With the growing global competition for foreign capital, Brazilian states and municipalities need to go beyond passive promotion and take a leading role in engaging with investors. In this context, international missions are no longer merely formal agendas; they become strategic tools for attracting foreign investment.
But for these initiatives to have a real impact and generate concrete agreements, it's necessary to abandon the institutional tourism logic and operate under a professionalized model, with market intelligence, clear objectives, and prior institutional coordination. Brazil possesses highly desirable assets, such as clean energy, agribusiness, and biodiversity, but it still lacks the structure to properly present them to the world.
The question that arises is: how can we transform an international mission into a real business and investment platform?
Technical planning and institutional alignment
An international mission begins long before the trip. To generate results, clarity is needed regarding priority sectors, project pipelines, and strategic stakeholders. The OECD indicates that missions with a prior diagnosis, defined governance, and clear goals are 47% more likely to convert agendas into concrete business.
A recent example is Usaflex, a Brazilian footwear company. In 2023, Usaflex announced a US$1.4 billion investment in commercial expansion in Ecuador, opened its first store in Quito, and plans to expand to 15 locations in Latin America. Furthermore, the brand already exports approximately 101.3 billion of its production to markets such as Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the Middle East, and has licensed stores in these countries. This internationalization drive was the result of strategic planning, market knowledge, and the curation of partners in the target countries, demonstrating that Brazilian companies, even outside traditional export sectors, can use trade missions as a platform to attract investment and expand their market share.
Qualified curation of agendas and the right interlocutors
The mission's effectiveness is directly linked to the quality of the meetings. Data from the UNCTAD Investment Promotion Guide shows that the return on investment in well-structured bilateral agendas can be up to five times higher than that of broad, generic missions.
States that successfully organize meetings with sovereign wealth funds, development banks, chambers of commerce, multilateral agencies, and industry hubs increase their chances of closing deals. In 2022, ApexBrasil reported that 82% of the companies participating in missions with qualified agendas initiated international negotiations within six months.
During the Northeast Consortium's International Mission to Europe in 2024, Ceará Governor Elmano de Freitas signed a memorandum with Eletrobras to facilitate the production of green hydrogen and its derivatives at the Pecém Industrial Complex. The mission's agenda included meetings with energy companies, European authorities, and strategic institutional stakeholders.
This example illustrates how selecting stakeholders with sectoral alignment (renewable energy, energy transition) and formally signing commitments with a major state-owned company allow an institutional mission to be transformed into a concrete platform for attracting investment.
Post-mission: where most people go wrong
The lack of a post-mission follow-up plan is one of the biggest bottlenecks in public internationalization strategies. According to the World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA), only 381 developing-country TP3Ts maintain institutional structures to systematically follow up on investment leads. Feedback to stakeholders, delivery of tailored technical materials, proposals for reverse missions, and strengthening institutional channels are essential steps to transform intentions into commitments.
International investors operate with objective criteria: predictability, monitoring, and institutional clarity. The presence of representative offices, local support mechanisms, and institutionalized points of contact not only facilitate the decision-making process but also demonstrate maturity on the part of the public or private entity. Successful missions are those that leave doors open and ensure someone is there to welcome them.
BRING's performance: transforming mission into investment
At BRING Consulting, we have developed a proprietary model for planning and executing international missions with a focus on results. Our BRIDGE methodology integrates risk analysis, agenda curation, opportunity mapping, and strategic network activation, connecting companies and governments with funds, chambers, and international hubs.
We advise state and municipal governments on structuring their internationalization strategies, ensuring that each mission not only represents, but also materializes.
More than intermediaries, we act as business intelligence, economic diplomacy, and liaisons between Brazil and the world's most strategic markets.
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