OI 120 eng

ODEBRECHT No. 120 • Vol. X X XII • September / Oc to ber 2005 English edition

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WOMEN GAIN MORE SPACE IN INDUSTRIAL DISTRICTS

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CNO RESUMES OPERATIONS IN ARGENTINA

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EL DILUVIO-PALMAR IRRIGATION PROJECT IN VENEZUELA

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BRASKEM BUILDS INDUSTRIAL UNIT IN PAULÍNIA, SÃO PAULO

Workplace Safety

TEAMS SET NEW RECORDS IN ECUADOR AND BRAZIL

INFORMA

In this issue

No. 120 • Vol. XXXII • Sept/Oct 2005

2

16 The San Francisco Project in Ecuador and the Odebrecht Base at Macaé, Rio de

More and more women are working at Braskem’s industrial units in the Alagoas, Bahia and Rio Grande do Sul petrochemical complexes

Janeiro, are respectively commemorating 18 months and three years of work without lost-time accidents

People development

Responsible Care

Technicians and supervisors working on the São Paulo Metro’s Line 2 take part in a professional renewal and development program .......... 6

Present in 52 countries, the Responsible ® Care Program will soon add new areas to its purview, such as social inclusion .... 42

Argentina

Arts and Culture

Odebrecht resumes operations in Argentina by helping build the San Martín natural gas pipeline..............................10

Professor Luiz Alberto Freire is this year’s winner of the Clarival do Prado Valladares Award ...................... 49

Irrigation

The Braskem Culture and Art Award enables eight artists to carry out their projects.... 52

Now under way in Venezuela,the El DiluvioPalmar Project will benefit 77,000 people .. 22

Tribute Emílio Odebrecht, the father of Norberto Odebrecht, is honored in the Brazilian city of Ilhéus, Bahia ..........................27

Environment Odebrecht is providing environmental engineering services through a new subsidiary called Lumina .............. 32

Sections

44 In São Roque do Paraguaçu, Bahia, Odebrecht is taking part in the construction of PRA-1, Petrobras’s first fixed repumping platform

Message from the Board .................. 9 Community...................................... 14 Interview ........................................ 28 Profession........................................ 38 60 Days............................................ 40 Odebrecht Foundation 40 Years ...... 59

Organization Norberto Odebrecht visits construction sites in Ecuador and Venezuela .............. 35

Petrochemicals Petrobras and Braskem are investing in the construction of a new polypropylene production unit in Paulínia,São Paulo .... 36

COVER Sergio Efrain Guevara, an Occupational Safety Technician working on the San Francisco Hydroelectric Plant project in Ecuador.

Photo by Américo Vermelho

54 The DIS-Southern Lowlands program’s Aquaculture, Manioc and Hearts-of-Palm chains are carrying out the full cycle of production, processing and sales

HAMILTON PRISCO PARAISO (1922-2005) After earning a law degree from the Federal University at Bahia in 1944, Hamilton Prisco Paraiso lectured at the Rio de Janeiro Catholic University (PUC-RJ) Law School, Guanabara State University (now UERJ) and the Getúlio Vargas Foundation School of Public Administration (EBAP).

For several years, he was also Odebrecht’s legal counsel and took part in decisive moments in the Group’s development in the 1970s, when the company began establishing a presence in the southeastern part of Brazil to build specialized technology projects such as the Angra dos Reis Nuclear Power Plant, Rio de Janeiro International Airport and the Petrobras Building. He also accompanied the first steps of the Group’s internationalization and business diversification, taken at the end of that decade, as well as playing a part in the acquisition of CBPO – Companhia Brasileira de Obras in São Paulo and BPC – Bento Pedroso Construções in Portugal.

In 1981, Hamilton joined the Board of Directors of Odebrecht S.A., where he acted as legal advisor and played

other areas, as Executive Vice President

Nitrocarbono S.A., Isocianatos S.A and

an active role in the Group’s legal and

of Banco da Bahia S.A., Vice President

Unipar S.A.

corporate restructuring until 1998.

and General Consultant of Petroquími-

In the public sector, he was Chief of

Hamilton Prisco Paraiso passed

ca da Bahia S.A., Legal Consultant to

away on July 7 at the age of 82 in Rio

Staff for the Ministry of Education and

Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD), a

de Janeiro. Up until his death, he repre-

Health in 1944, Secretary to the Presi-

Member of Brazilian Bar Association’s

sented the Prisco Paraiso Advogados

dent of the Bank of Brazil in 1955, and

Federal Council, and a Member of the

law firm in Rio de Janeiro. He is sur-

Chief of Staff and Interim Minister for

Board of BNDES, Brazil’s national eco-

vived by his widow, Maria Annita, and

the Treasury Ministry in 1961. He also

nomic and social development bank,

three children, Celina Maria, Francisco

played an outstanding role in several

as well as the boards of Pronor S.A.,

and Hamilton.

Christian Cravo

ODEBRECHT S.A. Av. Luís Viana, 2841 Paralela 41730-900 Salvador, BA – Brazil Phone 55(71) 2105-1111 55(71) 3206-1111 Fax. 55(71) 2105-1112 55(71) 3206-1112

CONSTRUTORA NORBERTO ODEBRECHT S.A. Praia de Botafogo, 300 11º and.

Botafogo - 22250-040, Rio de Janeiro, RJ – Brazil Phone 55(21) 2559.3000 Fax. 55(21) 2552.4448

São Paulo Av. das Nações Unidas, 4777 05477-000 São Paulo, SP – Brazil Phone (11) 3443.9000 Fax. (11) 3443.9017

• ANGOLA Odebrecht Angola Projectos e Serviços Ltda.

Parque Empresarial Odebrecht Rua Eng. Pedro Castro Van-Dunem “Loy”, s/nº Luanda - Angola

• ECUADOR

• UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

BRASKEM S.A.

Constructora Norberto Odebrecht del Ecuador S.A. Av. 12 de Octubre nº 1942 y Cordero – Ed.World Trade Center – Of. 808 Torre A, Quito – Ecuador

Av. das Nações Unidas, 4777 05477-000 São Paulo, SP – Brazil Phone 55(11) 3443.9999 Fax. 55(11) 3423.0420

• ARGENTINA

Construtora Norberto Odebrecht S. A. Corniche Road - 3 Sails Tower - Suite 1702 Khalidiya P.O.Box - 37.600 Abu Dhabi United Arab Emirates

• DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Constructora Odebrecht Argentina S.A. Reconquista 1166, Piso 10 – Capital Federal C.P. C1003ABX Buenos Aires – Argentina

Constructora Norberto Odebrecht S.A. Torre Piantini Gustavo Mejia Ricart nº 106 Esq. Abraham Lincolin Suite 201, 2º Piso - Piantini Santo Domingo Dominican Republic

• CHILE Constructora Odebrecht Chile S.A. Av. Lib. Bernardo O’Higgins nº 292, Of. 21 Metro U. Católica, CP 6501242 Santiago de Chile – Chile

• MEXICO Constructora Norberto Odebrecht S.A. Homero, 418 – 6º piso Colonia Polanco CP 11560 – México, DF

• COLOMBIA

• PERU

Constructora Norberto Odebrecht de Colombia Ltda.

Avenida 15, nº 101-09 Piso 6 – Edificio Vanguardia Bogotá – Colombia

Constructora Norberto Odebrecht Perú S.A. Av. La Floresta, 497 Of. 104 Chacarilla del Estanque San Borja – Lima – Peru

• PORTUGAL Bento Pedroso Construções S.A. Quinta da Fonte Rua Quinta da Quintã Edifício D. João I, Nº 4 Piso 1B - 2770-203 Paço de Arcos - Portugal

ODEBRECHT Founded in 1944, the Odebrecht Group is active in Engineering & Construction and Chemicals & Petrochemicals and invests in transportation, mining and oil ventures.

Its 40,000 Members and subcontractors are present in South America, Central America, North America, Africa, Europe and the Middle East.

Zommorrodah Building, 1st Floor, Office 15A Al Zabeel Road, Al Karama P.O.Box - 114.155 Dubai - United Arab Emirates

• UNITED STATES Odebrecht Construction, Inc. 201 Alhambra Circle Suite 1400 Coral Gables, Florida 33134 - USA

• VENEZUELA Constructora Norberto Odebrecht de Venezuela C.A. Centro Empresarial Torre Humboldt Piso 10 Oficina 10 -13 Av. Rio Caura – Urbanización Parque Humboldt – Caracas Venezuela

OCS - ODEBRECHT ADMINISTRADORA E CORRETORA DE SEGUROS LTDA. Av. Luís Viana, 2841 Paralela 41730-900 Salvador, BA – Brazil Phone 55(71) 2105-1111 55(71) 3206-1111 Fax. 55(71) 2105-1869 55(71) 3206-1869

ODEPREV ODEBRECHT PREVIDÊNCIA Av. Luís Viana, 2841 Paralela 41730-900 Salvador, BA – Brazil Phone 55(71) 2105-1111 55(71) 3206-1111 Fax. 55(71) 2105-1869 55(71) 3230.0701

FUNDAÇÃO ODEBRECHT Av. Luís Viana, 2841 Paralela 41730-900 Salvador, BA – Brazil Phone 55(71) 2105-1111 55(71) 3206-1111 Fax. 55(71) 2105-1869 55(71) 3230.0701

www.odebrecht.com.br Their work is guided by the Group’s entrepreneurial philosophy, which was created and improved through practice. The basic tenets of this philosophy are confidence in people, the Client’s satisfaction, decentralization, partnership among Members, return on Shareholders’ investments and the reinvestment of results.

DEAR READER,

A

hydroelectric project in Baños, Ecuador, and a support base for offshore operations in Macaé, Rio de Janeiro, are respectively celebrating 18 months and three years of sustained operation without any lost-time accidents. A construction yard in São Roque do Paraguaçu, Bahia, is designed to improve the quality of life of workers and members of the local community.

Although they are being carried out in vastly different settings, all three projects share the same hallmark: the Group’s commitment to providing a high-quality working environment for Odebrecht teams. Workplace health and safety programs at the construction site in Baños and the Macaé base are protecting and valuing the individual,while outstanding facilities at São Roque do Paraguaçu provide comfortable living quarters for workers,as well as access to culture and recreation.

Underlying all of this is one of the Odebrecht Group’s fundamental aims: providing education, safety and well being for all its members.This encourages their self-development and creativity and enables them to achieve higher productivity and better results, which are key to keeping our clients satisfied.

Offering an educational, safe, healthy and hospitable working environment is the first step towards ensuring that Odebrecht members are motivated to do their best; ready, willing and able to render service for the benefit of their clients and the public good.

Odebrecht Entrepreneurial Technology – TEO “A company is a community of human beings; its accomplishments are the accomplishments of human beings.

And a human community must be grounded on common values; it must symbolize unity based on common principles”

ODEBRECHT INFORMA

Vol. XXXII

No. 120 • Sept/Oct 2005

www.odebrechtonline.com.br Responsible for Corporate Communication at Odebrecht S.A.

MÁRCIO POLIDORO Reporters at Odebrecht S.A.

KAROLINA GUTIEZ MIUCHA ANDRADE Business Area Coordinators

MARCO ANTÔNIO ANTUNES PEREIRA [Engineering & Construction]

NELSON LETAIF [Chemicals & Petrochemicals] Coordinator at Odebrecht Foundation

MARTA CASTRO Editorial Coordination

VERSAL EDITORES Editor-in-Chief

JOSÉ ENRIQUE BARREIRO Executive Editor

CLÁUDIO LOVATO FILHO Translated by

H. SABRINA GLEDHILL Art/Graphic Production

ROGÉRIO NUNES Electronic Publishing

MARIA CELIA OLIVIERI Filmsetting

A.P. EDITORA Printed by

PANCROM Also published in Portuguese and Spanish An in-house publication of the Odebrecht Group.

Published by Odebrecht S.A. PRINTING:1,400 COPIES

Editorial Offices Rua Jardim Botânico, 674 – Sala 315 Jardim Botânico CEP: 22461-000 Rio de Janeiro/RJ – Brazil Tel.: 55 (21) 2239-1778 E-mail: versal@versal.com.br Please send your suggestions and questions to the editors.

PEOPLE DEVELOPMENT

Lessons in life and work Technicians and supervisors working on the São Paulo Metro’s Line 2 project get an opportunity to learn, teach and grow WRITTEN BY Eliana

Simonetti De Francesco

PHOTOS BY Luciana

A

dão Francisco Dave, 50, is from Pinhão, Paraná, in the southeastern part of Brazil. He has spent 28 years of his life working at Odebrecht. He started out as a construction assistant, went on to earthmoving and grading, and later became a surveyor. Now he is the General Supervisor responsible for surveying on the São Paulo Metro’s Line 2 project. Since he joined the company, he has studied and learned a great deal from specific courses, but the greatest lessons have come from interacting with leaders and co-workers on the job.

When he started his career, he used spreadsheets to record the measurements he took using rudimentary equipment. Today, he has a computerized machine to do all that. It detects natural and artificial features of the area being surveyed and transmits the data directly to a computer and a program that generates the Classroom at the Line 2 construction necessary charts and site: opportunity graphs for the project’s for experienced engineers. Adão is a professionals to refresh and add to seasoned pro in his their knowledge line of work, but he

6 ODEBRECHT INFORMA

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Adão: “Now I understand what the other people working at the jobsite are doing”

has gone back to the classroom to acquire even more knowledge. “I’m learning about what the other people working on the project are doing.

I’ve always been more involved in the production side. Now I know where the information I’m getting comes from and why controlling costs is important, and I understand what the other people working at the jobsite are doing.”

