| Montreal,
April 18, 2001
In an address to one of
the Montreal Conference's International Forums, Dr.
Alfredo Riviere, President of Venezuelan company The Sural
Group, illustrated how beneficial free trade has been to
his company. In the same vein, he insisted on Quebec's
openness to free trade, saying that this was one of the
key factors that brought Sural to establish a subsidiary
in the province.
According to Dr. Riviere,
"Integration does not mean creating economic blocs to
confront other blocs, but rather to improve the trade
opportunities within those trade zones and to negotiate
with other continents or regions that have common
markets". He went on to point out that integration
must take place without discriminatory treatment with
respect to both investment and trade. It must guarantee
the creation of a large open market that is free to all
participants, resulting in larger internal markets. With
improved productivity, costs will go down and the labour
force will grow and become more highly skilled. All these
advantages will be reflected in product quality.
Established in 1975, the
Sural group is the largest manufacturer of aluminum rods
and one of the world leaders in melting, casting, forming
and drawing of industrial aluminum alloys.
"To be honest",
said Sural's President, "we first had to understand
our role in a changing world and then make the decision to
become global. This involved addressing our strengths,
investment and re-engineering needs and all other factors
associated with taking on the challenge of moving toward
internationalization".
With a presence in
Europe, North America and Latin, the quarter-of-a-century
old company initially relied on the human, technical,
energy and natural resources that were available in
Venezuela and adapted to the requirements of the region.
However, given the size of the market and in order to
achieve economies of scale, investments were targeted at
export markets. Thinking back on how they positioned the
company internationally, Dr. Riviere said that Sural Group
underwent a series of administrative changes while closely
monitoring the international environment and market trends
in order to determine towards which countries or economic
blocs its strategies should be oriented and its efforts be
directed.
"It has been far
from easy. Adapting to innovative and enterprising
technological methods was a long and arduous process for
our personnel. In addition, conducting market studies and
developing markets, demanding the required staff-hours,
implementing strategies and securing the necessary
funding, are all easier said than done -in actual fact,
they require years of preparation and experience- ",
acknowledged Sural's President.
But the results didn't
take long to materialize for Sural has enjoyed constant
growth over the past few years. Sural owes these successes
in large part to the development of TECHNOLOGY that has
been applied to all its processes; as well as to the
enterprising and innovative training of its management.
This has enabled Sural to successfully compete on the
international stage. According to Dr. Riviere, Sural is
very optimistic about the future for the demand for
aluminum products, which will continue to grow at a steady
pace, especially in the automobile industry.
In this context, Dr.
Riviere expressed his pleasure at Quebec's interest in
processing aluminum. Given Quebec's openness towards
liberalizing trade, it made sense for Sural to consider
Quebec as a natural partner for its international
expansion strategy.
"During our
expansion process, SURAL found that Quebec had energy and
natural resources that were very similar to those in
Venezuela. We were therefore able to apply ideas and
strategies that had already been successfully tested,
which among other things enabled us to access the NAFTA
market", said Dr. Riviere.
In negotiating with the
Quebec Government, Sural found what can be labelled as
"a visionary climate that was fully receptive to new
technological ideas", as well as the availability of
resources for applied research projects, tax and financial
incentives for new investments and highly skilled human
resources with professional ethics. "This was the
beginning of our first company in Quebec", concluded
Dr. Riviere.
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