Opening of Business Seminar

Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a pleasure for me to have this opportunity to address this gathering of distinguished representatives of the business community in Norway and Brazil. Let me at the outset pay tribute to those who have prepared and organized this event belongs - the Federations of industry in the state of Rio de Janeiro - FIRJAN - and in Norway - NHO. I think you have done a very good thing by taking this initiative.

I see this conference as a testimony to the quickly growing interest of the Norwegian business community in the opportunities offered by Brazil and Latin America. It is an interest shared by my government. My mission here has one overriding goal – to contribute to building a strong and enduring relationship between Norway and Brazil. That is also what I look forward to discussing with president Fernando Cardoso when I shall have the pleasure of meeting with him in Brazilia tomorrow.

These days may not be the easiest of times for Brazil. We are convinced, however, that the difficulties will be overcome and that the prospects for Brazil are bright as this shining day. That is also why my government has decided to participate in the international economic support program. Alltogether Norway will make available some US Dollars 200 million for this purpose.

Economic relations between Norway and Brazil have grown steadily over the last few years. Furthermore, there are no major outstanding problems in our bilateral relations. But even if the current situation may be considered satisfactory and the future looks promising, more can be done.

First of all because we believe that we could do better in terms of developing our relations with Brazil. If we look at the trade in goods, we find that our imports from Brazil are dominated by two products - vegetable oil (soya) and coffee. Similarily, more than 60% of our exports to Brazil can be contributed to one product group alone - fish - of which the greater part ends up as bacalhau. Hence, we face a great challenge in trying to diversify our trade relations.

Fortunately, we see that quite a lot has started to happen. Norwegian companies have shown an increasing interest in the opportunities that the Brazilian market has to offer. This is duly demonstrated by the fact that more than 40 companies are represented in my delegation to Brazil. In addition, more than 50 representatives of the Norwegian oil and gas industry are participating in a joint Norwegian-Brazilian seminar on deep water petroleum technology being organised at Petrobras' headquarters at this very moment.

The companies present in our delegation represent such diverse business sectors as shipping, finance, electronics, automotive components, fishing, telecommunication and paper industry in addition to the petroleum sector. Some of these companies have already well established business relations with Brazil. Others have less experience from this market. What all these companies have in common, though, is the desire to further explore and develop mutually beneficial business ventures with Brazilian partners.

The increasing interest for doing business with Brazil in particular and Latin America in general prompted the Norwegian government to take a closer look at Latin America. As a consequence, we launched a Strategic Plan for Latin-America last year. The purpose of the plan is to strengthen Norway's economic, political and cultural relations with Latin America through a systematic and long term effort. My visit to Brazil is part of this effort.

Within the framework of our Strategic Plan, we have singled out five business sectors for particular attention; the Maritime Sector, Hydro Power, Fish and Fish Products, Oil and Gas, and the Information technology and Telecommunications sector. These are areas where we see a good match between market opportunities in Latin-America on the one hand and the comparative advantages of Norwegian industry on the other hand. It should be noted that all these business sectors are represented in my delegation.

Developing business relations is of course the business of business itself. As governments we can only try to facilitate, encourage, offer information and advice, and to some degree supplement the marketing activities of the companies. As both Norwegians and Brazilians share a passion for football, let me try to illustrate my point by referring to the Government as the team player. His job is to make the right strategic maneuvers, create openings, encourage his team mates and sometimes advice them on how they may benefit from closer cooperation between themselves. But he usually leaves the passes, the dribling and the scoring to the ball players. Often the ball players will do fine without his support. At other times his services may be quite helpful.

One of the services we as a government from time to time offers, is to provide meeting places where business people can meet - where they can get to know each other - and get to know each others needs and capabilities. After all, without such knowledge no business relations can be developed. This event is precisely such an opportunity. This is an opportunity to get to know more about each other, establish new contacts or may be nurture long standing relations. In short, this event provides a playing ground upon which you - the ball players - have the opportunity to make new and bold moves.

I wish you every success in that !

Thank you.