Adão is taking part in the Program for Developing Technicians and Supervisors, which is being carried out at the Construtora Norberto Odebrecht jobsite for the São Paulo Metro’s Line 2 expansion project. Three times a week, during their two-hour lunch breaks, Adão and 39 other technicians and supervisors attend classes on a wide range of subjects. Their teachers are engineers and accountants, as well as fellow technicians and supervisors. All the participants – teachers and students – are members of the CNO team that is building the project.

This course is part of the Routes of Knowledge program, whose main objective is to energize the application of the Odebrecht Entrepreneurial Technology (TEO) and education through work by utilizing education for work. This is done through activities like the Program for Developing Technicians and Supervisors, which are planned and implemented on the basis of the mobilization, commitment and involvement of leaders and team members.

“We are giving priority to investing in the grooming and development of our company members, and this program will meet the demand in regard to technicians and supervisors,” says Benedicto Júnior, Construtora Norberto Odebrecht’s Managing Director for Southern Brazil.

The 40 students enrolled in the course are dividSEPT/OCT

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ed into two groups of twenty. They take theoretical classes and participate in work groups.

While sharing their experiences with their classmates, they get to know co-workers with whom they had barely had a nodding acquaintance, either because they were deeply involved in their own activities or working on different sides of the construction site. This has been a highly gratifying experience for Maintenance Supervisor Manfredo Mathias de Faria Filho, 44, who joined Odebrecht just five months ago. “We have to be creative and exchange ideas if we want to do a good job. That makes all the difference in the world.” A mechanic with 28 years’ experience, Manfredo has taken several professional education courses, but this is the first time he has had an opportunity to learn about such a wide range of subjects.

Raimundo Cruz was born in Portugal 60 years ago, and has spent half his life in Brazil. Everyone calls him “Uncle” Raimundo, and his cell phone never stops ringing. He gets all kinds of requests in his line of work. Raimundo joined CNO in 1988 and is now the Maintenance Supervisor for Electrical and Hydraulic Systems on Line 2. “I knew the people on the team and I knew my job. Now, thanks to this program, I’m seeing the whole picture and learning something about all areas of the project.”

The program is being carried out under the institutional guidance of Vera Gaspar, the CNO officer responsible for People Development. “We need people who are not just good at doing specific tasks but knowledgeable people who are in sync with their leaders, know how to plan their work and are capable of professional and personal growth that will enable them to take on ODEBRECHT INFORMA 7

Manfredo: the first time he has taken part in a wide-ranging education program

“Uncle”Raimundo:“I’m seeing the whole picture and learning something about all areas of the project”

“Old pros” refresh their skills Ciro Barbosa,the CNO officer responsible for Administration,Planning and Finance for Southern Brazil, underscores the main objectives of the Program for Developing Technicians and Supervisors: * Adding value to the technicians and supervisors currently working on all areas of the company’s projects, offering them an opportunity to refresh their skills and become multiplier agents for knowledge.

8 ODEBRECHT INFORMA

* Identifying, developing and hiring new technicians and supervisors through an ongoing process of grooming and educating people. * Mobilizing, developing and hiring young people with outstanding abilities and potential to groom them as technicians and supervisors who can handle the increasingly complex and varied requirements of CNO’s business.

challenges now and in the future.” The program has already been conducted in Angola, Portugal and Peru. Soon, it will be introduced in other settings in Brazil and worldwide.

“People are more motivated, they feel more appreciated by the company and are better able to plan their work, because they understand that what they are doing is key to ensuring the productivity and profitability of the project as a whole,” says Fábio Gandolfo, the Contract Director for Line 2.

As their teacher, Operations Manager Celso Rodrigues knows the program’s students well. He explains the more complex operations involved in building an engineering and construction project to them in terms that they can understand. He says that the program has been adapted to the students’ interests. Many of them wanted to learn more about workplace safety; others were interested in the final report and balance sheet produced at the end of a project. As a result, these subjects have been included in the course. “People who once went unnoticed are asking surprisingly insightful questions and displaying a keen curiosity. Above all, the classes are an opportunity to identify talent.”

According to Ivan Correa, the officer responsible for Administration and Finance and the Operations Coordinator for the Line 2 project, “It is gratifying to see how intensely our team members are getting involved and committed to the program, acting as teachers and learners at the same time.”

Ciro Barbosa, the CNO officer responsible for Administration, Planning and Finance for Southern Brazil, observes: “The Routes of Knowledge program presupposes the continuous grooming and development of the company’s members, transforming a contract team into a permanent source and sharer of knowledge and ensuring that people are prepared to deal with the challenges they will meet in the future.”

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MESSAGE FROM THE BOARD EMÍLIO ODEBRECHT CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD

Relationships between people are the basis for providing services

I

n the context of the increasingly complex and challenging dynamics of modern entrepreneurship, I would like to underscore a conceptual change that must be made in regard to the art of doing business: increasingly, we are living in a world of services and knowledge.

I am not referring to the concept of services in the ordinary sense of the term. I am referring to another aspect of this business, which is based more on interactions between individuals than between companies. Therefore, I would like to propose that the emphasis of business relations be shifted to interfaces between people – because the basic difference between two companies with the same qualifications will be the understanding they have reached regarding what the Client wants to be and do – the essence of the act of rendering services.

The activities involved in engineering and construction are usually viewed generically as services.

Nevertheless, an Engineering & Construction company that wants to stand out from the competition must not only make it its business to “satisfy the Client,” as our Founder, Norberto Odebrecht, always says, but ensure that it is increasingly qualified to identify the present and future needs of the communities it serves or wishes to serve, and do so in a timely fashion. The next step is bringing

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together the players who can mobilize the resources needed to meet those needs, including the key figure of the Client, whom the company must serve from the politicalstrategic, strategic-entrepreneurial and entrepreneurial-operational standpoints. In this sense, the execution of the venture (project) per se will not always be the most important factor.

Therefore, the international competitiveness of our Engineering & Construction activities is directly linked to our competence in identifying needs and Clients, and consequently in structuring and developing businesses. This means offering Clients our specific technological expertise and capacity for general management, practicing environmentally and socially responsible entrepreneurship, and ensuring the political, economic and social viability of ventures that the communities need and the Client has either taken charge of or established as a dream they want realized.

When applied to industry, the concept of services can encompass the entire supply chain through close and constant interaction with the Client, research and development support, value-added, shared dreams and partnering, and translates as the creation and application of knowledge for the benefit of that Client.

Braskem teams up with its downstream Clients, partnering with them to develop new busi-

nesses in the plastics manufacturing sector with a view to driving the growth of the entire petrochemicals supply chain – both upstream and downstream.

The aim is to ensure that Braskem is seen not only as the best supplier or raw materials but as a supplier of technical and commercial solutions that boost development and add value to the sector.

As a result, our commitment to rendering service can be broadened by transforming our very competencies into services. In other words, the knowledge we share with our Clients will become more than just a means of providing them more and better service if the leading players in a business enable the Client to become the co-owner of that knowledge, which will result in fresh qualifications and expertise for both Client and service provider.

Entrepreneurial organizations cannot grow without the right people, because the growth of organizations is a direct outcome of the growth of the people who comprise them.

Entrepreneurial organizations can only grow if they build the future every day. Therefore, identifying, hiring and grooming people to undertake the commitment to rendering services to our Clients with the highest quality, and take pleasure in doing so – a basic tenet of the Odebrecht Entrepreneurial Technology – is still our most gratifying and enduring challenge.

ODEBRECHT INFORMA 9

WORKPLACE SAFETY

NĂŠstor Chicaiza Ramirez, an Odebrecht member working on the San Francisco project; opposite, operating a crane: the results of workplace safety efforts have been achieved through persistence, education and the support of management

AN OBSESSION Unprecedented safety figures obtained on the San Francisco project and at the Macaé Base reflect Odebrecht’s constant pursuit of excellence in workplace safety WRITTEN BY

T

Cláudio Lovato Filho • PHOTOS BY Américo Vermelho

he San Francisco Hydroelectric Project in Ecuador and the Odebrecht Base at Macaé, Rio de Janeiro, in June respectively reached the milestones of 5 million and 12 million person-hours worked without any lost-time accidents. These figures, which were reached by calculating the number of hours worked by each project’s crew, correspond to 18 months with zero lost-time accidents for the project in Ecuador and three years for the base in Brazil. The reason for these achievements goes well beyond the correct use of individual protection equipment (IPE).

“It takes persistence to raise people’s awareness, sensitize them about the importance of following safety guidelines and educate them to do so,” says OrlanSEPT/OCT

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do Santini. As the officer responsible for Workplace Safety on the San Francisco Project, Orlando heads a 40-person team, including safety engineers and technicians, doctors and support personnel. “Above all, these results are due to support from management, the involvement of everyone on the team, and individual attitudes and actions,” he adds.

According to Contract Director José Conceição Santos, safety protocols have to be an integral part of the project from the very beginning, including the budgeting stage. “You can’t improvise that sort of thing.”

He says that the team’s maturity and a strong sense of unity among the people building the hydroelectric plant are key factors for the success of the San Francisco Project’s safety program. José Conceição’s expeODEBRECHT INFORMA 17

The Workplace Safety Program management team at San Francisco: from left, Dr. Diego Ortiz, Patrício Palacio, Luis Burgos, Orlando Santini, Byron Andrade and Victor Mosquéra. Right, in the yellow jacket, Antônio Gaspar

Six months ahead of schedule Work on the San Francisco project is well advanced: 57% of the civil construction is complete. The project is named after the village where it is situated in the municipality of Baños, in the central Ecuadorian province of Tungurahua. Construtora Norberto Odebrecht has been building the project on the Pastaza River since November 2003 for HidroPastaza S.A., a corporation whose shareholders include Hidroagoyán, a state-owned company, and Odebrecht. Most of the financing is being provided by the BNDES, Brazil’s national economic and social development bank.The project, which includes a 11.2km tunnel, will use water discharged by the Agoyán hydroelectric plant’s turbines and increase Ecuador’s power generating capacity by 12%, producing 212 MW (megawatts) of electricity. The San Francisco Project is six months ahead of schedule and should be up and running by the end of 2006.

18 ODEBRECHT INFORMA

rience with mining projects is a great help.

“This is a dangerous project. We are working at depths of up to 800 meters underground.

Therefore, we are applying safety concepts used on mining projects, where high risks require strict protocols and procedures and special precautions, including ventilation and visibility.”

There are 1,360 people working on the project. Most are local hires with no prior experience of working on major construction projects. They underwent extensive education and training before being hired, and safety was a critical part of that process. By July 2005, the safety team had carried out 1,500 training and educational procedures and 1,040 inspections of the site, vehicles and equipment. Over 100 risk analyses involving specific training and 70 procedures were developed and implemented in the same period.

Daily work training sessions, or DWTs, are a highly important part of this process. Called charlas in Spanish, these safety chats take just a few minutes. Held by the supervisors before an activity begins, they provide instructions and reminders and ensure that everyone grasps the spirit of the task ahead.

Civil construction works supervisor Nain Galarza Bermeo says that the most important thing is instilling confidence in the work team.

“The workers have to understand that everything has been carefully planned and thought out ahead of time. A leader must win people’s trust in order to be followed.”

Luís Joel Burgos Bernal is an Ecuadorian safety engineer who has been with Odebrecht since 1998. He says that it is important to maintain “objective communication and a clear focus.”

Burgos was a construction worker for 16 years until he earned a degree in Industrial Engineering in 1980. “We do our best to identify the risks involved in each job, determine the procedures to be followed and provide the necessary guidelines. After that, we conscientiously and respectfully ensure that they are followed.” And Burgos’s fellow countryman Vitor Mosquéra, also a Safety Engineer, observes: “It is important to display knowledge SEPT/OCT

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Foto: Roberto Rosa

Macaé Base member working on a Petrobras platform in the Campos Basin: strict safety procedures ensure the well being of teams working in high-risk conditions

and experience and approach the subject respectfully, with a focus on education.”

According to Eduardo Barbosa, the officer responsible for Administration and Finance, one of the factors that helped the project achieve the milestone of 5 million person-hours worked without any lost-time accidents was the synergy between teams from all the different programs involved, obtained through an effective communication system.

He points out the intensive work being done with the supervisors, who are on the front lines and serve as a link with the work crews. Through their supervisors, Eduardo adds, the workers realize just how much SEPT/OCT

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attention the management team is paying to them, and this motivates them to take preventive measures.

“By achieving credibility and setting an example, we are laying down the basic safety guidelines that must permeate all levels of the project. And that is what we are doing here in San Francisco.”

SAFETY IS ALSO A VALUE AT MACAÉ The same safety precautions can also be seen in the day-to-day operations at Odebrecht’s Macaé Base, which provides support to Petrobras for the maintenance of offshore platforms installed in the Campos Basin, off the coast of Rio de Janeiro State, that proODEBRECHT INFORMA 19

From left, Dr. Nelson Salen, Augusto Raguzzoni, Miguel Gradin and Edney Coutinho

duce 80% of Brazil’s oil output. The Macaé Base is currently carrying out three contracts, the biggest of which is the Petrobras South Asset, made up of four platforms where Odebrecht keeps a crew of about 600 professionals. Both for the people working onshore and the workers aboard the platforms, safety procedures are almost an obsession.

“We want to get people to be more and more committed,” says Edney Coutinho, the officer responsible for Workplace Safety at the Macaé Base. The main tools used to achieve this are training and information, but the team also carries out a Behavioral Audit program and a ZeroAccident Campaign, offering prizes and bonuses to encourage the proper use of safety equipment.

