 You can hear me? Great. Excellent. So apologies for the slight delay. We will begin our program right now. So good afternoon. My name is Carl Meacham. And I am the director here at America's Program at CSIS. I'm so glad that you could join us today here for the launching of the Brazil initiative. We are honored today to be joined by his excellent, Excellency Ambassador Mauro Vieira. Your Excellency, like you, we are committed to misturando chicle, no, chicleche, con banana y Miami con copacabana. Close enough, right? Okay. I also want to highlight our partners in the Brazil initiative, Apex Brazil. And Apex is Brazil's Trade and Investment Promotion Agency. Representing Apex here this afternoon, we have Miss Silvia Breda-Piersen, who is Apex's head of international operations. So welcome. For the past decade, Apex has been employing a diverse range of tools to further the competitiveness of Brazilian industries and promote investment. And today, as we launch the Brazil initiative, they continue their imaginative approach by partnering with CSIS. So we launched this initiative, or as we launched this initiative, I want to thank Apex Brazil for their efforts in bringing the two largest economies in the Western Hemisphere closer together. We're looking forward to a long and healthy initiative. The partnership has a number of goals. Through public and private events, publications and exchanges will be engaging a series of specific issue areas in which bilateral cooperation and private sector collaboration can facilitate investment, joint ventures, industrial complementaries, bilateral partnerships, and advancing understanding. It's our intention to keep the drumbeat on Brazil constant and alive in Washington. And there's really no better time than now for this new initiative. The past year or so has been seen or has seen a handful of speed bumps thrown in the way of the bilateral relationship. And in that context, the initiative is very valuable. Brazil-U.S. trade has continued to blossom despite our political challenges outpacing overall growth in U.S. global trade by more than 50% between 2004 and 2011. Brazil is the fifth most attractive global destination for foreign direct investment, according to the U.N., and remains the single largest recipient of global FDI in Latin America. And the benefits of Brazil's deeper economic ties with the United States and its greater economic integration on the global scale have been many. Brazil has become increasingly active in its own investment activities abroad, particularly in banking, mining, construction, food, energy, aerospace, and defense. Millions of Brazilians have moved out of poverty and into the middle class, themselves taking on a more active role in the global marketplace. In 2004, Brazilians were spending $1.9 billion in the United States, but by 2011 they were spending $8.5 billion. And as Brazilians' purchasing power has risen, they have chosen the United States as the destination for travel, investment, and exchange. Ultimately, what I'm saying is this, integrating with the global marketplace has been a good deal for both the United States and for Brazil. On this day, 50 years ago, João Goulart was deposed and Brazil began a period of military dictatorship that only ended in 1985. 50 years ago, the conversation we would have had, if we would have been talking about Brazil, would have been couched in Cold War terms. Today, this is not the case. This is no longer the conversation. Today, it's about Brazil's presence in the global marketplace. All of this makes it an exciting time for the U.S. and Brazil, especially on the commercial front. Brazil's government and population is invested in expanding Brazil's present in the global marketplace. So in that context, it is more important now than ever before that the U.S. and Brazil work to strengthen and to define their relationship. And this definition will have to involve the private and public sectors alike. It is with this in mind that we worked with Apex Brazil, with Ambassador, to develop the Brazil Initiative. It's the only one of its kind here in Washington. There's no other think tank taking on this issue the way that we are. My good friend and colleague who was supposed to have been here, Paulo Sotero, the director of the Wilson Center, the Center's Brazil Institute, has done an abundant work on Brazil. Of course, he should be commended for his very important contribution to bringing awareness to Brazil and Brazilian issues in Washington. For a long time, he has been the only voice in Washington on this issue and in many ways, we're building on his impressive record. We're hoping to explore Brazil, though, through an American lens and to answer the question that we feel is so pivotal. Why should the United States care about this relationship? In the process, we also hope to highlight why this relationship is so important for Brazil as well. At the end of the day, we hope that through this initiative, CSIS can serve as a bridge between Brazilian and American business communities. In particular, we understand Brazil's promise and, more importantly, the promise of a healthy and robust bilateral relationship. And we also appreciate how challenging it can be for investors to enter new markets. CSIS is committed to engaging governments and the private sector to help inform this relationship. I'll end my welcoming remarks here. It's first and foremost my honor to introduce the ambassador who has kindly agreed to speak with us this afternoon. He's super busy, but very briefly, Ambassador Vieira arrived in Washington in 2010. Before that, he served in Buenos Aires, Paris, Mexico City, and at the Latin American Integration Association in Montevideo. Following his remarks, we'll hear from Miss Silvia Breda-Pearson, who will be speaking on behalf of Apex Brazil. Silvia is the head of the International Operations portion of Apex, as well as the COO for the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency's North America office. We're thrilled to have both of you here. After Silvia's remarks and the ambassador, we will go to a second panel where we're lucky to have Ambassador David Nelson, Senior Manager of Global Government Affairs at GE, and Marcia Nezhaim, Executive Manager for Competitiveness and Innovation for Apex Brazil. So without further ado, Ambassador Vieira, the floor is yours. Thank you. Thank you very much. Call for this very nice and flattering introduction. First of all, let me congratulate the Center for Strategic and International Studies, CSIS, and again, the Director of the American Program, Carl Meechan, on the launch of this important initiative. I would like to thank Apex and its head of International Operations, Silvia Pearson, for your support to the Brazil initiative. I also thank Marcia Nezhaim, Apex Executive Manager for Competitiveness and Innovation, and Ambassador Nelson, General Electric Manager for Global Governmental Affairs, for your participation in the panel on innovation that is to follow. The CSIS Brazil initiative was born early last year as part of the embassy's effort to reach out to the think tank community in Washington. I am glad that these efforts are starting to pay off. Ladies and gentlemen, over the last 20 years or so Brazil has gone through tremendous changes in its economy and society. From a condition of chronic vulnerability from the 80s until roughly the mid-90s, Brazil's economy was stabilized to the point that the country became a net international creditor at the IMF. After getting its macroeconomic fundamentals right, Brazil was capable of strengthening its internal market with net wage increases and robust social policies that lifted millions to the middle class and virtually eradicated extreme poverty. Brazil is now the third largest recipient of foreign direct investment in the world after the United States and China, if you consider Hong Kong together with China, according to UNCTAD figures. Brazil has also emerged as an agribusiness powerhouse and a global player in a number of highly sophisticated sectors such as aerospace industry, information and telecommunications and communications technology. This was accomplished through sustained investment in research, development and innovation. Moreover, the economic and social progress was attained against the backdrop of democracy whereby civil rights, individual freedoms and the rule of law are not only respected but actively promoted. These domestic changes gave new momentum to Brazil's rise on the world stage. In the last couple of decades, the country has asserted itself internationally and it has done it through the projection of its values and legitimate national interests. At the same time, it has reaffirmed its