IEE seeks to foster entrepreneurship in the state
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The Instituto de Estudos Empresariais (IEE) uses the business ecosystem to foster ideas, principles and values, and especially to encourage entrepreneurship in Rio Grande do Sul. This assessment is made by the president of the IEE, Victoria Jardim, responsible for organizing the 36th edition of the Freedom Forum 2023, which this year discussed the theme “Alice in the Land of Freedoms”.
At the end of the term, the president says that the institute deals with various freedoms such as economic, expression and religious freedom. “The institute’s mission is to train business leaders. And throughout my tenure, we discussed politics, economics, philosophy and entrepreneurship,” she added.
In this interview to Jornal do Comérciothe president of the IEE highlighted the importance of the Freedom Forum as a space for the great discussion of ideas and took stock of her term of office, which ends in May of this year.
Jornal do Comércio – How did you start your participation in the IEE?
Victoria Pinto da Silva Jardim – I got to know the IEE through the Freedom Forum 10 years ago. At the time, I was studying international relations at ESPM (Escola Superior de Propaganda e Marketing), and people passed by the room handing out tickets, but they had to register. When I went to register to go to the forum, there was also a suggestion of an event that took place on the weekend before the forum, which was the PL conference. My trajectory started when I went to a PL conference at ESPM for 100 people. At ESPM, I met a group of young people who later founded the Atlantis Institute with me. I was 18 at the time, I went to the Freedom Forum and fell in love with the ideas. I went after who organized it, I saw that it was the IEE, I tried to understand if I could participate, they told me no because I would have to be 21 years old. I got that in my head and joined other institutes and it turned out that when I graduated from college four years later – I had already switched courses to Production Engineering, so I finally entered the IEE. Since entering the first year I competed to try to win the ranking and I came in third place. In the second year, I was group coordinator, I won the group ranking too. Then I joined the IEE Training Board. Until I became president.
JC – What purposes were discussed during your term?
victoria – Management is almost over, it ends in May. As soon as we took office in April 2022, the war between Russia and Ukraine was breaking out, so we made a series of events related to the conflict. We always intersperse these focuses with events more related to entrepreneurship. We received a number of relevant entrepreneurs as well. The first event of my management, by the way, was really cool, it was on my birthday and it was with businessman Clóvis Tramontina. After the topic of the war in Ukraine, we moved on to the topic of how to turn an illiberal society into a liberal society. So these were the two main guiding themes of what we call the formation arc. We promoted events to discuss politics, economy, philosophy, entrepreneurship. And always interspersed with events with big businessmen or relevant figures in society.
JC – Do you think about running for public office? Are you affiliated with any political party?
victoria – I am a member of the New Party, but I don’t think about running for anything. Although my family has a political tradition. My grandfather was a politician for many years – the former PDT federal deputy, Aldo Pinto.
JC – Why don’t you intend to compete?
victoria – I’ve always been much more in the business, executive area, I work with technology. It’s not that I don’t like it, so much that I get involved, I just don’t think it’s for me.
JC – Did you ever receive an invitation?
victoria – Whenever the elections arrive, they ask, I never even went ahead with the invitation. I don’t think that will be the case in the future, but also “Never say never”.
JC – What measures do you think Rio Grande do Sul needs to adopt to attract new investments?
victoria – The Economic Freedom Act is a relevant pillar. It passed in 2019, and each state can modulate it as they wish. Porto Alegre specifically has done a great job in this regard. The issue of the license greatly increased the creation of small and medium-sized businesses. So, I think this is a positive point and that it may attract investments depending on how to modulate the law for large investments. Another thing that I think was done that is really cool here in the State was the South Summit. The numbers for the event in terms of attracting investment and generating new business are impressive. So I think it’s a combination of factors, but I think that now, with the Economic Freedom Act, we have a legal framework to work with.
JC – Governor Eduardo Leite (PSDB) spoke about the creation of a development agency. How can the IEE help the State in this process?
victoria – We don’t usually get involved directly with government issues. We try to use the business ecosystem to promote our ideas, principles and values. The IEE is an institute whose mission is to train business leaders. We end up having a side effect of some people becoming interested and entering politics, but this is not the focus of our activities.