The measures being taken to ensure the safety of Odebrecht members at the Macaé Base begin at the office of Dr. Nelson Salen, the physician who coordinates periodic check-ups, physical conditioning programs, psychological tests (to determine their ability to work in confined spaces, for example) and occupational safety information campaigns. The goal is zero personnel sent ashore due to illness. The flu is the most frequent reason for leaving the platform ear-

20 ODEBRECHT INFORMA

ly to return to the mainland. Providing support for offshore workers’ families is one feature of the work of the Macaé Base’s medical area. “The doctor’s office is always open to company members’ relatives,” says Nelson. “Workers spend 15 days at a time on the platform. If they know that their families are being well taken care of, they won’t worry as much about them and will be able to concentrate on their work. We have to be proactive.”

Occupational Safety Technician Augusto César Raguzzoni knows how important it is to be proactive in the offshore sector. “We have to know all about each individual’s health: if they’re fit to work in confined spaces, have high blood pressure or some other problem.” Augusto spends most of his time offshore. Even on Petrobras platforms, when more than 50 Odebrecht members are working there, the presence of the company’s occupational safety technicians is mandatory. They take turns on the platforms, working in shifts. “On the platforms, each procedure depends on PTs (work authorizations), which gives you a good idea of the precautions taken with the work being done there.”

Contract Director Miguel Gradin is convinced that achieving results like 12 million person-hours with zero lost-time accidents depends on a combination of factors, such as a competent team, an understanding with SEPT/OCT

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A worker at the Macaé Base Pipeshop: co-workers ensure that everyone follows safety procedures correctly

the client, ongoing education, awareness raising and training, and the managers’ presence at the work fronts. “But more than anything else, it is key to believe it is possible,” he stresses. “For us, safety is a value that originates from a real concern for the welfare of each and every one of our company members. We prioritize prevention and strive to ensure that people have peace of mind and can do their job well and effectively. In this context, our work with members’ families has been fundamental.”

The idea of family also permeates the environment at the Macaé Base.

“Here our co-workers are always demanding that everyone use safety equipment and have a preventive attitude. We know that accidents can happen any time and that is why we are always on the alert, watching out for ourselves and others,” says Boilermaking Supervisor Valdecir Botelho, better known as “Badeco.” “We’re like a very close family.”

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“Examples that must be followed” As he walks through the construction site for the San Francisco Project,Antônio Gaspar,the Construtora Norberto Odebrecht officer responsible for Workplace safety,pays attention to every detail.And he calls attention to safety protocols and procedures and key situations for safe operations,some of which might go unnoticed by an untrained visitor.In one section of the tunnel,he observes that used materials and items that are about to be used - piles,metal plates,connections – are stacked up against the walls.“That leaves the way clear for people and vehicles to get through and makes it safer to move around.”Then,he points to a worker doing a job on some scaffolding.He is wearing all the necessary gear,or individual protection equipment (IPE) – from a safety belt with a lifeline attached,to a mask to filter the air,as well as eye and ear protection.

Gaspar frequently visits Odebrecht’s projects in Brazil and other countries,taking along his support team,his experience and his knowledge.Part of his job is to engage in dialogue with contract managers to help make their workplace-safety strategies even more effective.“The San Francisco project and the Macaé Base are examples that must be followed,”says Gaspar.“They are practicing our principle of maintaining installed capacity at the jobsites for the full development of safety programs.”

Sérgio Leão,the Construtora Norberto Odebrecht officer responsible for Workplace Safety, Health and the Environment,adds:“The main hallmark of examples like the San Francisco project and the Macaé Base is the implementation of a structured program for continued learning.”

Sérgio Leão observes that there is a decisive combination of factors at the San Francisco project and the Macaé Base,including the focus on training and advance preparations for the tasks involved in a given job;educating and training the teams at the helm of safety programs;getting the necessary support from the management team; interaction between the contract management teams – Planning,Engineering and Production – and the safety team,particularly in regard to risk assessment;and the active role that safety plays in the task of always providing instructions and training whenever any questions,opportunities or new situations arise that need to be assessed.

ODEBRECHT INFORMA 21

IRRIGATION

Gaining new hope and new lives Nearly 80,000 Venezuelans will enjoy the benefits of the El Diluvio-Palmar project. Many are already benefiting from fresh prospects while the irrigation system is under construction WRITTEN BY

22 ODEBRECHT INFORMA

Humberto Werneck • PHOTOS BY Holanda Cavalcanti

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T

he El Diluvio-Palmar project, the first large irrigation system built in Venezuela in the past three decades, will convey water to hundreds of small farms, creating the conditions for developing agribusiness activities in the Maracaibo region of the western part of the country. Until now, the main economic activity there has been livestock husbandry on a small or medium scale.

About 77,000 people stand to benefit from the project, either directly or indirectly, through increased work opportunities and a better life. They

will no longer be forced to emigrate in search of jobs, and this will solve another serious problem by encouraging the orderly settlement of a problematic part of the Venezuelan border that is currently exposed to the activities of guerrillas and the traffic in drugs from Colombia.

“What we are doing here is much more than building an engineering and construction project,” says Odebrecht Contract Director Ivan Joventino, who is responsible for the El Diluvio-Palmar irrigation system project.

“We are also making a major contribution in human terms.”

The first contract for the project was signed in the late 1990s with the National Rural Development Institute (Inder), an agency of the Venezuelan Government. At the time, the project consisted of a 48-km pipeline-and-channel network. Five years later, Odebrecht was invited to broaden the physical and, above all, the social scope of the project by adding secondary and tertiary branches to the system. Begun in November 2003, the project is scheduled for completion by July 2007.

According to Civil Engineer Tibisay León, the President of Inder: “There is a relationship of mutual teaching and learning between Inder and Odebrecht.” And she adds: “Together we have overcome all the

obstacles that have arisen in the course of this enterprise. We are working in a coordinated and cohesive manner with team spirit.” Tibisay León points out that the benefits of this project include the creation of new jobs in the region, and the appreciation of indigenous culture.

Agricultural Engineer Dulce Hermoso, from Inder, is the coordinator of the El Diluvio-Palmar Management Unit. In her view, “The contribution that Odebrecht has made goes beyond technology – it is also human and social.” This positive feedback is very gratifying for José Claudio Daltro, the Odebrecht officer responsible for Administration and Finance in Venezuela, who sees it as recognition of the company’s “hard work based on social responsibility.”

WORKING IN A HIGH-RISK AREA About 30 subcontractors are taking part in the construction of the pipeline and channel under Odebrecht’s supervision. The system will obtain water from El Diluvio reservoir, when the dam is completed.

Located near the Perijá mountain range, which borders Venezuela and Colombia, the reservoir will be formed by the Palmar and Lajas rivers. The water will travel through steel pipes for the first 9 km, and an open 38.3km trapezoidal channel lined with a

Local residents from the area where the channel is being built: expectations that an agribusiness center will flourish there

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ODEBRECHT INFORMA 23

Adilson Secco Arquivo Inder

polyethylene geomembrane will ence of security forces made take over from there. up of members of the VeThe pipes are 9 m in length nezuelan Army, the National with varying diameters - 3.20 m, Guard (the equivalent of the 3 m, and 2.80 m – the solution FBI or Federal Police) and a prifound to facilitate transportation vate company called Oriandes. by sea from the Brazilian city of Suspicious planes no longer Recife to Maracaibo, Venezuela, land on the strips of ground since the sections of pipe fit being cleared to build the inside each other in threes. The canal. "It has been two years water that will flow through the Inder President Tibisay León: team spirit since an incident was reportpipeline will make it possible to ed here,”says Army Major irrigate 20,000 ha of land, includBenjamín Santana Morales, ing 10,000 ha during the initial one of the people in charge of phase. Rainfall on the Marathe security system. caibo plain averages 1,000 mm The people building the per year, but the conditions for project are also kept safe by water accumulation are poor, an alternative security propartly because the average temgram that is informal but highperature in the region is 33ºC. ly effective – the so-called anilThe biggest challenge of the lo invisible de seguridad (invisproject, however, is not techniible security cordon) formed Ivan Joventino and Dulce Hermoso: integrating cultures cal, but social, since it is being by local residents. On their built in a high-risk area. Wheown initiative, without pay, the ther pursued by soldiers from their in the region. Farmers are forced to local population has developed a sort own country or in search of supplies, pay protection money, and painted of “neighborhood watch” – an inforguerrillas from neighboring Colom- fence posts signal “fincas vacunadas” mation network that is always on the bia regularly infiltrate Venezuelan – literally “vaccinated farms” – mean- alert to detect and warn of any abnorterritory. Farmers are often held for ing that their owners have paid off mal movements in the area. "If we ransom to raise money for the guer- the kidnappers to avoid being taken. don’t take care of the people who are rilla movement. Between January In the specific area where the El helping us, then who will?” explains and early August of this year, no less Diluvio Project is being built, the sit- farmer Julio González, the leader of than 13 kidnappings were reported uation is less dire thanks to the pres- the 1,200 inhabitants of Los Jagüeyes,

24 ODEBRECHT INFORMA

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Young Odebrecht engineers and managers working on the project: growth opportunity

“A Venezuela with Odebrecht sazón” The willingness and enthusiasm to work with and for Venezuelans is also reflected in the program to groom and develop young Venezuelan engineers and managers who are working for Odebrecht on the El Diluvio-Palmar project. In addition to their day-to-day responsibilities at the construction site, they also attend readings,meetings and debates that are enabling these enthusiastic young people to learn and get the most out of the principles and concepts of the Odebrecht Entrepreneurial Technology (TEO).Their mentor is a Brazilian, Arthur Nemrod, the Odebrecht officer responsible for AdminisSEPT/OCT

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tration and Finance on the El Dilúvio-Palmar project.

“Through this program,Odebrecht is reaffirming its commitment to the community about hiring and grooming young Venezuelan entrepreneurs to work on its projects,” observes Arthur Nemrod.“This commitment is growing steadily and producing results that are exceeding even the highest expectations.”

According to one of the participants,Fernando González,the officer responsible for IT and Telecommunications on the project,“The most important thing is the leader’s confidence in his team members.”He and his co-workers

all stress the valuable contribution that this experience is making by enabling them to work alongside people from many and varied cultures and countries.

Hiring Venezuelan workers and imbuing them with Odebrecht’s philosophy is always a priority. Including subcontractors’personnel,just 10 of the 863 workers at the construction sites in early August were nonVenezuelans: seven Brazilians, two Peruvians and one Ecuadorian.“We all have different perspectives, and that is a major plus,” says Diego Robalino, the Ecuadorian, who is the officer responsible for the Commercial Area and Contract Management

at El Diluvio-Palmar. According to Robalino,the result of that mix could be described as“Venezuela with Odebrecht sazón (seasoning).”

The outcome of this experience was one of the contributions Robalino made to his coworkers during a recent visit to Brazil, when he took part in the Program for Grooming and Developing Entrepreneurs (PDE).

“We’re not inventing anything new,”he says,“but because of the unique and subtle characteristics of this project, our experience at El Diluvio could certainly be very useful in other parts of the world where Odebrecht will be working in the future.”

ODEBRECHT INFORMA 25

one of the four indigenous settlements in the region. "We are the beneficiaries of this project, so we have to take care of it,” adds Julio’s sister, Maritza González, the leader of 1,540 members of another community, called El Laberinto. Some of the benefits she mentions arrived well before the canal. And they are among the main concerns of Peruvian Civil Engineer Julio Robles, from Odebrecht, the project’s Development Manager: "We have to carry out programs that will allow the project to establish roots,” says Robles, who firmly believes that it would be no use building a channel that ended up as nothing but a scar running across the Maracaibo plain because it lacked a social dimension.

This is what the project is all about.

Water still comes from afar, brought in in tank trucks (many times, through the intercession of Odebrecht), but the situation is changing. "Odebrecht is the first company that has taken us into account,” says Maritza. For example, unlike the hiring policies on previous projects, the people building El Diluvio are hired locally instead of being brought in from other parts of the country. As a result, rural workers (60% of whom are of indigenous descent, like Julio González) have had the opportunity to receive professional education and training, which immediately opened up prospects of better wages.

To give an idea of the change this has made in their quality of life, farm workers make 40,000 bolivars (about USD 17.00) per week, construction workers

on the El Diluvio-Palmar Project make 19,641.25 bolivars per week. A machine operator – like former farm worker Julio Cesar Cuadrado, Maritza’s husband – earns at least 23,950 bolivars per day.

Many of the women have found work as domestics – a brand new job market – in the homes of technicians brought in to build the channel. They can also find formal employment at the Odebrecht camp. Others have discovered a new market for their homemade sweets. Yarizza González observes that even some maleteras – local prostitutes who roam the streets carrying beach mats – have changed their line of work.

“People’s quality of life is over 50% better here,” says Julio González. And he is not just talking about work opportunities. The machines had not even arrived by Christmas of 2001, when local children met their first Santa Claus (or San Nicolás as they call him).

Since then, he has visited them every December, spreading joy with gifts from Odebrecht. This is additional evidence that Euzenando Azevedo, Odebrecht’s Managing Director for Venezuela, is right when he says, back in Caracas, that: “Venezuelans like our way of life, which prevents any possibility of rejection,” basing his observation on the experience of living in that country since 1994.

The way of life Euzenando is referring to reflects the company’s unwavering disposition: "Odebrecht

is committed to carrying out projects in Venezuela, but it has also undertaken a commitment to this country,” he emphasizes. "We are here to work with and for the Venezuelans. We arrived with a vision of a long-term future – we’ve come to stay.”

Thanks to the company’s efforts, the children living on the Maracaibo plain no longer drop out of school, as they once did. As a result of one Odebrecht initiative, their schools are now much more comfortable places to learn. The El Laberinto educational unit used to have just one bathroom; now there are eight, and the principal has her own office.