traditional guiding principles of non-interference, peaceful settlement of disputes and commitment to multilateralism. Moreover, Brazil has been able to translate its internal achievements into a consistent international strategy aimed at reforming global governance so as to make international institutions more democratic and inclusive. The Brazil of our days, while continues to tackle old problems and takes up new challenges, is well equipped to keep improving the lives of its citizens and standing for its values and interests on the world stage. Brazil and the United States are the largest economies of the Western Hemisphere. Both countries are vibrant, multi-ethnic democracies endowed with large territories and sizable populations. Brazil and the United States will certainly continue to work together to strengthen bilateral relations, innovation, science and technology, education, energy, agriculture, peace and security, climate change, trade and investments are just a few examples of areas in which we can deepen traditional cooperation and explore new partnership. There are plentiful opportunities in these and other areas. It is up to the governments and the business communities and civil societies to seize them. Ladies and gentlemen, Brazil's growing international projection has drawn the attention to the think tank community in the United States. Many scholars and opinion makers in this country are increasingly aware of the country's potential as a partner of choice for the US in a wide range of areas. This explains the new wave of initiatives in different universities and think tanks focusing on Brazil, its society, economy and political system. Programs such as the CSIS Brazil initiative will help to foster proactive in-depth research and debate on Brazil's present-day political system and economic development. It will make available to a larger audience of policymakers and experts in different areas high quality information and sophisticated analysis. Among those who are not experts and don't know the country very well, there is sometimes a tendency to overlook Brazil's solid economic fundamentals and achievements if the short-term economic situation changes. The Brazil initiative should reach out to such audience as well, not only to the community of experts who already understand the importance of Brazil-US relations. Referring again to popular music, the famous composer of Bossa Nova in Brazil, Tom Jobim, is often quoted when we need to stress the complexity of Brazil, as he used to say, Brazil is not for beginners. You cannot grasp the Brazilian character if you don't realize that Brazil is a country of continental size with a huge multi-ethnic population, a country with a diversified economy and a complex industrial base. A Portuguese-speaking country in the midst of Hispanic-speaking neighbors. It is my sincere hope that the Brazil initiative at the CSIS will help disseminate and sophisticated analysis on Brazil in Washington and across the United States. It is my expectation that along with other Brazilian initiatives and programs in different universities and think tanks, the CSIS will contribute to spread far and wide accurate information on Brazil, including its main challenges and its great achievements. Hopefully, the Brazil initiative will not only explain Brazil to beginners, but also contribute to heighten the level of debate among experts. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to commend APEX and CSIS for having chosen Innovation to be the theme of the first event under the aegis of the Brazil initiative. Science, technology and innovation are top priorities of the Brazilian government, both domestically and internationally. Let me give you two domestic examples to illustrate my point. Brazil has launched in 2013 the Innova Empresa Program, or Enterprise Innovate Program, with $16 billion in funds to foster innovation in the private sector in different areas, such as oil and gas, agriculture, energy, air and space and defense. And in 2012, the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation in Brazil also established the program MAJOR IT, or in Portuguese TEI MAIOR, and the Start Up Brazil program in order to promote and attract investments to the IT sector. Innovation is also an important part of the Brazilian foreign policy and the US has been a key partner in this field. The US is the largest destination of Brazilian recipients of the Science Without Borders Scholarship in the STEM areas. Many large, innovative American companies have been establishing research centers in Brazil, such as GE, Intel and Microsoft. Others have large production facilities and investments in Brazil. Moreover, high-tech Brazilian companies such as Embraer, TOTUS and Stephanini have established banks, branches or plants in the United States. Innovation also pervades multiple areas of cooperation and many different Brazil-US mechanisms such as the Science and Technology Joint Commission meeting, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce and Department of Commerce commercial dialogue, and the ATAC, or Agreement on Trade and Economic Corporation. It's also worth highlighting the Brazil-US Innovation Summit Initiative, which brings together senior leaders from the business, academic and public sectors from both countries to foster partnership and create concrete business and research opportunities. This mechanism is co-organized by the Brazilian National Development Bank, BNDES, the Brazilian Agency for Industrial Development, ABDI, the Movement Brazil Competitive, MBCN on the West Side, the Council on Competitiveness. The third edition of the summit, which took place last year in Rio de Janeiro, launched a binational platform to carry out joint projects of research and development. Innovation is the key to ensure competitiveness and participation in the most dynamic global value chains. The 21st century is the century of the information-based economy and society. Innovation has become the engine of development and the requisite of success in the world economy. To live up to our aspirations of promoting a better life for the generations to come, we ought to strengthen the ability to innovate as we invest in our human resources. The panel assembled here today will have the opportunity to explore ways to move forward as Brazil and the United States forge new partnerships for the 21st century. Moving on to my final remarks, I would like to underline the uniqueness of Brazil, which justifies the creation of the Brazil Initiative in this highly prestigious and influential institution. Brazil's trajectory, both domestically and in world affairs, shows that a peaceful and democratic developed country can emerge based largely on soft-power diplomacy and cooperation. In a world troubled by armed conflicts, sectarian violence, arms proliferation, and economic and social imbalances, Brazil's experience is nothing short of inspiring. I am sure that such inspiration will be a powerful drive force behind the Brazil initiatives here at CSIS. And I thank you very much and thank you all. Well, good afternoon. I'm extremely happy to be here because as we all know, I think every new project begins with an idea and I have to thank CSIS and the Brazilian Embassy. They brought this new idea to us. We had never done something like this. And Minister Benoni here was a big proponent of the idea. He went through all the details with us and it's a pleasure to be here today in our first event call. So thank you very much. Thank you, Ambassador. The United States has always been extremely important for Brazil and for Apex Brazil. It was here where we opened our first office in Miami where I'm based. And it's also the only country we have two offices, Miami and San Francisco. In fact, Ambassador, the project is Startup that you mentioned. We have an office, our office in San Francisco also helps the Brazilian startups to get US and foreign investors. So it's a very big project to have in San Francisco. We also have more than 57 trade associations that are supported by Apex Brazil that are focused in the United States. So there's a lot of work to be done. Actually, Apex directly and indirectly is going to organize more than 100 events in the US in 2014. So it's extremely important for us. Anna from Apex is also involved with the United States and she has been doing a wonderful work. Next week I think we have another trade mission coming to Washington with the help of the Brazilian Embassy. So it's extremely important for us to be here. And this is something completely new for Apex Brazil. We are present a little bit in Washington through our partnership with the Brazilian Coalition. I know I've said this here. But this is