experience in taiwan, that certainly has been the case. We will be right back. Welcome to the final part of todays program on the taiwan outlook. We will continue our conversation with the current Deputy Director of the commercial office of brazil in taipei. You have arrived in taiwan just about nine months ago. When you first arrived, i suppose that you studied a little bit about taiwan before coming here. Upon arrival, taiwan can be very different from what you read in the books. What was your First Impression of taiwan . I was really well in pressed about taiwan. In what areas . I like to leave the cities, is one of the main things. Especially taipei city is a very interesting city. I love what was made with the city. People here like to say it is convenient. The city is very friendly to its citizens. It is not just secure. It is not just convenient. Every place is made to be used by people. You see people in the city, walking the streets. You have a Close Division between residential and commercial areas. Every place is very lively. People go out in the street. They are eating out. The city really invites you to go out, not just stay in your house. It is really comfortable. Not only the people are friendly. The city is friendly. What are some of the differences and similarities you see after being in taiwan for nine months, between taiwan and brazil . You talk about people being very helpful in taiwan. But we also know the brazilian people are very passionate. What are some of the similarities and differences that you see . It is one of the similarities. Both people are friendly. It is one of the main similarities. There are differences, of course, in culture. It is like different civilizations. In brazil, we have a mix of cultures. It is interesting, because you have contact with different cultures in taiwan. Here, it is very interesting, because we have a very ancient culture. At the same time, mixed together. It is really interesting. A very ancient and preserved culture. Very fast modernity. Everybody is connected. People of every age, using the technology. Sometimes, the technology is used to revive the culture. I think it is really interesting. Let us talk about the differences and similarities between the capital cities. What are some of the similarities . They are really totally dissimilar. Brazil brasilia is a planned city in the 1960s. It was a city of the 20th century. It was designed to be used by car. It is a very beautiful city with a lot of space, with a lot of beautiful buildings. A lot of architectures and urban designers from the world over go to study brasilia. It is a really beautiful place. I think i should included in the place you should visit. But a lot of people think it is not people friendly, not a people friendly city. It is not so easy to walk around, not so easy to use the city. I think taiwan is a 21stcentury city. I could compare it to new york. A city made to be used by foot. It is incredible. I like it very much. I use it almost every day, my bicycle. This is one of the main differences. Another difference is, brazil is a very open space. Brasilia was put in the middle. Not exactly in the middle, but in the middle of high land in brazil, with a lot of open space. That is a good thing. We say that the sky is the brazilian see. In the middle of brazil, you do not have the sea. But in taiwan, you also have the mountains. Very beautiful. Very dissimilar cities. But most deserve to be studied as very special cities. Indeed. Given the fact that you have been in taiwan about nine months, what are some of the adjustments you had to make when you arrived . I understand you are going through a Language Training program for chinese at the national university. At the time you arrived, you probably knew very well mandarin chinese. How did you get around . And also in terms of food. Dietary preferences are similar, but also very different. Were you able to find a very good brazilian restaurant, for example, for some home cooking . I had been staying by myself in brazil for about one year. One year. A little bit, i could talk. Not to read too much. It was not very much a problem. As a matter of fact, when i got here, i was really excited i could learn very fast, because of an immersion course. I was really excited to learn fast. It helped a lot. Food, i had to make an adjustment. We have a lot of what we call eastern or chinese restaurants in brazil. But it is very different. Most of what we have in brazil, what we call chinese food, is cantonese food. Japanese food is sushi and sashimi only. It is really adapted to the local taste. Here, it is really different. I like it right now. I love it. Every day, i eat local food. I did not find many places i could eat brazilian food. There is one brazilian restaurant, called sombra pizza samba pizza. I think the owner is brazilian. If you order, he can make a very good brazilian dish. There are some brazilian products you can buy here. There is a brazilian soft drink you can buy. Also, an alcohol drink in brazil, made from sugarcane. You can buy it from taiwanese markets. That is convenient. For the final question of the program today, we understand you have a very international background. You grew up in brazil. But you studied in the u. S. You were in business before getting to the diplomatic service. With your diverse and very international background, has that been helpful in terms of your current career as a brazilian diplomat . I think it did help. I first studied computer science. I later studied a lot of politics. One of the reasons i chose to came to taiwan was, i had this experience in the i. T. Sector. The tech sector here is very interesting. The Brazilian Foreign Affairs ministry has this open policy to receive people from many areas. I think it helps one we call ourselves generalists. We must know a lot about many topics. Inside the ministry, we have contact with people from many areas. It helps us discuss and have a better view from many areas. Especially i like a lot of psychology and geopolitics. It is important to understand the environment and the people. I am my circumstance. If you can understand the people and the circumstance, it is easier to understand what has happened, what can happen. It is important to understand the person and the circumstance, so you can have a better relation and a better understanding of that. It has certainly been a pleasure to have you on the program today. I want to wish you all the best on your personal and professional endeavors in the future. Thank you very much. Thank you for watching our program today. I will see you next time.