Improvements like these, and not just at the school, have ended up creating a healthy rivalry with the City Hall of Jesús Enrique Losada municipality, which was initially wary of the newcomers. However, this natural suspicion has completely vanished, replaced by an atmosphere of cooperation. Has Odebrecht paid to have the school painted? In a flash, Mayor Mario Urdaneta has a new nurse’s office built. Is the school out of ink?

The mayor provides it. A beneficial competition is underway, and everyone stands to win. "In life we must be like a bell,” says Yarizza González in her poetic way. She explains: "There has to be a coming and going, a giving and receiving. Here at El Diluvio-Palmar, we are the bell tower of this church that is taking shape.”

TRIBUTE

A time for celebration and acknowledgment The Ilhéus Business Association pays tribute to builder Emílio Odebrecht on the 71st anniversary of the completion of that institution’s headquarters WRITTEN BY

José Enrique Barreiro •

PHOTOS BY

Almir Bindilatti

I

n February 1932, “This institution wanted to builder Emílio Odepay homage to its past, and brecht delivered the therefore it chose Emílio blueprints for the Odebrecht as a way of pubIlhéus Business Assolicly expressing its gratitude ciation’s headquarters buildfor the lovely and solid legaing to its president, Misael cy he built for us.”

Tavares. A little over two The speakers at the tribyears later, on July 14, 1934, ute ceremony also included Emílio delivered the keys to Professor Antonio Carlos the building that symbolized Gomes da Costa, whose talk the economic might of the titled “Being an Entrepreonce-powerful cocoa plantneur” was based on the ing industry. The association eponymous book he has is headquartered there to written to analyze the entrethis day. preneurial thinking of NorHeld on July 14, 2005, Gerda Odebrecht accepts the diploma from José Leite de Souza berto Odebrecht. Antonio the celebrations of the 71st Carlos said that Norberto’s anniversary of the completion of this project included a thinking and works stem directly from his father, Emílio tribute by the Ilhéus Business Association to the builder Odebrecht, and other predecessors. “The entrepreneur Emílio Odebrecht (1894-1962). Emílio’s daughter Gerda Norberto Odebrecht’s education began with a solid famOdebrecht attended the ceremony as the Odebrecht family upbringing whose essence was the spirit of service,” ily’s representative. he said.

Held in a packed auditorium, the tribute began with The President of the Ilhéus Business Association prea dramatization of the moment when Emílio Odebrecht sented Gerda Odebrecht with a diploma awarding Emílio handed the plans for the building to Misael Tavares, one Odebrecht the posthumous title of Benefactor Member of the leading planters known as “cocoa colonels,” perof that institution. She thanked him for the recognition formed by local actors. By that time, Emílio had already and expressed her “immense joy” at being in a building built the mansion in which Misael lived, as well as the that her father built and seeing that “this structure is still Ilhéus Hotel, the first building in Bahia outside the state sound, beautiful and very well cared for.” Gerda observed capital equipped with an elevator. The dramatization that the city of Ilhéus played an important role in the hisshowed that when Emílio handed over the blueprints, he tory of Emílio Odebrecht & Cia. “Therefore, in addition was accompanied by young Osório de Carvalho, the engito thanking the Ilhéus Business Association, I would also neer responsible for the execution of that project. Osório’s like everyone who trusted the builder Emílio Odebrecht widow, Janira Amorim de Carvalho, and other members 71 years ago: as you can see, they were right to do so,” of his family were also present at the ceremony. she concluded.

The current President of the Ilhéus Business AssociJoão Sá, Márcio Polidoro and José Raimundo Lima, ation, José Leite de Souza, gave a speech saying that: from Odebrecht S.A., attended the tribute ceremony.

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ODEBRECHT INFORMA 27

INTERVIEW

The learnings of a WORLD traveler WRITTEN BY

Nelson Letaif

The two biggest challenges Luciano

importantly – broken records for

Guidolin, 33, has ever faced arrived at the

Braskem's exports: they totaled over

same time. In mid-2004, he became

USD 500 million in the first half of 2005.

responsible for the Braskem Polyolefins

Guidolin shares the credit for this

Unit's exports area shortly before the

achievement with the entire Braskem

K-Fair, the largest plastics trade fair in

team, and they are all justly proud,

the world, which is held every three years

but he has a special reason to celebrate.

in Dusseldorf, Germany. This would be

He joined Odebrecht 10 years ago as an

Braskem's first participation in such an

intern fresh out of the University of São

important event, and its main

Paulo Polytechnic, where he graduated

international clients, particularly the

in Production Engineering. In the

Europeans, would be visiting the

petrochemicals sector, he worked in

company's stand to discuss business and

the Corporate Planning area, and took

future plans. Three days before the K-Fair

part in the merger process that created

began, Guidolin became a father for the

Braskem, and was responsible for

first time. He spent four days at the

Marketing and Development at the Vinyls

hospital with his wife and child in São

Business Unit.

Paulo, took them home, and flew to

He has also spent two years in Boston,

Germany in time to take part in the fair.

Massachusetts, where he earned an MBA

“Taking that flight was one of the hardest

from the Harvard Business School, summa

things I've ever done,” recalls Guidolin.

cum laude. “I've had the opportunity to

“But nothing comes without sacrifices,

take on growing challenges that I never

and it has all been worthwhile.” He has

dreamed would arise so quickly or be so

since taken many international flights

major. This demonstrates that the Group

and collected numerous stamps in his

truly believes in young people and their

passport, as well as – and most

desire to grow.”

28 ODEBRECHT INFORMA

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Arquivo pessoal

Luciano Guidolin on the Great Wall of China: working closely with international markets is fascinating and motivating

Odebrecht Informa – Braskem has published its results for the first half of the year, including over USD 500 million in exports, which means a projected USD 1 billion for the year. Only a select group of Brazilian companies has achieved that figure. How is this possible?

Luciano Guidolin – First of all, our production units have achieved highly positive performance. Braskem's investments in the expansion of these units have increased our production capacity compared with last year. Productivity and operational reliability have also increased. Part of that production is earmarked for export. We have developed our logistics structure to support the sales drive focused on the foreign market. In the last nine months, we have also gone through a period of higher prices SEPT/OCT

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and margins in the international market. The result of all of these experiences has been that both volume and profitability have grown. Furthermore, Braskem has prioritized some foreign markets, including Argentina and Chile, where the company is taking important steps to increase its market share.

OI – How are these efforts being rewarded?

LG – This year, Braskem has recorded significant export figures for polyolefins. We broke three records in the field of exports in the last eight months. In addition to making us very happy, this has created a tremendous challenge for our sales, production and logistics teams, because the company is working with unprecedented volume.

OI – In addition to growing its export revenue, has Braskem increased the list of buyer nations?

LG – Yes, we are now exporting to over 50 countries and have adopted a strategy of gaining access to international markets that focuses on establishing a closer relationship with each distributor and end client. We have established South America as our natural market, where we provide service that is similar to what we offer our Brazilian clients in terms of proximity and the intensity of services, while establishing regular distribution bases and a constant flow of products to some European countries, as well as Africa and Asia. This year we have seen important growth in South America and increased our presence in the Asian markets. Our aim is to maintain a level of exports that ensures they always represent something like 20% of Braskem's net income.

ODEBRECHT INFORMA 29

OI – Is there any product in particular that stands out among the company's exports?

LG – One of the highlights is Utec®, the registered trademark for our ultra-high molecular weight (UHMW) polyethylene, which is produced at Camaçari. It is a highvalue-added engineering plastic used in technical parts, fibers used to make bulletproof vests and other applications. Braskem is the world's second-largest manufacturer of the product. It is a high-performance plastic resin developed by Braskem engineers in our own labs, which gives us competitive advantages over century-old international petrochemical companies.

This demonstrates that we can also satisfy our clients' needs in the special resins segment. We want to become the world's leading Utec supplier by 2010, which will mean doubling our production volume during that period. This presents a highly motivating challenge for the foreign sales team and the Utec business. We recently won the Abiquim Innovation Award for Utec. The Brazilian Chemical Industry Association bestows this award on companies with outstanding performance in the field of technology. It represents the recognition of the entire industry in Brazil for the success of this product and Braskem's development efforts.

OI – Why did Braskem decide to establish a strategic presence in international markets, instead of relying on circumstance, like some companies, to compensate for downturns in the domestic market?

LG – Braskem understands that exports are always going to be an important part of its production and sales strategy. They already represent about 20% of the compa-

30 ODEBRECHT INFORMA

ny's total earnings. Exports are key to not only optimizing and maximizing production but to positioning Braskem as a company that aspires to grow into a leading, world-class petrochemical producer. This international presence demonstrates that the company has products of recognized quality and long-term relationships with its clients both in Brazil and abroad.

Braskem also has a strategy of gaining more profitability for its operations through long-term contracts. We have already established contractual relationships with clients on three continents. The aim of these contracts is to gain more profitability through a closer relationship with clients when offering products and services.

Braskem's growth plans will definitely make the company a player in the world market.

OI – Will these growth plans eventually benefit domestic consumers as well?

LG – Our Brazilian clients will definitely enjoy the benefits. The international market is highly competitive in terms of prices and the efficiency of the supply chain. This directly impacts the development of products and new solutions, the improvement of logistics processes, packaging and so forth. As a result of all of this, Braskem is developing its processes and becoming more and more competitive. Braskem is also increasingly providing support for those clients who are starting to take an interest in operating outside Brazil.

Our sales office for Utec in the United States has also tended to be an “incubator” for Brazilian companies. A major client of ours is being “incubated” by our office in the United States and will develop its operations in that country on

the basis of Braskem's experience there. We are also placing our experience at the service of our other clients. I should stress that the support Braskem provides its clients is making them more competitive and giving them more exposure in the world market, thereby increasing Brazilian exports of manufactured plastic products.

OI – Is the export market as profitable as the domestic market?

LG –The profitability of our South American operations is similar to those in Brazil. These are natural and strategic markets for Braskem. In other parts of the world, results from exports have been lower, but they have also made an important contribution to the company's cash flow. Furthermore, they have given us access to financial operations that provide export guarantees, which is another way of reducing Braskem's capital expenses. Exports are creating value for the company and establishing Braskem as an increasingly international company with steadily diminishing business risk in the eyes of the world markets.

OI – Is Braskem prepared to become a global supplier for major international companies?

LG – Absolutely. A major client has compared us to the world's leading plastic resin producers.

That client manufactures packaging, and we are their suppliers on three continents, which puts us in a highly positive position, both from the standpoint of the product's performance and service, logistics, etc. We are easily able to analyze and provide services for any contract or partnership. However, we must do more than supply products to clients in other SEPT/OCT

• 2005

OI – Have your work routine and life changed very much since you took this job?

LG – They've changed a lot. On the personal level, it has been extremely interesting to come into contact with different cultures, people and partners around the world.

This sort of work involves a great deal of travel, time spent in airplanes and stamps in my passport; long-haul flights and lengthy stays away from Braskem's headquarters. But all my travels have been a very valuable and interesting experience in terms of relationships and cultural perspectives.

OI – Is fluency in English the only requirement, or do you need to brush up on other languages before coming into contact with different cultures?

LG – Today, it is vital to have a good command of the English language, as well as Spanish, which is increasingly becoming a key factor. As for other languages, such as Mandarin, Korean and Japanese, we always get the help of an interpreter or a business partner who speaks the language. In the future, Braskem's members will include people who speak all of those Asian languages fluently, because China, South Korea and Japan are very important markets for us.

OI – Does protocol sometimes require unusual behavior by Brazilian standards?

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Élcio Carriço

countries. We are chiefly interested in establishing long-term relationships with strategic clients.

That is what enables us to make increasing improvements to our products, reduce supply chain costs and create value for our shareholders and our upstream and downstream operations.

“Exports create value and establish Braskem as an increasingly international company with steadily diminishing business risk in the eyes of the world markets” LG – Of all the cultures we have come across, Asia is certainly the most different from Brazil. Protocol requires endless dinners with a long series of toasts, which has been a very unusual experience. In the Chinese culture, for example, the host chooses a complete dinner menu and the guest is specially asked to try every single dish that is put on the table. Sometimes the guest is given a special treat, such as eating a 50-cm fish head with his hands, and the greatest delicacy is the eyes. I experienced that in Hong Kong. It would be impolite to refuse such an honor. Other dishes, such as bird's nests made from the regurgitated saliva of swallows, are also on the menu, as well as even more exotic tid-bits.

In China, one never says no to an offer or rejects a proposal. One says “perhaps,” or “I'll think about it.”

We have to understand what our partner is trying to tell us. And we always have to have one person in a delegation who is identified as the leader of the mission. All of this has been an invaluable learning experience.

OI – Will you have the energy to continue with this challenge for very long?

LG – Being close to the front line of the business and international markets is fascinating and highly motivating. Braskem's development program and international ambitions present years of opportunities and motivation.

ODEBRECHT INFORMA 31

ENVIRONMENT

An essential field of activity Odebrecht now provides environmental engineering services through a new subsidiary called Lumina WRITTEN BY

José Enrique Barreiro and Ricardo Arnt

PHOTOS BY

Almir Bindilatti and Holanda Cavalcanti

Cetrel’s facilities at Camaçari: a Braskem affiliate, the company is now partnering with Lumina to treat industrial waste

T

Cetrel, a company originally created to provide industrial waste management services at the Camaçari Petrochemical Complex.

“We believe in the potential of the environmental sector,” says Marco Cruz, Managing Director of Lumina. “The culture of environmental protection has always been an integral part of our work, but carrying out and providing environmental services on a large scale is new to us.”

Previously CNO’s officer responsible for Peru and Central America & the Caribbean, Marco Cruz has spent 18 years of his life in Lima, Peru; Panama City, and Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic.