different. This is a think tank. No, this is yes, I guess. So we are, thank you very much Carl for opening this door for us. We hope to do all our events. I think we have another eight events this year, other seven events this year. As a minimum. As a minimum. Perfect. But thank you very much. And I hope your patience with us is the first time that we do something like this. And we're very excited. We know that we have the Brazilian Embassy as our partners here. So we are sure it's going to be a great year and a great 2015 too since our project goes two years. Thank you very much for all of you all to be here. And we have Masinha Jain from Apex Brazil. She's our innovation expert. And I know it's a big responsibility. But she's going to talk about our initiatives and innovation too. Thank you. So at this time, we're going to go to the second panel. I just wanted to thank you again for being generous with your time ambassador. I know that you're getting calls from Brazil and you're having to deal with a lot of things at the same time. But you were able to carve out some time to be with us here today. I hope you can come back for a reception. Everybody's invited to the reception. But thank you so much. Thank you Sylvia as well for your kind words. We are going to make this a worthwhile endeavor for you. We, I have a very able staff, very energetic, able, visionary, committed group of folks. So we're going to make this good. We are going to keep the drumbeat of Brazil alive here in Washington. And with that, thank you very much. We're going to move to the second panel. Thank you. I'd like to sit in the middle. Yeah. Great. Great. And on to the second panel about competitiveness and innovation with two very able folks. As I mentioned, we from Apex Brazil, we have Marcia Nezhaim, who is the executive manager for competitiveness and innovation for Apex Brazil. Her career has focused on strategic consulting as well as information and communications technologies. Marcia has worked at Apex on several capacities, notably focusing on foreign investment. So Marcia is going to go first and then she'll be followed by David Nelson. I've known David for a long time and it's really great to have you. He is the senior manager of global government affairs and policy for the Americas at General Electric and former ambassador to Uruguay. We're going to start off with you Marcia. After they give their presentations, I'm going to kick it off with some questions and then we're going to have some questions from you. I would just remind you we are on the record. This event is being webcast live right now. So when you do have questions, someone from my staff will give you a microphone if you could present who you are and make your question. Please try to make your question brief so we can get as many folks to participate as we can. So with that, Marcia. Thank you. Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be in this event. Thank you so much for being with us today. Before I start my presentation, I just would like to mention some things about the challenges that the Brazilian economy faces ahead. The agriculture and mineral commodity prices are not going to be as high as we used to see because of the slowdown in the Chinese economy. This is a big challenge for us. Also, on the other hand, we have seen the minimum wage in Brazil. It has grown 70% in the last years and the productivity in the firms has not grown in the same path. So in order to not lose the social and economic gains we have seen in the last years, it's very crucial for Brazil to invest in productivity. And some of the ways we can do that is through international interaction. So as the ambassador mentioned, to participate in global value chains but also through technology investments, through innovation. And that's why this is so important for Apex to debate innovation in this event today. So I'm going to speak a little bit about what Apex Brazil does. I'll give you some numbers on Brazil, recent history, and last but not least, I'll talk about some challenges. Apex Brazil is the Brazilian trade investment promotion agent. Also, we support the internationalization of Brazilian enterprises and of course promote the Brazil brand abroad. We are located in this nine different locations as Silvia mentioned. People to the consumption market. Our minimum wage has reached approximately 310 US dollars. Our investments in science, technology and innovation has reached 1.16% of our GDP. Our international reserves are in a very good shape. They are much higher than our external debts. Our energy matrix is one of the cleanest in the world and our trade flow has reached 481 billion US dollars. So I'll speak a little bit about movements in the legal innovation framework in Brazil. So starting the 70s, the focus was on research in universities and R&D centers. In 1968, Brazil created the National Fund for Scientific and Technology Development. It was the main tool created in Brazil by that time. It was very much connected with universities and educational programs. The 80s was a disaster. It was the last decade in Brazil. Brazil was under a tremendous financial and debt crisis and the funding for innovation decreased something around 60%. In 1984, the IT law was created but it was basically to promote import substitution. In the 90s, we saw the creation of the PDTI and PDTA. These were funds to promote technology development for manufacturing in general and agribusiness. There were several tax incentives but it was tuberocratic. It benefited a very small number of companies and the main ones were the big ones. The 1990s actually was a watershed in government funding for innovation. The sectorial funds were created and there were guaranteed resources for innovation. These resources came mainly from privatization of oil and gas energy telecom companies. R&D was applied mainly in the respective sector. A company could apply for a fund that was related to its sector. Afterwards, this was more horizontal. The budget for 2012 was something around 1.6 billion US dollars but we still had problems with real expenditure due to lack of projects or the need for government surplus, for example. In 2004, the innovation law was created. This was a concession of economic grants. It focused on the main sectors that were established in the industrial policy of 2003 called pizza. In 2005, we saw the creation of the good law. The good law was the concession of economic... The good law was actually automatic use of fiscal benefits. Companies could automatically use the fiscal benefits if they wanted to invest in R&D. This was a tremendous change. In 2012, as Ambassador mentioned, Brazil put all the innovation programs together in an initiative called Inova Empresa. It was something around 15, 16 billion US dollars for basic research, science, technology and innovation. The priority sectors are agribusiness, energy, oil and gas, health, defense, ICT and sustainability. A very brief overview to show you that we have improved the tools, we have improved the sources of funding. We have in the country an innovation framework that is not behind most of the countries around the world. We see credit lines, we see no refundable resources available, we see government security in place. We expect to see much better results in the years to come. A little bit different from what this table here shows. This is investments in R&D as a percentage of the GDP. If you take a look, Brazil invests roughly 1.2% of its GDP in R&D. China is a little bit better than us. Russia is about the same of Brazil. We are much better off than Latin America countries. We are not so bad if you compare Brazil with Spain and Italy. But when you analyze the source of funding, we see that the majority of the funding comes from the government and it's something that we want to change in Brazil. We want to take the innovation into the companies, R&D into the companies to get better results. Some other indicators here, we see researchers in R&D per millions of inhabitants. China has twice the number of researchers of Brazil. Russia is like four times. We are much better than Chile, Colombia and Mexico. We are better than India and South Africa. But when you analyze patents per researcher, Brazil has the worst number here in this table. And this is basically probably because innovation at R&D and technology developments, mainly in universities and R&D centers that are owned by the government. So it's very important to change this environment in the country. We have seen in 2009 Brazil was in charge of 2.7% of the international publications. But only 0.1% of patents worldwide. So this is a big challenge for us. Now I'm going to talk a little bit about innovation and