Panel SA: Doria predicts ‘peaceful understanding’ of business with new government

After the victory of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the 2nd round, the former governor of São Paulo João Doria says he believes that the business community will have no difficulty in dialoguing with the new PT administration.

“As soon as the economic policy and the managers of this economic policy of the Lula government are defined, the Brazilian business community must move forward with its proposals and in a peaceful and serene understanding with the new government, without any bias, neither ideological nor partisan”, says.

Doria, who declared a null vote in the 2nd round, with criticism of Lula and Bolsonaro, and carries the break with the vice-president-elect Geraldo Alckmin, says that Lide, his family’s company, has always had the participation of representatives from all sectors. governments in their events with entrepreneurs. “And it will now continue to do so in the future Lula administration,” he says.

On his departure from politics, which ended with his disaffiliation from the PSDB last month, Doria returns to the private sector with the consultancy D Advisors and the post of advisor to Lide, which holds its next conference on the 14th and 15th, in New York, with the presence of Supreme Court ministers and other names in the economy.

How has the return to the private sector been?I go back to where I came from, the private sector, where I invested 45 years of my life, having started as an office boy and ending up as a businessman, after six years of public life, between campaign, city hall, campaign and São Paulo government. In the last four months, this return was very positive, with an image of credibility in the private sector, accumulated by the public management of the largest city and the largest state in Brazil.

In addition to Paper Excellence, who are the other clients of your consultancy and in which sectors will you operate?By contract, I cannot reveal who the customers are. The one from Paper Excellence got leaked somehow. I can’t deny it, but I can’t recommend the other customers. With every contract I sign there is a commitment to confidentiality.

It is understandable, given this, in circumstances that are companies that compete in the market, compete in the market, and many of them are publicly traded, national and multinational. So, it is unwise to make such revelations. The sectors I am serving are services, technology, industry and commerce.

How is Lide now? Do you have an international agenda?Now I’m Lide’s vice-chairman. I share the position with Henrique Meirelles, ex-Minister of Finance, ex-President of the Central Bank, ex-Secretary of Finance of SP, and Celso Lafer, ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs, and under the command of Luiz Fernando Furlan, who is the chairman. Our competence is to guide Lide in the work it carries out with the economy, the country’s economic development in the private sector, contribution to international analyses.

Lide has 16 units abroad to hold events that can promote Brazil, bringing in new investors and, at the same time, contributing to the economy, without any partisan ties, much less political.

A part of the business community has positioned itself in favor of Bolsonaro. In his opinion, will this business community have difficulty in dialoguing with the new government? How should this rapprochement be carried out?I do not think so. Entrepreneurship has to entrepreneurship. He has to develop his business, expand his fields of activity. That’s how the business community does it. The competitive market demands it. And by demanding this, entrepreneurs do not have to have ties, either partisan or ideological. The ties are with their companies, their businesses, their employees, their collaborators and their shareholders.

I see naturally. There was a change of government. Given this fact, as soon as the economic policy and the managers of this economic policy of the Lula government are defined, the Brazilian business community must move forward with its proposals and in a peaceful and serene understanding with the new government, without any bias, neither ideological nor partisan.

And Lide? Has this movement already started?Has begun. Lide, as a non-partisan institution, has a duty and obligation to defend Brazil and, at the same time, stimulate new investments in the country, from national or multinational companies.

In 2023, Lide will hold six international events with major investors in Europe, the Middle East, China and the USA, precisely to fulfill its role of showing the positive things about Brazil and the numerous investment opportunities in the agro sectors, industry, commerce, services and technology.

At the beginning of the Bolsonaro government, the Lide forum had a very strong presence of authorities from the Bolsonaro government, but this presence has disappeared in recent editions. How should it be from now on?In both the Lula government, Temer, and Bolsonaro, ministers and presidents of state-owned companies participated in Lide events regularly, with more or less intensity, but they participated.

Lide is a non-partisan institution. It has no ideological partisan ties or for or against the government. It is in favor of free enterprise. Therefore, over the last 15 years, which is Lide’s lifetime, he acted, promoted, debated with managers and ministers of the Lula, Dilma, Temer and Bolsonaro governments. And it will now continue to do so in the future Lula government.

The name of Meirelles, who was Finance Secretary of his government, has been commenting on the bets to touch the Economy. How do you rate?It will be up to President Lula to decide his future finance minister and the ministers of the economic area. What I can testify to is Meirelles’ high capacity and credibility, both in the markets in Brazil and internationally. I traveled with Meirelles to Davos, at the World Economic Forum, and to several countries, where I experienced its prestige and representation.

The ESG issue gained focus in recent Lide forums, but restricted to the environmental theme. The racial issue, on the other hand, has taken a back seat. At this year’s forum in Rio, for example, the racial issue was only addressed at the end of the event. And on the same stage that discussed the matter there was still a speaker [falando de outros temas, o ativista digital Antonio Lee, de 12 anos, branco], who, being a child, brought something jocular to the moment. Does Lide intend to give more importance to the racial issue?At that moment, I wasn’t on the Lide board yet. But I wanted to challenge you. It wasn’t a child. It was a teenager. The same opportunity that is given to an experienced person can also be given to a teenager. The teenager also has an opinion, reason, experience. And it represents the future. It would be the same as discriminating against a woman for being black and for being a woman in order to participate in a debate.

The fact that he is a young teenager, 13 years old, should not prevent him from expressing an opinion. It is the future of Brazil. It is these young people who will make the future of the nation. So there was nothing joking about it. There was, indeed, the pertinence of placing a young person in the debate. And there was a lot of applause.

And the positive, black presence of a woman, talking about the racial issue, was the Secretary of Culture of the city of São Paulo, Aline Torres, who is a person of great importance in this debate on diversity and the values ​​that represent respect, non-discrimination. This topic has been addressed. And set within Lide.

Now, the specific environmental issue has a strong predominance because it also expresses, in the international market, a value that Brazil, unfortunately, lost during the period of the Bolsonaro government. Brazil was weakened in its positions in the face of the events of the COP, due to the erratic behavior that the current government unfortunately applied to the environmental issue.

So, this has gained greater relevance, since European and Japanese investors do not usually implement investments in countries that do not maintain environmental respect and clear policies for the preservation of their environment and indigenous and quilombola communities.

For this reason, this topic has gained a little more preponderance. But there was no carelessness, nor detachment from racial issues.

And what about Lide’s next event in New York? How should the democratic issue be addressed?It is the first major event after the elections. The debate deals with substantive issues for Brazil, democracy, respect for the Constitution and freedom.

It has the presence of seven Supreme Court justices and economists, businessmen, executives, former ministers, representatives of civil society, who will be debating, with 260 businessmen from Brazil and representatives of banks and funds based in the USA, which also have interests and investments in Brazil already consolidated and probably interested in expanding their investments in the coming years.

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Founder and former president of Grupo Doria, as well as Lide (Grupo de Líderes Empresariais), a company that promotes debates between representatives of the public and private sectors, João Doria was mayor of São Paulo from 2017 to 2018, governor of São Paulo between 2019 and 2022