He adds that his next challenge will be “consolidating a business that will meet the market’s many and varying demands, while winning and managing qualified contracts with a focus on the client.”

Lumina is active in four areas: industrial waste treatment, urban waste treatment, wastewater treatment with a focus on water reuse, and managing water and sewer concessions.

Lumina has teamed up with Cetrel to treat industrial waste. That partnership resulted in the creation of Cetrel Lumina, a company formed

by both partners for that specific purpose. Founded 27 years ago, Cetrel’s operations have expanded beyond the Camaçari complex, and the industrial waste management company now provides its services to a range of clients from other parts of Brazil.

Lumina’s services will also include the treatment of urban waste. “Waste treatment and disposal requires environmentally sound solutions, which is not happening in most Brazilian cities,” says Paulo Couto, the Lumina officer responsible for Business Development. Less than 30% of municipalities dispose of urban waste appropriately, and the sanitary landfills that do exist are reaching saturation point. In most cities, trash is disposed of in open-air dumps, which are seriously harmful to the environment in many ways. For example, there are over 500 municipalities in São Paulo State, one of the most developed parts of Brazil, and only half have landfills. São Paulo City, the state capital, produces about 12,000 tonnes (metric tons) per day of household waste.

Urban sanitation requires investments from municipal governments that are often beyond their means, which creates a demand for publicAdilson Secco

here is promise for growth in the environmental services market created by legal requirements and the burgeoning ecological awareness in Brazil. Competition from foreign companies entering the Brazilian market, the lowering of import barriers and the demand for eco-friendly exports with “green seals” have forced Brazilian companies to rethink costs and concepts, particularly losses incurred during productive processes. Reducing, reusing and recycling waste, as well as properly treating and disposing of it, are environmentally responsible measures that add value to products, improving their efficiency and economic performance and enhancing the image of the companies that make them.

Following the Group’s tradition of recognizing and seizing new opportunities, Odebrecht Engineering & Construction is now active in environmental engineering through Lumina, a subsidiary established in July 2004.

Lumina brings together Odebrecht’s experience in structuring major engineering projects in Brazil and other countries, and the environmental protection expertise of

Lumina, a subsidiary of CNO, is associated with ODEBRECHT Engineering & Construction. In the area of industrial waste management, Lumina works in partnership with Cetrel.

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ODEBRECHT INFORMA 33

Lumina’s management team: from left, Eduardo Frediani, Leopoldo Godoy, Antonio Ibarra, Marco Cruz, Paulo Couto and Fernando Jucá

private partnerships. “This market is in need of a technological upgrade, particularly when it comes to waste treatment and disposal,” says Paulo Couto.

In the area of wastewater treatment, the cost of water is on the rise due to increased consumption and new laws and government regulations setting taxes on water obtained directly from rivers. Large industrial consumers such as petrochemical plants, oil and gas companies, steel mills, mines and car factories are taking measures to reuse water instead.

Lumina will also manage municipal water and sewer services through concession agreements, as well as operating water supply and treatment and sewage disposal systems, just as Águas da Limeira has been doing for 10 years in the city of Limeira, São Paulo. Lumina owns a stake in that company, in partnership with the Suez Group from France.

CETREL-LUMINA PARTNERSHIP When Cetrel began operations in 1978, the Camaçari Petrochemical Complex was just getting started. Now called the Camaçari Industrial Complex, it contains petrochemical plants, car factories, paper and pulp mills, copper plants and

34 ODEBRECHT INFORMA

breweries. Over the course of its 27 years, Cetrel’s original mission of collecting, treating and disposing of liquid and solid waste produced by companies at that industrial district has broadened and the environmental protection company has taken on greater responsibilities.

Today, Cetrel has a modern treatment plant that handles organic waste from 62 companies, the equivalent of a city of 2 million people. Its collection system is 60 kilometers long, and includes eight pumping plants and a 5-km marine outfall that discharges treated wastewater into the sea with excellent dilution and dispersion. Cetrel owns and operates the largest incinerator facilities in Latin America, including sophisticated incinerators for hazardous waste, both liquid and solid.

“We have broadened and diversified the range of environmental services we provide to keep pace with the industrial district’s expansion,” says Dênio Cidreira, 38, the company’s executive director. Since its inception, Cetrel has acquired new competencies, expanded its lab, hired people with master’s degrees and doctorates from foreign universities and started providing diagnostic tests and measurements for

contaminated areas and air-quality monitoring, among other services.

As a result, Cetrel Lumina can offer its clients integrated solutions for all kinds of industrial waste. “We will manage these services in accordance with the Total Waste Management (TWM) concept, including the installation of waste treatment plants,” says Paulo Couto.

Cetrel Lumina’s operations also focus on decontaminating degraded areas and providing emergency services to clean up oil spills. “We have planned integrated measures involving Environmental Protection and Civil Defense centers to intervene after an accident that could potentially endanger the environment,” says Marco Cruz. “It’s like a special task force for crisis management.”

As a result, Cetrel is expanding its client base beyond Camaçari and rendering its services in other markets. Cetrel Lumina is already providing environmental services to 40 clients outside the Camaçari Complex through over 100 industrial waste processing contracts. “Cetrel and Lumina complement each other,” says Dênio Cidreira. “Our challenge is to harness these synergies and grow.”

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Norberto Odebrecht (top row, center, conversing with Pedro Novis) during his visit to the Carrizal-Chone System jobsite in Ecuador

A scene from the visit to the Orinoco River bridge construction site: foreground, Norberto Odebrecht and Estevão Timponi

ORGANIZATION

Presence at jobsites Norberto Odebrecht visits construction sites in Ecuador and Venezuela, talks to company members and discusses the social impact of the projects they are building WRITTEN BY

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Cláudio Lovato Filho

orberto Odebrecht, Honorary Chairman of Odebrecht S.A. and President of the Board of Trustees of the Odebrecht Foundation, paid a visit in August to the sites where the Carrizal-Chone System is being built in Ecuador and a bridge is being erected across the Orinoco River in Venezuela. He had a first-hand look at the progress of these two projects, listened to reports about them, and talked to young company members. He was particularly interested in learning about the social impacts of these ventures.

Pedro Novis, President and CEO of Odebrecht S.A., and José Augusto Mendes, the company’s officer Responsible for Organization and People, accompanied Norberto Odebrecht during his visits to these two countries. Representing Construtora Norberto Odebrecht S.A. were its CEO, Marcelo Odebrecht, and Carlos Hupsel, the CNO officer responsible for Planning and Development.

On August 9, Norberto Odebrecht visited the site where the Carrizal-Chone System is under construction in the western Ecuadorian province of Manabí. The project will solve the problem of water shortages during the dry seasons and prevent flooding in wintertime. The system includes a network of channels that are being built under the leadership of Contract Director Ricardo Boleira.

Fernando Reis, Odebrecht’s Managing Director for SEPT/OCT

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Ecuador, gave a talk on the company’s operations in that country, which also include the construction of the San Francisco Hydroelectric Project under the responsibility of Contract Director José Conceição Santos.

Norberto Odebrecht arrived in Venezuela the following day. In Puerto Ordaz, he visited the bridge construction site on the Orinoco. While there, he heard presentations by Managing Director Euzenando Azevedo and Contract Director Estevão Timponi, Antonio Carlos Daiha Blando, Marcelo Colavolpe and Ivan Joventino, who are respectively responsible for four different projects underway in that country: the bridge, the Caracas Metro, Los Teques Metro and the El Diluvio-Palmar Irrigation Project.

During dinner on both evenings of his two-day trip, Norberto Odebrecht paid special attention to the young Odebrecht members working in the two countries. He spoke to them about his professional experiences, discussed philosophical aspects of Odebrecht’s operations, and asked them for details about the projects’ socioeconomic benefits. At Carrizal-Chone, Odebrecht is helping the client, Corporación Reguladora del Manejo Hídrico de Manabí (CRM), develop programs aimed at ensuring the sustainability of projects being carried out there. Norberto Odebrecht also talked to local farmers to find out what their lives are like today, and what they are doing to prepare for the new realities ahead of them.

ODEBRECHT INFORMA 35

PETROCHEMICALS

ENGINEERING THE FUTURE AT PAULÍNIA Petrobras and Braskem are investing in a new plant with a view to joining the exclusive club of the world’s top 10 polypropylene manufacturers WRITTEN BY

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used to make toys and household appliances, broom and brush bristles, sacking, safety nets for construction, disposable diapers, hospital products and furniture, among many other products.

Because of its versatile applications, polypropylene consumption in Brazil is growing 10% per year. The current demand is 1 million tonnes (metric tons) per year, and by 2007 it will be 1.2 million t/yr. It will also be the year when Braskem and Petroquisa, a Petrobras subsidiary, will begin running the polypropylene production unit to be built in Paulínia, São Paulo. “The decision to invest in this new plant demonstrates our confidence in the growth of the Brazilian economy and the thermoplastic resins market,” says Braskem Entre-

preneurial Leader (CEO) José Carlos Grubisich.

Construction of the plant, which will be situated in the heart of Brazil’s main consumer market for polypropylene, will require a total investment of USD 240 million. The new unit will have an initial production capacity of 300,000 to 350,000 tonnes per year, but the aim is to reach 400,000 t/yr, in addition to the 650,000 t/yr that Braskem already produces at the Triunfo Petrochemical Complex in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. The new unit is expected to earn an average of over USD 300 million annually.

Initially, the Paulínia plant will sell 40% to 50% of its output in the domestic market. The remainder will enable the company to increase its exports of this product. “This new Adilson Secco

raskem is striving to consolidate its commanding market share for polypropylene in Brazil, looking beyond the year 2007.” This announcement by Luiz de Mendonça, the Braskem Vice President responsible for the Polyolefins Unit, signals the future trends for this business in Brazil and worldwide. Polypropylene, a plastic resin that was introduced in the chemicals industry in 1954 and first hit the market in 1960, is increasingly present in people’s daily lives because it is used in almost everything we see around us: food packaging, textiles and cosmetics, pop bottle caps and freezer containers, even car bumpers and panels. Polypropylene can also be

Karolina Gutiez • PHOTOS BY Holanda Cavalcanti

36 ODEBRECHT INFORMA

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Luiz de Mendonça and Luís Felli: expanding polypropylene exports

unit will position Braskem as an important player in the international polypropylene market, ranking among the world’s top ten producers of that plastic resin,” says Luís Felli, the company’s Sales Director for Polypropylene. The main importers of the Braskem Polyolefins Unit’s production are Argentina, Chile and Peru, followed by Europe and Asia, particularly China. “The Chinese market will show robust growth, according to forecasts of polypropylene consumption, and Braskem will keep pace with that development,” adds Felli.

The process technology that Braskem will contribute to Paulínia is the most advanced of its kind on the world market, and the key to making the expansion project possible. Braskem has two plants called Bulk 1 and Bulk 2 at the Triunfo PetroSEPT/OCT

• 2005

chemical Complex that are identical to the unit being built in the interior of São Paulo State. “Basell, the company that licenses the Spheripol technology, has hailed these plants as the best in Brazil and an international benchmark for quality and productivity,” observes Luiz de Mendonça.

To ensure that Bulk 3, the new plant in Paulínia, stays at the cutting edge, Braskem has signed an agreement with Basell to upgrade its technology until 2010.

In a competitive and promising market like the polypropylene sector, Braskem is using technology to stand out from the competition: innovation, the development of new products and plans for replacing other materials. The aim of all this is to ensure the loyalty of the company’s key-clients. “Braskem is pursuing growth in its segment of the market

in order to consolidate its commanding market share. The strategy for achieving this is to offer outstanding products and services without causing predatory competition and unfair pricing,” explains Luís Felli.

The master plan for the new unit has been completed. The next step is creating a Specific Purpose Partnership (SPE) in which Braskem will have 60% of the voting stock and Petroquisa will own 40%.

Both companies will share the management of the Paulínia unit: in addition to supplying the technology, Braskem will be responsible for product marketing and sales, technical assistance and client service; Petroquisa will supply the raw materials – polymer-grade propylene.

The shareholders will contribute 30% of the USD 240 million cost of the project and the remainder will be obtained through specific long-term loans. “We are investing in a worldclass unit that combines production scale, state-of-the-art technology and access to raw materials on competitive terms,” says José Carlos Grubisich.

Braskem’s next step will be to sign the engineering and construction contracts to build the plant.

Then, the process of hiring new company members to operate the facility will begin. These teams will be trained at the Bulk 1 and Bulk 2 plants. Other important features of the project are logistics involving raw materials and the final product, as well as advance marketing, which will begin in early 2007.

All of these operations must be in place by the time the plant is up and running. “The Paulínia unit is the first brand-new installation, or what we call a ‘greenfield’ project, that Braskem has taken part in since its inception three years ago. And we are acquiring a taste for this kind of challenge,” observes Luiz de Mendonça.

ODEBRECHT INFORMA 37

PROFESSION

TRUST AND TRANSPARENCY Braskem’s José Marcos Treiger discusses his work as an officer responsible for Investor Relations WRITTEN BY

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João U. G. Sant’Anna • PHOTOS BY Luciana De Francesco

hey work at the forefront of capitalism – financial marketing.

Their job is to conduct an economic analysis of a growing group of shareholders made up of people who make lifelong investments to ensure a comfortable retirement, as well as institutions that make massive investments every day to ensure their solidity and growth.

They deal with information that can be expressed mathematically, as well as things as fragile and ephemeral as credibility, trust and reputation.