exports and mentioning again the importance of this debate for us. We know that our results are going to come from the increasing productivity and competitiveness of the firms. Innovation is a key tool to social and economic transformation. We know the innovative companies, they pay better salaries, they have better quality jobs. It's very important for us to support not only knowledge-based companies. The knowledge-based companies, they are born global, right? But Brazil has strong competitive advantages in known knowledge-based sectors as well. So we believe it's important to increase the technology in those sectors as well. Studies have shown that more efficient companies better present tendencies to export. Exporters must innovate to better compete in international markets and also in our national market as well. Exporters have access to competition, new technology networking with their clients, their partners around the world. They become more competitive because they are aware that they need to keep investing in R&D and technology development and innovation. The flux of information among the people around the countries that the companies are located increases a lot. It also increases the dynamic of the firm and it reduces the risk of the local economy. What is a big competition for us, our national market? So in order to present the best of Brazil, Apex itself has changed a little bit. The projects and initiatives has put it together. Today is a very good example. We are running projects in the last years that we never thought we were going to be as a trade promotion organization. So I'll give you just a few details on some of the things we are doing. Business as usual, exports promotion of technology incentive sectors like biotechnology, medical equipment, the software industry. We also give special assistance to IT startups. The ambassador in silver mentioned a little bit about that. We have been working with 300 IT startups in the last two years. Putting them in contact with funds, with investors, bringing them to the United States to be their business models and to network with the other IT companies as well. We have been partnering with several government and private organizations in order to give access to Apex clients, exporters to these partners services. For instance, we have just closed a partnership with FNEPI, the finance innovation agency in Brazil to give Apex clients access to the funding that FNEPI holds. We are also doing the same things with other private institutions. But another thing that is very important in these kind of partnerships is bringing innovative companies to the international market. There are several companies that have world-class products that are focusing on the national market. So Apex is generating new leads for its products and services. We also have a project to support, to attract international venture capital and private equity funds to Brazil. Last year we brought something like 1.13 billion reais to Brazil, but also to have access to the networking that these funds have internationally. We also have a joint initiative with the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation to attract projects and R&D centers to Brazil. GE and IBM are some of the examples we have worked close by to the decision-making process in order to bring these centers to the country. In fact, last week I had the privilege to have a one-and-a-half hour meeting with Mr. Jeff Inmelt, global CEO of GE, to debate future investments that GE is doing in the country. It was fantastic to see the partnerships that we still can do together. We are also working with multinational companies. It's a new project we'll start in the second semester to develop a supply chain with innovation and sustainability attributes to these multinational in Brazil and abroad. So we are very excited to see how this will come up. And a last example that I would like to tell you is using the design as an innovation tool. We are putting designers within firms, some of our clients that already export, to do mainly incremental improvements in products that they already export. We have the first launch of this project in the end of last year. It was dental kit for surgery that a small company in Brazil developed. This company has invested almost nine times what Apex invested in the project because the CEO has realized that he cannot do business as usual and he has achieved 43% decrease in production costs. So we are very, very excited to see how exports will come up with this project. And last but not least, I'll talk a little bit about some of the challenges we are facing ahead. We still need to keep improving the innovation environment, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises. Some of these companies, not just small ones, but also service companies, are not able to deal with the bureaucracy that sometimes government requests them. So there is a big effort in the government to change, to facilitate the process to small and medium-sized enterprises. Also, we need to increase non-refundable resources and venture capital for strategic and risky, more risky projects. We still need to open even more the Brazilian market. Brazil only exports 12% of its GDP. If you compare to South Korea, that exports 58% of its GDP. It's a tremendous room. There's a tremendous room to work. We need to integrate our companies to global value chains. This is a big challenge for us. We need to increase interaction among universities, governments and companies, as I mentioned before. We need to continue to improve education and qualification of the workforce. So I'm about to finish my participation here. It's very important for the government and for us to facilitate companies to invest in innovation. Brazil is among the seven biggest economies in the world. If you take the first six ones, they are big GDPs and they are big exporters. We are big GDP, but we are small exporters, so we need to improve that. And for APEX, it's very important to keep working on this agenda. We are determined to contribute to that, especially because of our own benefits. So that's it. Thank you very much. Thank you. Well, nice job, Marcia. Thank you very much. Carl, thank you very much for inviting me here and thank you all of you for coming. I think, first of all, I'd like to congratulate Carl Bothu and APEX for launching this initiative on Brazil. It's needed. It's time. It's the right place at the right time. And Brazil is such a tremendous success story. The political restoration in the last 30 years of democracy, which is now a solid driving democracy, is huge. The economic growth in the last decade and a half in particular is tremendous. The moving 30 million people out of poverty, the growth of the middle class. And in the last 10 years or so, the growth of Brazilian firms that are world-class and investing in the U.S. and around the world, leaders in the class in many areas also is a tremendous new development. And I have to tell you, GE is very pleased to be part of the Brazilian economy, part of that movement. And for that reason, we're excited about Brazil and I'm very pleased to be here and talk about GE and Brazil. There we go. So Thomas Edison was one of the founders. Obviously, the founder of GE, we actually have 94 years of experience in GE. We've been there since Thomas Edison was running the company. A little bit about GE at large. We have eight major P&Ls. All of them are present in Brazil. This has shifted over time, obviously, but these are our principal lines of business now. Jeff Filmelt, we mentioned that our CEO likes to talk about the differentiator of GE. We're a infrastructure technology company around the world, but some of the differentiators for GE include a global presence. We're in over 100 countries around the world. We invest heavily in R&D. $6 billion a year now in R&D, mainly through five global research centers, and I'll get back to that later. And we also have our learning centers. Crotonville is our center of learning in upstate New York, but also with a global presence, another differentiator, and I'll come back to that as well. In Brazil, these are the operations that we have in Brazil, mostly in concentrated Minas Gerais, Rio and Sao Paulo in those three states. Again, across all of our business lines. As you can see, a large focus on oil and gas on the power sector. We do assemble locomotives there. And we have a, in Selma, we have an aircraft engine repair facility that we've had for many years and just last year, we've added assembly of aircraft engines. We are close to our customer. Embraer is a major customer in one of these world-meeting companies that we're pleased to partner with. We have about $3.5 billion of