Debate in Santos highlights solutions to secure investments in Brazil

Summit Porto-Indústria welcomed an audience to the Grupo Tribuna auditorium and discussed relevant issues (Alexsander Ferraz/AT)

Maxwell Rodrigues, port affairs consultant for Grupo Tribuna and moderator of the event, believes that the issues addressed at Summit Porto-Indústria managed to bring to the table everything that the sectors involved need to consider in order not to miss out on investment opportunities.

Rodrigues points out that the world has been undergoing numerous transformations as a result of a highly sensitive geopolitical moment, creating opportunities and demands for Brazil. In order to take advantage of them and keep the country competitive, existing structural bottlenecks need to be addressed.

“If Brazil does not pay attention to these issues, we may miss out on a new wave of investments that will take place in Central America and also in Latin America”, he says. “An event like this makes us increasingly attentive to everything that is happening and to the opportunities that will emerge”, he adds.

Demand

In the view of the port consultant, who moderated both panels, the equation is very simple and results in cost reduction. “There is a high supply of investment, but we need to know whether all of us are tuned in to demand and how we are going to respond so that we can not only absorb this demand, but naturally create jobs and opportunities for Brazil”, he explains.

Trips

The Missão Internacional Porto & Mar, promoted annually by Grupo Tribuna , brought highly significant examples from abroad. “The Group was very assertive in its last two agendas, when we visited the United States (2025) and then China (this year), where we were deeply impressed by what we saw. Thus, we were able to compare everything that has been done by these two global leaders, not only in the port and logistics sectors, but also in the economic sphere.”

Rodrigues argued that China is advancing at a rapid pace in the sector, while seeking to establish partnerships with Brazil to make investments in technology, logistics and port infrastructure. “Brazil has to be ready for all of this”, he warns.

The consultant also recalls other cases outside Brazil in which the integration between ports and industry works very well, such as the ports of Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, and Antwerp, in Belgium. “In these locations, the ports host industrial, chemical and energy clusters, while Brazilian ports focus predominantly on moving cargo from inland areas to the coast. This does not necessarily foster our domestic industry”, he warns.

A project for society

Rodrigues believes that political will is necessary to address these challenges. “We know how to do this. We need to move away from the political cycle we have, with elections every four years, empty and repetitive promises that are taking not only the port sector, but also Brazilian industry, nowhere”, he states.

The port affairs consultant for Grupo Tribuna believes this goes beyond a permanent state policy. “It is a project for society. When we define something as a state project, the State only works when it is prompted by society”, he explains.

“If Brazil does not pay attention to these issues, we may miss out on a new wave of investments that will take place in Central America and also in Latin America. An event like this makes us increasingly attentive to everything that is happening and to the opportunities that will emerge”, says Maxwell Rodrigues, port affairs consultant for Grupo Tribuna and moderator (Alexsander Ferraz/AT)

Always on the agenda

Grupo Tribuna Business Director Demetrio Amono reinforces the support for the port and industry agenda, which has been under discussion for some time and is very important to the region’s economic development.

“Having industry closer to the Port will help ease some of the logistical bottlenecks we face, partly due to the lack of existing infrastructure. It is currently a problem to have industry far from the port. It is a desire of the port sector and Grupo Tribuna for industry to move closer, but it is not that simple”, says Amono.