JC – What is the ideal tax reform for the IEE?
victoria – I don’t know if there is a right answer for the IEE because there are several discussions among liberals. There is a consensus that it obviously has to be done. The tax rate today in Brazil is very high. There are some concepts that we disagree with, such as the taxation of large fortunes. But how to carry out the reform itself, there is no consensus. What we do know is that tax reform needs to be done.
JC – In addition to the taxation of large fortunes, is there any other point that you do not agree with?
victoria – I didn’t really agree with the return of the CPMF, but I think that a basic principle for a reform is simplification. This is the keyword for tax reform in Brazil: simplification. We need simplification with regard to taxes, both direct and indirect taxes. Mainly indirect taxes.
JC – One of the businessmen’s complaints is the issue of bureaucracy that hinders private initiative investments. How to change this frame?
victoria – It’s the million dollar question. I think one of the biggest criticisms is the state’s swelling. Because it is very inflated, the bureaucracy, when it was created, was created with the intention of organizing some processes and establishing some controls, but it took on colossal proportions. Today it is something that, yes, greatly interferes with the day to day of the entrepreneur. But, as I said, I think there are some things that are being done that are already being of great help, for example the issue of the simplified license. Before it was 300 days to open a company. Today, depending on the type of business you can open in one day. Porto Alegre, through a more liberal management, rose from the 20th position in the business environment to be the first in the country. We need structural reforms, but the adoption of small specific measures, mainly in the municipalities, regarding their responsibility, can make a lot of difference.
JC – What is the expectation of the IEE with the third administration of President Lula?
victoria – We had some setbacks in relation to fundamental rights. As in the case of private property, with several land invasions. We had the issue of basic sanitation that he is trying to revoke with the end of public-private partnerships. This conflict between the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank is harmful to the country’s economy. We’re not going anywhere like this. The Lula government insists on revoking the spending cap, which would also be bad. So there are some setbacks that I see with a lot of bad eyes and I think that if they take revenge they will have negative results for Brazil.
JC – What is the importance of holding the Forum for the IEE?
victoria – The Freedom Forum is one of the most incredible spaces for debate I know. Precisely because it is plural and brings people to discuss various issues at national and international level. We’ve already had five Nobel Prizes, some heads of state with us and several relevant businessmen and intellectuals. The Forum is really a space to open the minds of many people. Through the forum certain discussions are also made that may bear fruit in the future.
JC – What ideological matrices guide the IEE?
victoria – Within our training cycle we train business leaders, but we are always committed to certain principles, which are: respect for the rule of law, the free market, individual freedoms and we do understand that the study of certain works is fundamental to that we can do this defense in the right way. The IEE training cycle is divided into four major areas of discussion, which are politics, philosophy, economics and entrepreneurship. We have a matrix with these four strands and another category of classics. Where there are books indicated for each of the phases that are recommended to read within these areas of knowledge. There is also an array of digital content, because we understand that it is also relevant and there is a lot of good stuff on the internet.
JC – How did you choose the name “Alice in the Land of Freedoms” for the 36th edition of the Freedom Forum?
victoria – It’s a pun on the book Alice in Wonderland. I have an appreciation for the classics. Building the title is building with the board, although I suggested it. We wanted a more playful theme and in one of the discussions the idea came up. We wanted to approach the public to awaken people’s curiosity. Something like that works really well. And everyone, or almost everyone, has had contact with the work or movie Alice in Wonderland – which generates empathy. In addition, the work allows you to make a series of connections with real life. It is a strong criticism of the Victorian period and makes several criticisms, for example, of the size of the State at the time. The Queen of Hearts is a questioning of the autocratic hierarchical issue that was experienced at the time. There is a very interesting passage which is a conversation about study – it is a strong criticism of education. The work has several analogies that can be made, and that’s what we did at the Freedom Forum.
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