revenues in Brazil, around 8,000 employees, and we export from Brazil. We do export some locomotives, some oil and gas equipment, and some healthcare equipment, along with wind. We have a partner in producing the blades and the wind power, and we're very strong in the wind sector in Brazil. And, of course, together with Embraer, we export the engines that they put on their aircraft. So, Jeff Emmelt was in Brazil last week, had a very good meeting with President Rousseff. Part of the discussion, of course, involved around the fact that we are in the middle of a five-year program investing $1.3 billion in Brazil. Some of that investment, about $250 million of it, is going into our Global Research Center in Brazil, in Rio. This is our fifth Global Research Center. I mentioned that, that's one of our differentiators. It will open in the second half of 2014 in the Technology Park at IHA do Fundao in Rio de Janeiro. It's currently operating with about 200 researchers out of the University Innovation Center, but we'll open our own facility, which you can see the picture of what it will look like later this year. It will also include a Crotonville Training Center branch. We do this global training worldwide, but it's principally to do research. Now, Brazil was chosen from among the over the 100 countries where we operate for this fifth research center. Our first one is in Nisqai, upstate New York. We also have them in Shanghai and Munich and in India. Part of the reason, of course, in addition to Apex being so convincing, we also looked at the attractions of Brazil as a place for several reasons. First of all, the demand side, the growth in infrastructure in Brazil has been strong and we expect that to continue to be strong and we are, as I said, an infrastructure technology company. So being close to our market is one of the keys. Secondly, the political and institutional stability, this restoration of democracy over the last 30 years and the solidity of the institutions is key. Third, there's a strong and mature customer base in our key segments, not only from the government, but from the businesses in mining and transportation and oil and gas and energy. We have strong customers. Third, there's a high caliber talent pool from the universities. One of the keys, obviously, to research institutions is finding the raw material or the brains of the people you're putting in there and that we found to be a tremendous opportunity. I was talking to Ken Hurd, the manager of that yesterday actually about this. He mentioned that so far of the 200 researchers we have, roughly about 15% actually are former Brazilian expatriates who came back to Brazil because of the opportunity to work in research in their home country. So we're pleased to both offer them that opportunity and to have that resource base to draw on as well. Another factor is that there are large sectors of the economy that require local technology solutions. There are also areas that we have some specialty in. For example, in the oil and gas area, the pre-salt fields are fairly unique in Brazil and the research and development that we can focus on the specialized needs there out of our research center, Rio, is one of the attractions in addition to sectors like transportation, energy, healthcare, and so on. And finally, but not least, is the strong government and regulatory support for R&D, which is important to us. The research and development is a partnership and it's a partnership with government, with universities, with customers. We partner with our customers and with other companies in this R&D center in order to provide the best possible service and remain at the cutting edge of technology that's usable. The emphasis on the development side is we're developing new tools for industry. So as I said, we have this network of five global research centers and one of the aspects of R&D that's important to notice is as we talk about trade, research is a global tool. This is not something that, I mean, we have a focus in Brazil. We draw on the Brazilian expertise and the Brazilian location. But the interaction among all five of our global research centers is what we bring to this. It's the people in Rio talking to the people in Shanghai and the people in Niskayuna about the latest developments in each of their fields. It's bringing all of that expertise together is how you develop innovation. So there's a need for constant communication. There's a need for knowledge transfer. So we need to be able to move researchers around the world to bring them in from Shanghai to Rio, from Munich to Niskayuna, from India to Rio or wherever else. We need the temporary movement of people is a key element of capturing these synergies and capturing the knowledge from around the world. And of course we need to bring in technology, software tools and some technology that's only available in one place. We bring it to Rio, exercise it, learn it, utilize it. So the sectors that our research center is working on and we have the names of the leaders of each of those sectors. We have the bioenergy. Obviously Brazil is a world leader in biofuels and we are seeking to both benefit from the expertise that's there and to contribute to the advancement in that sector with a focus on that sector. Smart systems, bringing IT together, both the smart systems and the systems integration really are related to, you may have seen our ads on TV here about the industrial internet and combining big data with big machines and making them all work together. And finally, subsea systems. Again, Brazil is so strong in offshore oil and gas exploration and in the last 10 years we've really grown from almost nothing in the oil and gas sector to being one of the world leaders in technology especially in subsea and artificial lift and some of the other sectors of oil and gas supply industry. When Jeff Immelt talks about innovation, he normally talks about three big areas of innovation. First he talks about the industrial internet, the linking of iron and the data to enhance the machine performance and realize cost savings for the customer. Everything we do is aimed at saving costs for customers and bringing technologies that make things work better. So the industrial internet is one of the key innovations and as you can see, particularly in smart systems and systems integration, we're working on pieces of that in Brazil. The second key global innovation is advanced manufacturing. This has to do with digitizing supply chains, lowering product costs and speeding developments in new products, things like 3D printing and laser cutting and the new types of manufacturing. Incidentally, we actually have a display of that technology around the corner here on 1122 Connecticut Avenue. You're all welcome to go visit. It's a storefront across the street from the main flower that you're welcome to walk in the front door and see a demonstration of advanced manufacturing right there. And obviously we're going to be utilizing that and bringing it to our operations in Brazil as well. And third, the third big global innovation, the game changer, as Jeff calls it, is the age of gas. We believe as a company that the shale gas revolution is really a tipping point for fuel substitution in reducing costs. And by the way, improving the greenhouse gas emission situation by as you shift away from diesel and other heavy fuels. Brazil is one of the three largest shale gas potentials in Latin America. It's an area that we expect to grow in and we are bringing innovations from the upstream exploration development to the downstream consumption side of gas. So Brazil plays an important role both through the research and development and through the markets as we go forward in all three of those key innovations. And finally, what I would like to, one innovation related project I'd just like to mention because I think it's very important. We talk about human capacity building is an effort that President Rousseff launched called Science Without Borders of training students around the world. And we're, GE is very pleased to support Science Without Borders where we have, last year we hosted 21 students for long-term internships with GE and facilities around Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Texas, Ohio and New York across all of our business ranges. And I strongly encourage our friends and colleagues across the US industry to look at that program as well as a contribution to developing the human capacity in Brazil. So with that, thank you very much. Great. Great. So thank you for your presentations, for giving us your views on these different issues on innovation and competitiveness. I'm going to start out with you a little bit, Marcia. There are a lot of