For them, the world is divided into the sell-side (banks, brokers, investment analysts), which represents the interests of the companies seeking the resources they need to grow; and the buy-side: institutional investors that manage other people’s money, such as pension funds and insurance, as well as private investors. They are professionals who multiply the value of businesses, develop markets and influence financial transactions worth trillions of dollars.

Their profession: investor relations, or simply, IR. “This is a strategic activity aimed at establishing closer relations between a publicly traded company whose shares are listed

38 ODEBRECHT INFORMA

on the stock market, and investors,” explains José Marcos Treiger, the Braskem officer responsible for IR. “It involves corporate communications, finance and marketing, and provides investors important and accurate information about the company’s performance. Among other things, it enables the company to play a more active role in the process of developing its own share prices, as well as maintaining and improving its credibility.”

When they do their work effectively, says Treiger, IR professionals can increase the company’s market value in the long-term while reducing capital costs.

The people responsible for IR act as intermediaries in communications between companies and the market in general. “This sort of communication is important and has grown tremendously due to the global competition for investors and capital that now includes China, India and other emerging economies, as well as Brazil itself,” explains Treiger, who has closely followed developments in the Brazilian market for years – first at Aracruz Celulose, then at the newly privatized Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional - CSN, and since October at Braskem.

Until recently, RI was called Market Relations in Brazil. It

existed to fulfill a legal requirement, and was usually included in the responsibilities of a company’s CFO. According to Treiger, the watershed happened in 1992, when Aracruz became the first Brazilian company to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange.

Since that pioneering move, Brazil has risen to third place among countries with the largest number of non-US companies traded on Wall Street. The United Kingdom is number one, followed by Canada. Thirty-five major Brazilian companies are listed.

“When someone is exposed to a sophisticated market – and the Brazilian market wasn’t as sophisticated back then as it is today – they realize that the market is a two-way superhighway: it provides resources but demands accurate, transparent and impartial information in good time and on schedule, observes Treiger. “Whenever something important happens in a company, the market wants to know about it in order make informed decisions on whether to keep, buy or sell that company’s stock.”

The people responsible for IR deal mainly with financial analysts, but it is also important for them to keep a channel of comSEPT/OCT

• 2005

José Marcos Treiger (center) with Luciana Ferreira and Luiz Henrique Valverde

munication open with all stakeholders, including company members, clients, suppliers and the community.

“The field of investor relations is closely linked to credibility and reputation,” says Treiger. “Anyone working in this area must maintain their credibility in the market, because once it’s lost it is almost impossible to regain. If you provide incomplete or false information that leads thousands, or even millions of people to invest in your shares, and then come back tomorrow with a different story, there’ll be hell to pay. We have to avoid that sort of behavior like the plague. At the same time, companies must develop a culture of good governance and transparency and release certain amounts of strategic information. We have to determine the optimum level of strategic planning that SEPT/OCT

• 2005

can be made public in order to allow investors to predict the company’s future results, bearing in mind that the market doesn’t like surprises.

As a result, we will develop an outstanding image in the market that will differentiate us from other publicly traded companies – our competition.”

If a company gains a reputation for refusing to divulge information, people will lose interest in its shares, says Treiger. “Another important aspect of the job is business information. There are certain kinds of business information that are kept secret in a private, family-owned firm, but it’s a different story for publicly traded companies. We have to provide enough information about the company’s business performance so analysts can adapt their mathematical models and predict its future performance.”

Following the publication of Braskem’s results for the second quarter of 2005 and accumulated results for the second half of the year, the company’s IR team was deeply involved in the final preparations for Braskem Day at the New York Stock Exchange. September 6 was devoted to Braskem on Wall Street, and the company took the opportunity to celebrate its third anniversary. Braskem’s Entrepreneurial Leader (CEO), José Carlos Grubisich, gave a presentation to American market analysts on Braskem’s recent performance and plans for growth at the Board Room of the world’s most important stock exchange. Then, at 4 pm, Grubisich was invited to ring the famous NYSE bell to close the day’s trading. That event was seen around the world on television and the Internet.

ODEBRECHT INFORMA 39

RESPONSIBLE CARE

SOCIAL INCLUSION AND A FOCUS ON QUALITY Thirteen years after the first Brazilian version of the program was introduced, a conference announces new focus areas for Responsible Care® WRITTEN BY

Miucha Andrade • PHOTOS BY Holanda Cavalcanti

S

ince the 1980s, Responsi- Paulo, he gave a presentation on the According to Soto, in recent years, ® ble Care has been a prin- main directives, new management the public has become increasingly ciple and management practices, degrees of implementation interested and involved in matters that practice for petrochemical and management model for the go beyond health, safety and envicompanies around the Brazilian version of Responsible Care ronmental protection, such as social world. The Brazilian Chemical Indus- now being introduced. responsibility, sustainable developtry Association (Abiquim) introduced One of the reasons behind this ment and quality. "We have includthe program in Brazil in 1992. Creat- change was the pursuit of consisten- ed these themes in the Responsible ed in Canada by the Canadian Chem- cy with existing verification systems Care program," he says. ical Producers Association (CCPA), used by the Brazilian chemical indusThe program is also being and now present in 52 countries, it try, such as ISO 9000, ISO 14000 and reformed in response to public conwas the first to set out guidelines for the National Quality Award. "We are cerns about the uses and effects of health, safety and environmental per- seeking interactivity among these sys- chemical products. "Responsible Care formance. Today, Responsible Care is tems," says Soto. Another reason was was more focused on industrial plants, a registered trademark known the incentives being given for com- but now it is also concerned with the throughout the world. Thirteen years panies to develop their health, safe- risks involved in using certain prodafter the Brazilian version – called ty and environmental performance ucts throughout their life cycles. This “Atuação Responsável” – came into even further. "We have created two is new for the chemical industry and being, the program is being revised more levels of assessment for com- a global phenomenon," explains to broaden its scope and encompass panies that have already reached the Marcelo Kós, Abiquim's Manager for more focus areas such as social inclu- level of continuous improvement," he Technical Affairs. sion and the quality of products and explains.

A total of 460 industry represenprocesses. tatives attended Jorge Soto, Jorge Soto speaking at the Ninth Responsible Care Conference in São Paulo the conference, Braskem's Corwhich provided porate Manager an opportunity for for Health, Safety professionals to and the Environget together and ment, is also the discuss the intercoordinator of national manaAbiquim's techgement of chemnical commission icals, environon Responsible mental protection Care. At the and the work of Ninth Responsithe Brazilian Minble Care Conferistry of Health, ence, held on July among other sub27 and 28 in São jects.

42 ODEBRECHT INFORMA

SEPT/OCT

• 2005

Arquivo Braskem

The general principles for Responsible Care® that will be officially introduced by the ICCA in 2006:

Braskem Unit in Alagoas: the chemicals industry reduced its waste output between 2001 and 2004

José Maria Bach, the director of the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA) Group of Responsible Care Leaders, introduced the Responsible Care Charter for the first time in the world. This document contains a set of principles to be followed by the chemical industry (see box).

During the conference, Abiquim launched the latest edition of the Responsible Care Report. It contains data covering the period between 2001 and 2004, demonstrating the positive changes that have taken place in the chemical industry's performance. According to Soto: "There has been a systematic improvement with every passing year." A reduction in the number of workplace accidents, a 27% drop in the amount of industrial waste produced, and the gradual replacement of non-renewable fuels with renewable energy sources are some examples of the SEPT/OCT

• 2005

improvement of the chemical industry's health, safety and environmental performance.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, one of the main causes of the greenhouse effect, have fallen annually for three consecutive years. In 2004, the industry produced 354 kg of CO2 per tonne of chemical products, compared with 384 kg/t in 2001. The amount of water consumed by the chemical industry fell from 10.65 cu.m per tonne in 2001 to 7.7 cu.m/t in 2004. Raising the awareness of professionals involved in production processes has been key to the program's success.

Hélcio Colodete, the Braskem officer responsible for the Energy and Essential Services area, gave a presentation at the conference on the results of measures the company is taking to reduce its consumption of water resources. "Our goal is to produce zero wastewater in four years, at least at the thermal power plant,"

• Adopting the basic principles of Responsible Care • Furthering the process of sustainable development • Continuously improving the management and dissemination of information on performance • Intensifying product management • Carrying out Responsible Care in product supply chains • Supporting national and global governance processes for Responsible Care • Meeting stakeholders' expectations • Providing the necessary resources

he explains. Hélcio pointed out that the rational use of water and energy sources is a priority in Braskem's strategic planning. "All of the company's business units are implementing programs in those areas."

The Responsible Care program is a benchmark for the Brazilian chemical industry. "We are going to include these guidelines in our practices in order to bolster our management, which is based on the Odebrecht Entrepreneurial Technology (TEO)," says Soto.

Each of the Abiquim member companies will determine the next steps to be taken. At Braskem, the new Responsible Care program will be implemented as of 2006. "It gives me the greatest satisfaction to contribute to the future of a program that is so important to this industry. Braskem is deeply involved in this process and therefore we are absorbing knowledge naturally," says Soto.

ODEBRECHT INFORMA 43

OFFSHORE CONSTRUCTION

Making preparations for a unique project

Odebrecht is building Petrobras’s first fixed repumping platform in the state of Bahia, a project that will change the lives of the tiny community of São Roque do Paraguaçu WRITTEN BY

Luciano Martins • PHOTOS BY Luciano Andrade

44 ODEBRECHT INFORMA

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etrobras’s construction yard in the São Roque do Paraguaçu district, south of Todos os Santos Bay in the Brazilian state of Bahia, came out of mothballs in May 2004, nearly two decades after it was shut down. The reason: it is now being used to build PRA-1, the first fixed repumping platform made in Brazil, as well as the first ever built for Petrobras. This project is also unique because it will be the first Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Installation (EPCI) contract carried out in this country, enabling Brazil to develop a range of new technologies in the field of offshore construction.

SEPT/OCT

• 2005

Workers at the São Roque do Paraguaçu yard: taking part in a project that is a first for Brazil

Petrobras supplied the master plan when the project was getting started. Now Odebrecht, in a joint venture with Ultratec, is responsible for the detailed engineering, procurement of all equipment and materials and the construction of the platform modules, as well as transporting and installing the platform off the coast of Rio de Janeiro.

As Contract Director Fernando Barbosa, a firm believer in using engineering as a tool for successful design and planning, explains: “We have to determine the characteristics of the equipment and materials, ensuring that they arrive just in time at the construction site, and assemble immense modules on four stories, each equipped with outsized electronic and hydraulic systems, pumps and SEPT/OCT

• 2005

valves. And we must build this gigantic project with the smallest possible margin for error.”

The leader of the project has assembled a task force including engineering,planning and procurement, assigning the engineers the mission of not only producing the documentation needed to build the project but determining what will be needed to carry out each stage and ensuring that all those needs are met within the ideal timeframe. “We are working with suppliers from all over the world, and they are responsible for producing and delivering a vast and varied range of items and equipment, many of which are being created especially for this project,” observes Fernando Barbosa.

Over 80 lots of purchases containing thousands of items have to arrive at the yard right on time to prevent negative impacts on cash flow. “We always have to keep an eye on the results, but at the same time everything has to be done with maximum concern for environmental protection and the health, safety and quality of life of our teams and the local communities,” adds Fernando.

The project got going on May 28, 2004. The base for planning, engineering, procurement and logistics was set up in São Paulo, which in itself helped create a new Brazilian hub specialized in offshore construction, a sector previously concentrated in Rio de Janeiro. The professionals and partners who are building the platform at the Petrobras yard in Bahia were recruited from the joint-venture partners’ teams with an emphasis on local hires in order to invest in the development of nearby communities.

Jorge Luiz Mitidieri, the technical officer responsible for Engineering and Planning, observes that bringing together the areas of engineering, procurement, planning and contract management in the same office has enabled the entire team to visualize and understand the project in its entirety. “Over 75% of the engineering has been completed, and we are going to keep our commitment to deliver this stage of the project by the end of the year.”

A Petrobras team of about 30 professionals headed by engineer Cristina Alves is present at the project’s São Paulo headquarters. The overall engineering is the responsibility of engineer Juan Carlos Ribeiro and his team. It will take 19 months and involve as many as 100 people. In the end, the team will have produced 1,800 engineering documents and 6,000 documents from suppliers.

From the start, as Petrobras requested, the engineering has been carried out in 3D using PDS software, which makes it possible to visualize every stage of the project’s planning and execution. The program produces threedimensional images for every area, including metal structure, piping systems, electrical systems, instrumentation, air conditioning, architecture and equipment.

ODEBRECHT INFORMA 45

COMPLEX PROCUREMENT PROCEDURES

In São Paulo, engineering, planning, procurement and logistics management: a new Brazilian hub specializing in offshore construction

Up to 650,000 barrels/day PRA-1,the first repumping platform ever built for Petrobras,will contain accommodations for up to 90 people. Its operations will be completely automated and it will be capable of pumping up to 650,000 bbl (barrels) of oil per day.The oil will come from five offshore platforms operating in the Marlim and Roncador Basins,off the coast of Rio de Janeiro State.The main advantage of a repumping platform like PRA-1 is that it will eventually reduce the risks involved in using tanker ships to transport oil from platforms to refineries.

Each module of the platform will be constructed and assembled on one of four stories in the construction yard in São Roque do Paraguaçu.

Once completed, they will be transported to Rio de Janeiro, after which they will be conveyed to the site where the platform will operate in the Campos Basin,about 108 km from Odebrecht’s support base in Macaé.

The jacket – which is the base of the platform – is being built by another contractor.It weighs 9,000 tonnes (metric tons) and will be transported on a special barge to the spot where it will be installed at a water depth of 120 meters and fixed to the seabed with 14 leg piles.The installation of the modules will be done offshore using a special crane or derrick barge capable of lifting up to 14,000 tonnes.Each of the groups the crane barge will lift for Module 12 will weigh 6,500 tonnes,and modules 3 and 5 will weigh a total of 4,800 tonnes.These will be the heaviest loads ever lifted in an offshore operation in Brazil.

