With the launch of the BRAiN project, Brazil appears to have the fundamental characteristics of a financial services cluster but its success will rely on turning the project into a long-term goal of a variety of interests, according to L. Felipe Monteiro, assistant management professor at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

“If you just take the four dimensions which are the classic ones to analyze on whether a location can become a cluster in a specific industry, I think they are present,” Monteiro told BNamericas, referring to Michael Porter”s classic diamond cluster model, which points to firm strategy, demand conditions, related industries and factor conditions in determining the success of clusters and competiveness.

Brazilian banking association Febraban, capital markets group Anbima and stock and futures market operator BM&FBovespa officially launched the project known as “Brasil Investimentos & Negócios” in Portuguese and “Brazil Investment Network” on Wednesday (Mar 24).

OLYMPIC SIMILARITIES

Monteiro said the push for a financial center would in some ways mirror Rio de Janeiro”s campaign for the 2016 Olympics, as the organizers recognize the need to make government a key promoter of the various efforts and selling the potential gains to businesses and government not directly involved in the success of the project.

“The better they”re prepared to articulate the spillover effects of having this financial cluster not only to people involved in it, but also to other related industries and neighboring countries the more likely they are to get the interest and support of these players,” the professor said.

Another major issue to overcome will be the language and cultural barriers between Brazil and Spanish-speaking Latin America, but the management expert said that regional integration has improved in the last 10 years and that Spanish is beginning to show signs of emerging as a strong second or third language in Brazil.

Monteiro said he had seen large numbers of Brazilian students at Wharton going back to São Paulo and elsewhere in the country to take jobs, despite the fact that they had employment offers in the US, due to their excitement about Brazil”s economic prospects. Monteiro himself worked at federally controlled banking giant Banco do Brasil (BB) from 1998 to 2000 as a senior analyst before beginning his academic career.

To get more information on BRAiN, go to this link

Similar Posts:

Share