questions that I could ask you. I want to get your sense first from a broad perspective. If someone were to want to do investment in Brazil and innovation, how would your office work with them? Would they go to your office? Would you be able to direct people on how to make investment? How does it work? We have a group of 20 people in Apex located in Brazil that can assist the investors throughout the country. So we assist the company in the entire decision-making process, not only about information to give information about regulatory issues, about tax issues in Brazil, but we also connect the investor with the governments within the states and the municipalities, because Brazil is a huge country. If the company wants to go see the best opportunity in Brazil, it's going to be very hard to do that by itself. So we assist the company with information, with networking, and basically with everything that the company needs to do in Brazil. So we can connect the company with this team of people in Brazil. There's been a lot of talk about the MarcoCV. I wonder if you could talk a little about it, the internet legislation, very in general terms. I'm not going to get specific, so don't worry. How does the MarcoCV will impact innovation? Do you think that it's a positive? Is it more helpful to have these sort of rules? Does it bring clarity? How do you see it? Because people here are talking about these things, and it's just helpful to get a sense from you. You work on innovation issues, what your general viewpoints on this, and if you want to pipe in as well, how do you see those things? Well, I think it's very important. Companies want to have the rules clear. So I think it's crucial for the institutional environment. It's very important. I mean, there's a lot to be done yet, but we have moving ahead in this agenda, so it would be great to see your views as well. Is there anything that you want to add to that? Well, the rules of the game as you move to the global, or in the midst of a global internet economy is important to have clear-cut rules. And I think it's interesting that Brazil's obviously hosting the upcoming Internet Dicam conference, and this is part of what this feeds into. There are some very important debates to be had, and Brazil's an important contributor to those debates. I think it's very positive that, as I understand it, the bill currently maintains the sort of openness to international development of IT, and as you talk about computing on the cloud, and frankly, this Internet of Things, you're not talking about a location, you're talking about sort of cyberspace out there, so it's good that it maintains that commitment to the open global internet. And, David, could you talk a little bit about how the role of GE has changed over the years? How do you see the environment changing in Brazil for foreign direct investment? Ms. Reimelt was down there. Obviously, it's a priority for GE. What's happening from your perspective and why is it interesting for you to be in Brazil? Well, yeah, Brazil is huge for us. It's about 40% of our Latin America market. In fact, our regional headquarters is in Sao Paulo for all of Latin America. It's hard to differentiate between the changes GE has undergone where we've got out of plastics, we've got out of NBC television and shifted more into oil and gas. The areas that we have shifted more into, I think, play to Brazil's strength to make it all... The oil and gas, Brazil, just in the last 10, 15 years, when Brazil had just boomed as a global oil and gas supplier and we've grown with that, particularly in the subsea and the offshore areas. So I think that we're closely integrated with that and the mining sector that we're involved in, transportation, moving all of the commodity boom. You mentioned prices are stabilizing, but still the commodity boom is there in Brazil. It's one of the major producers, iron ore soybeans, et cetera. These take... You need rail to transport that to ports and we're happy to supply the locomotives that help with that. And then you look at the emergence of Embraer, for example, as a global supplier of aircraft and we're extremely pleased to be suppliers of engines for Embraer. I'm just going to open it up for some questions from the audience. There's a question in the back, if we could just... Carlos, you can just come back to gentlemen, I think with the gray sweater back there. You just stand up and... Thank you. You could stand up, sir. I'm reading with a laptop, sir. My name is Joanne Fauss. I'm a reporter of El País, a newspaper from Spain and with a edition in Brazil. I would like to ask the representative of Apex. You were saying that Brazil should increase its exports. I would like to know if you could tell us more or less what percentage in the short term you think they should increase and also to the U.S. if you think there are certain sectors that should lead this rise of the exports. And I would like to ask both of the speakers how much do they think the iteration of the relationship between Brazil and the U.S. for the NSA scandal has affected the economic relationship between the two countries and especially the intention of increasing the trade in both directions. Thank you. Well, regarding the goals to increase exports, it's difficult to say exact amount. I mean, of course, with the international crisis staying behind us, we are very excited to see that the numbers are going to be much better in the years to come. But I would not give you exact percentage for that. We have a marketing intelligence department there that is currently doing all the econometrics and all the calculations for that. But I wouldn't say an official number now. And the second question. If you want, I'll help you with that if you want. Okay, okay. Thank you. Regarding your question on how the relationship sees itself or where the relationship is between the U.S. and Brazil, how is it affected? I would say on trade, an example in commerce, you're seeing, no, no, but you're seeing Apex and you're seeing the Brazilian government interested in developing closer links with the United States commercially. I think that there are obviously challenges that we have with different countries. Brazil is a country that we have a lot of things in common with and there are some issues that we have differences in. But we, from my conversations with folks in the State Department and at the White House, that there's an obvious interest in us overcoming some of the challenges that we have because there are more things that are beneficial to us having the relationship than remaining sort of stuck in some of the differences that we have. I think the commercial area is probably the smartest place and the most likely place where we're going to be able to continue our relationship. And I think that if you're a student of history and foreign policy and politics, you note that relationships actually become closer the more you have business with other countries. So I think that it's a positive to maintain these relationships. I have not seen a dip in investment or interest either from the Brazilians or from the Americans. I think that it's, again, sometimes the political differences are very distant or different from the relationship that people have in the private sector and the relationship that we have with Apex and the relationship that GE has in Brazil. You guys aren't going anywhere. It's continuing strong and I think it serves as a good channel to maintain these ties. This initiative is another example of that. Hopefully, you know, these relationships and the differences that we have will be overcome. But I think that there's a willingness on both sides to do that and the commercial side is an example of that as well. Yeah, we have an, I mean I could not point to a commercial problem result from that. In fact, Jeff Immelt, as we mentioned, met with President Rousseff last week at an excellent meeting, a discussion about the trade and investment plans of our company. I don't think that the political relationship to my knowledge didn't even come up in that conversation. I think it's a focus on doing business, which is what we do. So I think that that's marching forward very strongly. And during the meeting with Jeff Immelt, I was thanking him for everything that GE has been doing in Brazil for almost 100 years of business in the country. And he was, oh no, no, no, we are very excited for what we have been doing the last few years and for everything that we are still going to do in this country. So I think there are lots of business opportunities that cannot be taken for granted, right? There's a question here in the front. I'll let you with the red tie. Yes, Sydney Cajoto from Columbia University. So one