All told,the platform will comprise 5,500 tonnes of metal structures and 2,500 tonnes of pipe systems.Valves weighing from 10 to 40 tonnes and measuring up to 5 meters in length will be installed in its pumping and utilities units, and the internal and external piping will be 24 to 38 inches in diameter.

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Ensuring that every single part, instrument and piece of equipment arrives at the construction yard just in time is one of the major challenges of the PRA-1 project. Laszlo Paal, the officer responsible for Procurement, explains that once the prospecting stage has been completed, the engineers issue purchase requisitions containing all the technical specifications for each order. “The Procurement area then obtains advance information about the availability of each item on the market in order to produce a list of suppliers and the purchasing plan.”

Described that way, the process seems relatively simple. However, there must be at least three suppliers for each item, except in cases of highly specialized equipment. Furthermore, real manufacturing conditions must be confirmed on a case-by-case basis, which not only involves the specific quality of the materials but strict compliance with environmental and social norms for production. Importation documents and changes in the price of steel on the international market must also be taken into consideration.

Purchasing takes place in stages, including the presentation of the technical documents for each supplier, with all the details specified by the engineering team approved, before fabrication is authorized. Once the equipment is ready, it undergoes inspections and tests that could require the presence of Petrobras representatives before shipment can be authorized. Then, orders can only be shipped after their packaging has been thoroughly inspected. This process only ends when the order is delivered at the construction yard or the supplier provides technical assistance when required to assemble the equipment.

This cycle takes place time and again, for 50 kinds of large-scale equipment, which involve 500 units, as well over 150 items such as piping systems and electrical, instrumentation and telecommunications materials, which can be broken down into over 5,000 parts. “Quality, safety and environmental protection must be assured in every single case,” stresses Laszlo Paal. “Planning is key to ensuring that everything goes smoothly.”

ALL VARIABLES UNDER CONTROL Ivan Carvalho, the officer responsible for Contract Management, handles the four management departments in charge of the project as a whole to ensure that the contract is carried out to the letter. “There are many unpredictable factors on offshore construction projects like this one, particularly when building this repumping platform, which is the first of its kind,” he observes.

For example, there are just two companies in the world that own crane or derrick barges large enough to hoist the modules being built at the São Roque do Paraguaçu SEPT/OCT

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Adilson Secco

yard. Each crane barge costs up to USD 500,000 per day to operate, and the date of installation has to be scheduled well in advance.

René Mário Moynier and his team are tasked with planning and controlling all the variables that can be dealt with in advance in order to minimize the possibility of any changes over the course of the project.

René says that the entire planning process must be carried out in close cooperation with all the other management areas. “Such complete control is not always immediately acceptable to everyone, so we have taken great pains to ensure that team members are acculturated in a respectful but effective way.” Without everyone’s full commitment, it would have been impossible to produce the documentation for all the detailed engineering, step by step. “Documenting all procedures is essential for the production and sharing of knowledge,” he observes.

René particularly enjoys teaching and makes a point of always having a seasoned professional working alongside beginners. “This integrated planning system has been a dream for me my entire career.

Now that my dream is becoming a reality, I want to make sure that the younger kids have an opportunity to learn from it.”

Mutual understanding based on respect Paulo Montanha, the project’s Administration and Finance Director, has been with Ultratec for 12 years.

When he joined the management team as Ultratec’s representative in the joint venture led by Odebrecht, he discovered a new calling. “When we arrived in São Roque do Paraguaçu to plan the installation of the construction site’s facilities, I came across people who were living in extreme poverty but were full of hope and the desire for a better life. This community has come to us with many questions and a great deal of anxiety. And I’vecome to realize that a great deal of quality lies beneath the surface.”

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Montanha had never worked with social programs before, but his gut feeling arose from his ability to deal with people. “I was instantly in tune with the people from Odebrecht, Petrobras and community leaders.

And I soon realized that the biggest challenge was treating the local people with respect. They don’t want handouts. All they want is an opportunity,” he observes.

According to Montanha, the strategy adopted was making an effort not to build an aggressive presence while helping the local people understand the benefits and limitations that the project could bring about to ensure that their expectations are realistic.

ODEBRECHT INFORMA 47

Housing Unit for PRA-1 workers:accommodations for up to 1,200 people offer a multipurpose playing court,a movie theater and a library with Internet access

While the construction A low-key program to preyard was being restored, the vent alcohol and drug abuse village underwent a gradual is being carried out under the transformation. Maria Cremildirection of specialists. An da da Cruz has watched it adult literacy program is also happen first hand. She is one under way, teaching two of the seamstresses chosen to groups of students and suptake part in a project that proplementing their lessons with vides support for the Charitacultural activities and debates. ble Community of São Roque The full scope of the prodo Paraguaçu (COBEPA) and ject’s health, environmental joined a group that was hired and quality of life programs to make uniforms for the con- Seamstresses Maria Cremilda da Cruz (foreground) and Maria Tereza can be seen in the construcstruction workers. “We have Gomes:making uniforms for the workers tion yard for PRA-1, includalready made 400 uniforms ing a digital x-ray unit that and we’ve received orders from subcontractors. This job is makes it possible to get the results of physical examinamaking our lives a lot easier,” she says. tions in 24 hours to speed up the hiring process. There is The joint-venture contractors building PRA-1 have also an advanced “life support” system available at the also introduced a supplementary nutrition program for infirmary. The system includes an ambulance equipped kids at the COBEPA day-care center, as well as flute as a mobile intensive-care unit that can run on its own genlessons and handicraft and pottery classes and ongoing erator for up to 8 hours, two paramedics on call around the assistance for the children of traditional fishermen. Opporclock, an emergency room equipped with a defibrillator tunities for professional education have also been creatand a number of other facilities that workers can use instead ed for young people and adults – including 60 women – of having to be transferred to the National Health Service. through a welding and boilermaking school associated According to Cláudio Scarpa, the joint-venture conwith the “First Job” program. tractor’s officer responsible for Safety, the Environment and The Housing Unit built for PRA-1 workers will accomHealth, the entire system has been planned on the basis modate up to 1,200 people, and includes a multipurpose of a study of the social and human impacts a project of this playing court, an official soccer pitch, a movie theater, game magnitude could have on the local community. “We are rooms and even Internet access at a library that is open to going much further than complying with the law, our client’s the entire São Roque community. The area reserved for requirements and certification standards. We want to ensure technicians and assistants, whose work is more sedentary, the sustainability of this project, which can only be achieved will be equipped with a gym. by respecting people.”

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ARTS AND CULTURE

The advent of

REASON Professor Luiz Alberto Freire of the UFBa School of Fine Arts unveils Bahia’s collection of Neoclassical decoration and wins the second Clarival do Prado Valladares Award WRITTEN BY

Karolina Gutiez • PHOTOS BY Christian Cravo

Luiz Freire:study includes 21 churches

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he second edition of the Clarival do Prado Valladares Award, introduced by the Odebrecht Group in 2003, will sponsor a book research project titled “Neoclassical Decoration in Bahia.” The author, Luiz Alberto Freire, aims to shed light on an important chapter of Bahia’s art history: the artistic reform movement that took place throughout most of the 19th century, replacing the Baroque.

Eighteenth-century churches were elaborately and excessively adorned, supported by twisted Solomonic columns representing infinity, and were charged

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ODEBRECHT INFORMA 49

Nosso Senhor do Bonfim Church:icon of a new esthetic

with symbolism, expressed in bunches of grapes, large masks, birds and grotesque figures – all designed to engage the worshippers’ feelings.

Neoclassicism was influenced by the Enlightenment and the predominance of reason over feeling, as well as by the anthropocentrism practiced in 19th-century Europe. Excess was replaced by churches built with an art and architecture that was sober, calm and rational. Neoclassical artists turned to ancient Greco-Roman traditions: columns became classical and vertically or horizontally ridged; symbolic references now referred to virtues such as faith, hope, charity and fortitude; and polychromy and the excessive use of gilding were replaced with the balance of light and white backgrounds.

50 ODEBRECHT INFORMA

“As a result, Roman Catholicism was expressing its new mentality: instead of distracting the faithful with an overwhelming symbolic onslaught, its aim was to call attention to the basic message of Christianity. Therefore, churches had to be bright and airy to put worshipers in a frame of mind that was conducive to concentration and serenity,” explains the author, Luiz Freire, a Professor at the Federal University at Bahia (UFBa) School of Fine Arts who has a doctorate in Art History from the University of Porto in Portugal.

The first known use of Neoclassical decoration in Bahia dates back to 1792, in the chapel of the Santíssimo Sacramento (Holy Sacrament) Brotherhood. In 1813, the Church of Nos-

so Senhor do Bonfim (Our Lord of the Good End, or Christ Crucified), the icon of the new esthetic, carried on with the reform and unleashed a wave of church building and renovation in Bahia that ended in 1888, when the Church of the Third Order of São Domingos (St. Dominic), the last house of worship to adopt this style, reopened.

Bahia has the largest and best collection of Neoclassical churches in Brazil, each containing elements that are closely related to those produced in Italy and Portugal in terms of technique and esthetics, while retaining their own characteristics.

Until now, however, the richness of this period and the consistency and unique traits of the reform movement SEPT/OCT

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had never aroused the interest of scholars as a field of research. According to Luiz Freire, while he was researching the doctoral dissertation that gave rise to the book project now being sponsored by Odebrecht, he did not find a single specific publication on the subject. The only reference he could find was a book titled L'Architecture Religieuse Baroque au Bresil (Baroque Religious Architecture in Brazil) by the French museum scientist Germain Bazin.

Neoclassical detail in Nossa Senhora da Vitória Church Published in 1953, it contains just five pages on the Neoclasthing pertaining to Baroque art was sical style. “A movement that took deemed worthy of attention, particplace over the course of 100 years ularly here in Brazil, where it repredeserves more attention than that. sented our colonial past.” He attribMy book will discuss this subject in utes the scarcity of studies on Neoall the depth and breadth that its classical decoration to the fact that importance merits in order to fill that this style was considered responsible gap,” says Luiz Freire. for the decline of the Baroque, and According to Professor Freire, the was believed to have impoverished Brazilian arts of the 17th and 18th the artistic language of its predecescenturies were first studied in the sor, putting an end to richness and 1950s, when Europe and consecreative diversity as a result of its simquently Brazil gained an appreciaplicity. Freire disagrees: “That is not tion of the Baroque period. “Everytrue at all. The same level of creativ-

ity was maintained in Neoclassical decoration, particularly in Bahia.”

Luiz Freire will prove his point when the book is published. “When I was writing my dissertation, I had more access to Portuguese archives. Now, thanks to Odebrecht’s sponsorship, I will be able to intensify my research of contemporary periodicals that contain information on the day-to-day workings of that movement, the identity of the artists who produced the carvings, and stylistic and symbolic issues and their relation to religious discourse.” The author, who has studied 21 churches so far, intends to include even more in his research, going outside the city of Salvador to analyze altars in other parts of Bahia.

Luiz Freire believes that his work will help to encourage Brazilian society and government agencies to pay more attention to this segment of their artistic heritage and give it the value it deserves, just in time to preserve it and put a stop to the process of deterioration that has already begun.

Over 100 entries submitted The second edition of the Clarival do Prado Valladares Award received 103 entries.The Odebrecht Cultural Committee selected five finalists, and a distinguished panel of judges evaluated those projects following presentations given by their authors.

They chose “Neoclassical Decoration in Bahia,” by Luiz Alberto Freire.The judges included author Ana Maria Beluzzo, Professor of Art History at the University of São Paulo School of Architecture and Urban Planning; historian Eduardo Silva, a Rui Barbosa Foundation (RJ) scholar;artist and curator Emanoel Araújo; historian Francisco Senna, a Professor at the Federal University at Bahia (UFBa);and Gilberto Sá,a Member of the Board of Directors of Odebrecht S.A. and Chairman of the Pierre Verger Foundation (BA).

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The panel of judges: from left, Francisco Senna, Eduardo Silva, Ana Maria Beluzzo, Gilberto Sá and Emanoel Araújo

ODEBRECHT INFORMA 51

Arquivo Braskem

From left,Álvaro Machado,Luciano Bahia,Jurandir Santana and Léo Martins: the award gives artists the opportunity to carry out their projects

Pleased to meet you The Braskem Culture and Arts Award introduces Brazil to eight professionals in the fields of music, the fine arts, literature and cinema WRITTEN BY

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onceptually focused on the production of new works in the fields of music, literature, cinema and the fine arts, the Braskem Culture and Arts Award marked its 10th anniversary in 2005 by introducing the Brazilian public to the group of breakthrough musicians, artists, writers and filmmakers that won this year’s awards. There were eight winners, all born or now living in Bahia. The awards will launch their careers by recording two CDs, mounting two exhibitions, publishing three books and producing a short film. Expectations are that all of the winners’ works will have a nationwide impact. They know that

52 ODEBRECHT INFORMA

Flávia Azevedo • PHOTOS BY Christian Cravo most award winners have done so in the past.

The two exhibitions are Série Nômades (Nomads Series), by Andres Rubio, and Artista e o ouro (The artist and gold), by Alvaro Machado. Jurandir Santana and Luciano Bahia will respectively record the CDs Só Brasil (Just Brazil), and Luciano Salvador Bahia.

