Creation of an Argentina - Brazil Business Forum

On January 31, 2011 on the arrival of the President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, to Argentina, President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and her Brazilian peer signed the creation of a Businessmen Forum between the countries (the “Forum”) with the purpose of bringing their respective business communities closer to debate issues of mutual interest, particularly, to strengthen the economic, commercial, and investment bonds between both countries aiming to social inclusion and to communicate their common recommendations to their respective Governments.

Also, the Forum is projected to facilitate the exchange of information and to encourage bilateral debates on which both Governments may:

1. promote commerce, industry and investments for economic growth, development and social inclusion;
2. improve competitiveness through innovation and entrepreneurship;
3. share skills of development with the purpose of creating solutions in the development of education and labor training.
4. promote technology exchange in key areas.

 This Forum will be convened and chaired by the Secretary of the Foreign Affairs, Development, Industry, External Commerce Ministry and Representative of the Federal Republic of Brazil, and by the Secretary of the Foreign Affairs, International Commerce and Worship of Argentina.

The Forum will be integrated by members of private and public sectors. These must be: (i) Executive Chiefs or Presidents of companies; (ii) representative their respective companies in the council and not the associations where they might be members; (iii) representative of a diversity of sectors; (iv) be capable of offering broad perspectives and business experiences for discussions; (v) be capable of managing cross-cutting issues that affect the whole business community; and (vi) where possible, to represent the segments of small, medium and large enterprises.

The members of the Forum that belong to the private sector must provide, jointly to both governments, recommendations that reflect their visions, necessities and concerns of the private sector to create an appropriate environment where they can form, develop and increase bilateral commercial relations, in order to promote an intensification of the productive investment flow between the two countries and, in time, to strengthen the position of Argentina and Brazil as a world strategic destination.

The members of the private sector Forum shall organize as follows:

1. a single Committee (the “Committee”) will be formed and divided in two sections (the “Sections”) one for each country. These sections will work to prepare joint recommendations for both Governments;
2. each Country through their participant will designate the members and the President of its pertinent section and will communicate it to the participant of the other country with sufficient anticipation for any meeting of the Forum;
3. the Committee will provide the recommendations through the Forum. The Committee can act separately from the Forum in order to develop the joint recommendations, and each section can meet independently from the Committee. The members of the Committee should obey the designations made by the Participants. Each member will last at least two years in their mandate with the option to renew it;
4. through their correspondent ministries the Government of each country will be responsible for the coordination between the public and private sectors of their respective countries.

 Also, the Participants should prepare the initial and subsequent meetings in order to receive the joint recommendations of the Committees.

The Forum estimates two meetings every year, to be held one in each country and to be established in the places decided by the Participants, with prior consultation to the Presidents of the Sections.

Before every meeting, with prior consultation to the Participants, the Committee members will work together to prepare a common report for the Forum, which will be sent to the Authorities of each country, highlighting the specific recommendations.

The presidents of the sections will organize the Committee meetings, conference calls and communications, involving the private sector of each country, to develop a group of recommendations. The Participants can ask the Committee to prepare additional reports to be written in Portuguese and Spanish.

On the other hand, the Participants are responsible for the administrative operations of the Forum; they must provide for at least one assistant from a section or relevant department of each government to work with the Presidents of the Sections with the purpose of preparing and organizing the topics related to the Forum meetings. The participants and the Presidents of the sections must finalize their agendas one week before every meeting.

Moreover, the authorities of each government, including those that conduct the bilateral Argentina-Brazil workgroups of economy, agriculture, energy, commerce, science and technology and other workgroups, will meet with the Forum, to receive and discuss the joint recommendations.

In general terms, members of the Committee will not receive any remuneration for their activities in the Forum. Travel expenses and others related to the participation of the members in the Forum meetings, including Committee and Sections meetings, must be paid for by each member. The activities of the Governments of Brazil and Argentina are subject to the availability of proper funds and to their respective laws and regulations

Finally, the terms described above can be modified jointly by the Governments of Brazil and Argentina at any time or moment.