of the priorities of the Dilma's administration has been to champion or to promote the interests of national champion companies. So I was wondering to what extent the work of APEX is related to these priorities. This initiative was basically run by BNDS, the Brazilian Development Bank. What APEX does in terms of internationalization of companies? We work with companies that have initiatives that are more related to open access to international markets. So we are not involved in these type of investments. We work with companies with what we would say middle investment needs. So they're basically going for commercial and like for instance, open commercial base in the United States, open branches and things like that. So the national champions are as initiative that BNDS was in charge of. APEX was not really involved on that. Let me move it around. We'll come back. I think the lady right there, if you could stand up, please. Get the microphone. Great. Hello, my name is Flora Braco. I work for AM Global Consulting based here in D.C. and I'm also a student at American University. So I wanted to ask both of you, actually. Martin has mentioned innovation and sustainability and global supply chains. And Mr. Nelson actually really wrapped this up mentioning human capacity building by GE in Brazil, supporting science without borders. So I wanted to ask you to clarify more what APEX does, how it supports innovation. For example, in CSR, perhaps not only in Brazil, but abroad, perhaps in Africa or third countries. Okay. CSR is a new thing for APEX. We have just built a department last year. So basically what we are doing is mapping the sustainability attributes that international buyers are requesting, maybe because, you know, it's a local legislation or private code initiative. So we are mapping the international demands and also mapping what Brazilian companies are doing. So it's important for us to understand this environment and help the Brazilian companies to match the international requirements. The project I mentioned is a new project. We have built a partnership with a sustainability think-tank from Fundação Getúlio Vargas, which is a university in Brazil. And they have built projects in global supply chains for quite some time. And what we are adding into this initiative is the international part of it, because they have built this project for the national market. So what we are bringing to the table is the international part of it. You know, mapping what is happening around the world and trying to make the companies more competitive doing sustainability or CSR strategies. Great. Let me go in the back and then up front here. Hello. My name is Stephen Hudson. I'm here representing the U.S. Travel Organization. Currently, or recently rather, Chile just joined the United States Visa Weaver Program at the end of March, and that means that now Chilean citizens can travel to the United States for up to 90 days on business or leisure purposes without a visa from the United States government. That means that Chile is currently the only country that is part of the U.S. Visa Weaver Program. And so I think since we're talking about things such as innovation, having a strong global presence and that sort of thing is obviously desirable for Brazil to have its citizens to be able to easily go to and from the United States. So my question is, is it a possibility or agenda that the Brazilian government will be trying to press joining the Visa Weaver Program to the United States within the next couple of years? And secondly, how do the United States government and the United States private industry aid the government of Brazil in accomplishing this? Thank you. I don't know. This is something that I would not rather speak about. But there's a question there, I think, that's related, which is, you know, some countries like the Chileans and I think the Mexicans have programs like Startup Chile, Startup Mexico, which provides seed money for sometimes foreigners, sometimes Brazilians that want to start up innovation companies, small companies, startups, right? Do you do something like that? Do you get involved in something like that with Apex? No. Is there a microphone there? No, Apex does not do it. We help the companies once they are ready to come to the United States, for example. We help them through our offices in Francisco in the relationship with the startup project in Brazil. So then we help them not investing money, not providing seed money, but with networking and pitch training and all of that. But I could jump in on the immigration issue actually for GE as a global company. It's actually really important to facilitate travel of technicians in particular. If you have a power station in Minas Gerais that goes down, you need to bring the expert in to fix that as quickly as you can and not wait two months to get a visa. And the same is true coming the other direction. Our expert might be based in Brazil who needs to come to the US to fix something. We need to make that happen quickly. So frankly, from our point of view, as a global service industry, which we are as we service mainly our own equipment, but that's actually huge, travel facilitation is an extremely important issue. And we would strongly support that in both directions and more than just Brazil, US, but with frankly as many countries as it's possible to do it. In fact, Apex has worked very close together with the Ministry of External Relations when companies want to go to Brazil and do business there. I mean, the Ministry of External Relations help us out to facilitate the process. So I mean, it's not something that Apex does, but we get the Ministry to help us on that and they do what they need to do. Let me take a question from the gentleman up here. Mr. Rogus. Thank you. My name is David Rogus. David Rogus and Associates, we operate out of Palo Rio and here in Washington. I was really taken by your comments, David, about your recent meeting with Jilma and the tone of everyone's comments here regarding business, is business, and segregated in a sense from the politics. But there is an area, of course, government is best when it gets out of the way of commerce and that's commerce operate, but what has been your experience over the past year in terms of receptivity, the willingness of Brazilian government entities to deal with American high-tech firms in light of the revelations concerning American intelligence activities? Well, let me just address it first because it's very simple from GEDEV. We have had no impact. We're not devolved in that side of things. We deal with mainly business-to-business and infrastructure issues. So, frankly, we have had... GEDEV has not seen an impact on that issue. Well, Apex the same. We haven't seen any impact of that. Of course, there was several things on the news and it's public, everyone heard about it. But for us, we haven't heard anything from the companies we assist. We assist like 12,000 companies, Brazilian companies that export and we have a huge list of foreign investors that use Apex services to do business in Brazil as well. And I haven't heard any complaint or issue or any special requests about that so far. There have been some questions. You're probably familiar with some of them and there has been a little bit of skepticism as it relates to issues having to do with the NSA and some American companies and their relationship with the US government that's been in the press. So, we have gone through a period where you have companies having difficult relationships with, let's say, some folks that otherwise wouldn't be so skeptical in not just Brazil but in other places of the world. I mean, this is something that's been out there. But I think that, for instance, when you look at the Marco Civil, there was a portion of that that I believe had to do with making the information or the storing of information of Brazilians remain in Brazil. And I think that portion was actually taken out. Exactly. And so, how does that bode for some of the skepticism? I think it's actually positive in that it signals that there's a willingness of Brazilians to, you know, want to still have these relationships by technology from other countries. Since the United States is such a large supplier of technology, I think that bodes well for that. As I mentioned, and going back to the question that the gentleman had a little earlier about how the relationship has evolved, I think we're going to have peaks and valleys in this relationship, just like we have peaks and valleys in a lot of other relationships. The focus, I think, and that's why this initiative is an important one, is that folks want to maintain the conversation. And I think the easiest way to maintain that