Léo Araújo Martins will direct a short film titled E aí, irmão? (What’s up, brother?). And the three books that will soon be arriving in the bookshops with the help of the Jorge Amado House Foundation are Padecimentos completos (Full sufferings), by Victor Pablo Jacobina Mesquita da Silveira, As casas onde eu morei (The houses where

I’ve lived), by Vanessa Buffone, and Canção inglesa (English song), by Normalice dos Santos Souza.

José Cerqueira, Braskem’s Institutional Relations Manager in Bahia, observes that the award program’s credibility is due to the level of transparency and high standards set by the panel of judges, which is made up of renowned specialists from Salvador’s arts scene.

Each year’s Braskem Culture and Arts Award competition opens in March or April. Potential candidates are recruited through news features and an advertising campaign informing candidates where and how to submit their entries. Once the deadline for submissions has expired, specific panels of judges SEPT/OCT

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A word from past winners “The Braskem Award was very important for me. It enabled me to get my start with a ‘pedigree.’When a publication results from an award, your work already has a prestigious label when it arrives in the market. My book got a warm reception from the literary institutes and ended up being studied at two universities. It’s a good book, but the award put it in the spotlight.”

JEAN WILLYS, the winner in 2001 for his book Aflitos “I’ve been a singer for 14 years, and for 8 of those years I’ve been singing solo and trying to get a record deal.The Braskem Award was a watershed in my career.Without some kind of recognition, artists have no way of showing what they can do. The CD made it easier to gain a foothold in the recording industry.Today the Braskem Award is the biggest in Bahia.It creates a space for artists.”

MARIENE DE CASTRO, the winner in 2004 for her CD Abre Caminho

Top photo: singer Mariene de Castro; above,artist Sara Victória ,winners in 2004 and 2003: career boost

“The Braskem Award is the real deal – we have to keep saying that. I don’t mind competing when the award is for real; when you know you’re being judged solely on the basis of the quality of your work.”

SARA VICTÓRIA,the winner in 2003 for her exhibition Vó Imbolá

formed for each area get to work to select the winners.

The ceremonies held to launch the winners’ work are major events in Salvador’s arts scene. They are eagerly awaited and the venues are always packed. Each artist performs or presents his or her work to an audience of 500 guests, including celebrities and personalities from each area of the award, critics, scholars, opinion shapers and journalists.

It was at one such event that Mariene de Castro launched her CD Abre Caminho (Make way). The singer, who started her career 13 years earlier, won the Braskem Culture and Arts Award in 2004. During a memorable evening at Gantois (one of the oldest traditional

lebrity for his participation in a TV program, the college professor, journalist and author published his book Aflitos (The afflicted) in 2001 through the Braskem Award. In just four months, it sold 1,500 copies. The Editora Globo publishing house recently released a second edition.

“Braskem’s support for cultural expressions is a facet of the company’s Social Responsibility Program,” says José Cerqueira. “It is yet another example of how the company is demonstrating its commitment to the development of the communities in which it is present by encouraging, valuing and recognizing those communities’ talents and cultural traditions.”

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African temples in Salvador) her voice had an opportunity to ring out throughout the country. Abre Caminho eventually won the 2005 TIM Award in the “Best Regional Album” category – one of the top music awards in Brazil.

Artist Sara Victória is another winner whose career got an extra boost from the Braskem award. After garnering the prize in 2003, the artist exhibited her works at the Paulo Darzé gallery, a prestigious venue in the city of Salvador. Since then, she has gone from success to success: one of her many exhibitions was recently mounted at the Post Office Cultural Center in Rio de Janeiro.

Another example is Jean Willys.

Before he became a national ce-

ODEBRECHT INFORMA 53

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

A cycle closes and a market opens WRITTEN BY PHOTOS BY

Through the DIS – Southern Lowlands program, Aquaculture, Manioc and Hearts-of-Palm production chains are carrying out the stages of production, processing and sales

Cláudio Lovato Filho Eduardo Moody

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he place is bustling with men and small boats. They started work at about 10:00 pm the previous day, and went on through the night. It will only stop at daybreak. Nearly 5 tonnes (metric tons) of tilapia fish raised in pens are being unloaded at the modest maritime terminal of Torrinhas in the Cairu estuary. While sheltering themselves from scattered showers of cold rain, people put the fish in icefilled barrels and then load boxes of fish into a freezer truck bound for the processing plant in the city of Ilhéus. There is a mixture of exhaustion and joy on their faces. Soon, the fish will reach supermarket shelves in the city of Salvador, ending a cycle that began five months earlier. Many of these people are just here to help out while they wait for their own fish to be ready for harvesting.

The men doing the fish farming in Torrinhas are members of the Mixed Cooperative of Southern Lowlands Shellfish Gatherers, Fishers and Aquafarmers (Coopemar). Their 60member organization is the core of the Aquafarming Production Chain, part of the Program for the Integrated and Sustainable Regional Development of the Southern Bahia Lowlands (DIS – Southern Lowlands), which includes two more production chains: Manioc (Cassava) and Hearts of Palm.

Like the others, the Aquafarming Production Chain is a tool for breaking the vicious cycle of poverty in the Southern Lowlands of the northeast-Brazilian state of Bahia, a region

54 ODEBRECHT INFORMA

From top photo,manioc flour,tilapia fish and hearts of palm produced by program participants:sustainable development in Southern Bahia Lowlands communities.

Opposite page,a fish farmer from the Torrinhas community takes part in the Cairu Estuary harvesting effort SEPT/OCT

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that is home to 11 municipalities and 270,000 people. Raising tilapia in pens is an alternative to extractive fishing, which can barely provide for a handto-mouth existence.

Twenty-two families are directly involved in fish farming. They live in the communities of Torrinhas, Canavieiras, Tapuias and Alves, in the municipality of Cairu. The aim is to generate a minimum monthly income of BRL 600 per family (at present, the minimum monthly wage in Brazil is BRL 300). The 5 tonnes of fish harvested from the estuary on August 3 and 4 will produce 1.5 tonnes of filleted fish that will be sold in the supermarkets of the Wal-Mart group, a social partner of the DIS – Southern Lowlands program.

Bruno Falcão, a Civil Engineer who joined Construtora Norberto Odebrecht seven years ago, took on the challenge of becoming the leader of the Aquafarming Production Chain in early 2005. “We are bringing an SEPT/OCT

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entrepreneurial vision to this area.

Our tools are education and the focus on results and sustainability.” The program’s aims of producing work opportunities and sources of income, preserving the environment, bolstering family aquafarming and encouraging cooperativism are gradually being achieved.

“Now we are working together,” says Community Technician Fábio Pereira Ribeiro Nepomuceno, 22, a founding member of Coopemar. “We are getting used to the productive process and building up know-how.

One of these days I want to start my own business. Today we are thinking about changing everyone’s lives for the better.” Fábio wants to become a Fishing Engineer.

“That’s their future: studying, acquiring knowledge, growing,” says Marine Biologist Roque Fraga, the technical officer responsible for the Aquafarming Production Chain.

Roque is a role model in that com-

munity. He is so deeply involved in the project that he decided to move to Torrinhas, where he lives a few meters from the small terminal. The results of his teachings can be seen in the attitudes and language of the people who work with him on a daily basis. “There’s less fishing going on in the estuary. There used to be extractivism and nothing else. Today there’s extractivism and farming,” says Coopemar President Luciano Freitas.

MANIOC PRODUCTION CHAIN Unlike the Aquafarming and Hearts-of-Palm production chains, which have introduced new products to the region, the Manioc (Cassava) Production Chain is enabling local communities reorganize production of a traditional crop. The Presidente Tancredo Neves Rural Producers’ Cooperative (Coopatan), which is running the Manioc Production Chain, is comprised of 500 people and 33 rurODEBRECHT INFORMA 55

Valença

Presidente Tancredo Neves

Cairu

Taperoá

Nilo Peçanha Piraí do Norte

Ituberá Igrapiúna Camamu

Ibirapitanga Maraú

al associations, each with an average of 35 members. The program benefits about 1,800 families living in eight municipalities. “In the past, there were unsuccessful attempts to establish cooperatives in this area. Coopatan has brought a new direction focused on making the best use of land and reducing poverty,” says Josias Nunes, the cooperative’s president. “These are new times.”

Headed since early 2005 by Jorge Gavino, an engineer who has been with Construtora Norberto Odebrecht for 14 years, the Manioc Production

56 ODEBRECHT INFORMA

Chain is changing paradigms. “We are working for the families with the aim of increasing their productivity and improving their quality of life,” says Jorge. “First, however, we had to win their trust by presenting hard facts and having the sensitivity to respect their culture.”

By providing follow-up and information, Coopatan has managed to increase production levels in the region. “In some cases, farmers have increased their productivity from 8 or 9 tonnes per hectare to 25 tonnes per hectare. To start making a profit with

manioc, they have to grow over 20 tonnes per hectare. We have tested 119 varieties of manioc with the support of Embrapa (a state-owned agricultural research company). We can’t afford to go wrong when these people have already suffered so much,” argues Marcelo Abrantes, an agricultural engineer. “What is going on here is a change in people’s ways of thinking, which is decisive for overcoming the idea that planting manioc is for poor people.”

Coopatan’s flourmill was up and running by the end of August.

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Installed in four-hectare area that Coopatan acquired with Odebrecht Foundation funding, the mill can process 60 tonnes of manioc and produce up to 20 tonnes of manioc flour per day. Farmer Genival Meneses de Melo runs the mill as the leader of the 40 people working there. “I’ve been working with manioc since I was a kid, and I love a challenge. This mill will make things better for everybody. It’s only a good thing if it’s good for everyone,” says Genival.

The result of a BRL 650,000 investment, the Coopatan flourmill is equipped with advanced technologies and will remove the middleperson from the scene, because the processing stage is now an integral part of production and sales.

Coopatan’s manioc output is sold at supermarkets owned by the WalMart Group and Empresa Baiana de Alimentos – Ebal. The flour is marketed under five brands: Itabaina, Primeira da Bahia, A Boa, Recôncavo and Farofinha da Bahia.

Farming Technician Marivaldo Ferreira da Silva is a Tancredo Neves farmer who is being groomed to lead the Manioc Production Chain. He points out the main advantage of the changing realities his region is experiencing: the possibility of keeping people in the countryside. “Life here is changing.” Marivaldo symbolizes the increased productivity in Tancredo Neves: he has produced a landmark harvest of 42 tonnes per hectare on his land, while the Brazilian average is 18 to 20 tonnes/hectare.

Embrapa’s support has been an important part of the Manioc Production Chain’s achievements.

Researchers at its Technology Demo Farm for Manioc Growing are conducting studies for farmers, particularly assessing the productivity of different varieties of the tuber. “This is an open-air laboratory,” says Jorge SEPT/OCT

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In Cairu: Roque Fraga (seated),Fábio Nepomuceno and Bruno Falcão

In Igrapiúna: Francisco dos Santos,Adailton Barbosa and Emile Machado

In Tancredo Neves:from left,Marivaldo da Silva,Valdomiro dos Santos (back row),Idelfonso Roma, Francisco Souza,Marcelo Abrantes,Jorge Gavino,Genival de Melo and Josias Nunes

ODEBRECHT INFORMA 57

Gavino. Pedro Mattos and José Raimundo Ferreira Filho, researchers specialized in planting crops, say that the work they are doing has enabled them to collaborate with 32 communities. “We have done studies using rapid propagation techniques and seed banks,” says Pedro. “The results have been astoundCoopalm, Coopatan and Coopemar products ready for market ing,” he adds. José imported from Ecuador, the world’s Raimundo observes, “We also give leading producer of cultivated hearts farmers tips on soil use, slope conof palm. Compared with other palm tainment and pest prevention.” trees that produce hearts of palm HEARTS-OF-PALM (acai and jussara) pupunha oxidates less and sprouts more often (ensurPRODUCTION CHAIN For the Hearts-of-Palm Producing that the business can go on all tion Chain, farmers have formed the year round), while delivering a faster Cooperative of Southern Lowlands return on investment, among other Hearts-of-Palm Producers (Coobenefits. palm). Its operations now include “Now we know how much we 10 of the 11 municipalities in the will be earning,” says Francisco region, encouraging 105 families to Rodrigues dos Santos, a member of produce hearts of palm. Thirty-five the board of Coopalm and a local of these families have joined farmer from the São Benedito comCoopalm. The remainder will be a munity in Nilo Peçanha. “I can use part of the cooperative by the year’s what I’ve learned through the end. Most Coopalm farmers are Hearts-of-Palm Production Chain located in the municipalities of and apply it to my other crops. It’s Camamu and Igrapiúna. all written down in black and white.

The Seedling Biofactory, which Now I can make plans.” is part of the chain of production, Agricultural Engineer Adailton acquires thornless pupunha (peachBarbosa, the technician responsible palm) seeds for the farmers’ use. The for this production chain, says that production technology has been farmers are spending more time on

58 ODEBRECHT INFORMA

planning in order to get the most profitable yields. Not long ago, that would have been unthinkable. “Today they are thinking about profit margins and saving up money,” Adailton exults.

“A change of mindsets is taking place, putting an end to individualism and immediatism.”

Coopalm’s work is based on providing technical and business education with a focus on results and continuous income streams. “Local farmers are coming to realize that the group’s results impact their individual results,” observes Social Worker Emile Machado, a specialist in cooperativism and the leader of the Hearts-of-Palm Production Chain.

“Entrepreneurial vision, technical knowledge and cooperativist awareness are transforming their realities.”

The two essential tools that Emile and his team need to do their work are persistence, in order to break down people’s resistance to change, and creativity, in order to communicate effectively. “We are trying to contribute to people’s overall development. And we get involved with them in the process. We all feel that we are doing something important – producing jobs and income. We have undertaken a commitment to people.”

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