conversation is going to be in the commercial sphere for now. I think that we're... There is will on both sides to develop a better political relationship, but I think that this commercial constant, actually, is beneficial to feeding and fueling that interest that exists from the two sides. Anybody else in the middle over here? Good afternoon. My name is Ana Luisa. I'm a Brazilian lawyer, scholar here in Washington, D.C. with Prudential Foundation and a master's student in Fundação Jete do Vargas. My question will tackle the SME scenario for Ms. Marcio. We just heard actually an SBA official talk about how going global is actually the next step to American SMEs. And I was wondering if you have statistics on how many of Brazilian exporters are actually small in business enterprises and if APEX considers or actually has partnerships with skilled capacity-building organizations such as Vital Voices, where I work, to try to address this issue because, as we see many developed economies, SMEs are the backbone and they employ a large amount of the labor force. So how is that challenge being addressed by APEX together with the Brazilian government? Thank you so much. Most of APEX clients are small and medium-sized enterprises, so I don't have the numbers here with me, but I certainly can give you later on if you give me your business card on the companies there are being abroad. Most of them are huge Brazilian companies, but in APEX we deal with small and medium-sized enterprises. 82% or 85% of our clients are small and medium. We have a program that has been helping 3,000 companies per year in order to build capacity to export, to sell, to do marketing abroad. This program also builds partnerships with technology institutions, R&D centers in order to fulfill the technology needs that these companies need because APEX does not do that, but we are building partnerships in order to fulfill that. With a program in the MCTI called Cibrateque that does metrology improvements in the product for specific markets, also innovation. We also had a great meeting with Cebrae, which is the small business association that assists micro and small companies in order to also build another partnership towards exactly what you mentioned. The challenges for small and medium-sized enterprises are much bigger than for big ones. This is our daily basis to do these kind of things. In this program, this capacity building program, we have consultants, something like 250 consultants working within these 3,000 companies throughout the country. We have 36, what we call nucleus operacionais, operational branches with these consultants working inside these small and medium-sized companies, helping them to move ahead in the capacity to reach international markets. If I could jump in on that on behalf of the larger companies. We like to look at ourselves, and this is talking about exports from the U.S., but I think there's a similar story for large companies exporting from Brazil. We basically accumulate SME products into the things that we sell. We are helping SMEs, when we sell a power turbine that's manufactured in South Carolina, there are actually 2,000 SMEs in the U.S. and in other countries that are contributing parts into that process. I think the statistic is for every GE employee, there are seven employees of supplier companies. Many, although not all, but many of which are SMEs. So while the direct exports from SMEs is important work and that's wonderful that you're able to help them and assist them and I'm all in favor of that, at the same time I don't think you should ignore the role that larger companies are able to play in and I'm sure that companies like Embraer are doing exactly that for Brazil. As do we in the locomotives and our things that we manufacture in Brazil and use local supply chains. There's a gentleman in the back here. Winston Wilkinson, a Brazilian observer. Two quick questions. First, the APEX. There's a company called Endeavor which sounds like it has a similar model to yours. Can you comment on if you have a relationship with them, if you work together on projects or if you are competing with one another? The second goes to both of you. If you look at the, I guess, world of investors, there's strategic investors like the GE and then there's kind of financial investors, pension funds, private equity funds, venture capital firms. There seems to be a perception that for strategic, it's a difficult situation in Brazil for them to kind of come in and recently they've been announced, several companies that came in in 2008, 2009 that are leaving Brazil just because they just couldn't make it work. They're still obviously investor, financial investors still pouring in. Bain Capital did a deal last week which was announced pretty sizable deal. But can you comment on this perception that some strategists are, you know, maybe why they're struggling and if this perception is real, what your organization and what the Brazilian government can do to kind of counter that? We do not have any initiative with Endeavor. It's a great organization and in fact we are about to visit them to discuss a little bit on the things we are doing and I'm sure we'll find points that we can work together. And the second question. Well, in Apex, one of the things that our FDI team does is to after the company invests in Brazil and it goes the same way with the venture capital funds, we also do what we call aftercare assistance. So we, you know, they keep track of what the problems, the difficulties and what the companies is experiencing in the country so we can, you know, do our job in terms of maintaining the business up and running and in fact to attract more investments from the same firm because it's easier to make this, the firm that is already there to invest more than to bring a new investment. So that's what we are doing to make sure that people don't leave the country. Yeah, I can't speak to companies that may have, you know, put their foot in the water and found it too difficult. We, GE as I mentioned is in the middle of a five-year, $1.3 billion investment program in Brazil. We're continuing to invest and we expect to invest more after that. We see it as a growth market. We think that it's growing in the sectors that are in our lane, oil and gas, infrastructure, the kind of things that we can support and we expect to invest even more going forward. Great, I'll take one more question. Let me get the gentleman back there with the glasses on. Hey, my name is Leonardo and I'm a fellow at the Prudential Foundation. I'd like to ask Marcio about the VC&PE strategies for startups because I'm from Rio and if you look at Rio, the entrepreneurship scene is growing a lot in the past years and there are some accelerators and incubators that have been created in partnership with American investors like 21202. That said, I'd like to ask you about some strategies. APEX utilizes to attract VC&PE funds and to foster the scene. A project I mentioned. We have been working with accelerators as well, not only in Brazil but from abroad. In the VC&PE project I mentioned, we have been working with Abeve Copy which is the National Association for Venture, Capture and Private Equity. It's an association that talks with all the venture capital and private equity firms in Brazil. We are about to start an initiative with the FINEpi, the Finance Innovation Agency, to bring biotechnology funds from the United States to talk with the biotech firms in Brazil. FINEpi is financing many biotech firms in the country. Even in the pro-operation phase of the business. In the VC&PE, we are focusing on four main sectors, oil and gas, renewable energies, ICT, and biotech. Oil and gas, biotech already mentioned. These are the four main sectors we are focusing on our initiatives. Great. With that, I want to thank all of you for coming. Nelson, Marcia, Sylvia, Ambassador Vieira. This has been a wonderful inaugural event. In particular, I want to thank one person here that was there at the inception, that was there at the beginning, and because of him, we were able to really get this initiative started. It's Benoni Belli, who's up front, who's been a wonderful person, a wonderful partner to work with at the Brazilian Embassy. So thank you, Benoni. Thank all of you for coming. This is the beginning. You're going to be flooded now with events that we're going to be having on different issues, having to do with Brazil, different activities, and an array of issues and things. There's lots to talk about. So it was great having you all here, and I invite you all to a wonderful reception that we have prepared for you over there in the Nunn reception room. So thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.