Rio Indústria works to strengthen and encourage the State's industrialization process. Rio de Janeiro's capital concentrates 32% of the establishments and 37% of the workforce in the industrial sector.

Today, the industry accounts for 24% of the economy of the State of Rio de Janeiro, being the second most important in the country. Distributed throughout all regions of the State, there are 25 thousand industrial plants of the most diverse sizes: micro, small, medium and large companies, which employ 580 thousand employees with a formal contract and have a salary mass of R$ 33 billion a year, making the rounds of the Rio de Janeiro economy to rotate.

To strengthen and stimulate the State's industrialization process, Rio Indústria is created, the Rio de Janeiro State Industry Association, which was created with the purpose of representing and harmonizing the needs and objectives of different industrial sectors, including micro and small entrepreneurs. . Led by Sérgio Duarte, a businessman in the food sector, Rio Indústria is formed by a group of entrepreneurs who have been operating in the market for over 20 years.

"The industrial sector in Rio de Janeiro is competent and competitive within the walls. Rio de Janeiro is geared towards industrial activity. It has a large chain of factories and suppliers, as well as qualified labor, and a privileged location, 500 km from 50% of the National GDP. The resumption of growth in the processing industry in Rio de Janeiro involves increasing internal competitiveness, improving the state's logistics infrastructure, the public sector's investment capacity, the quality and supply of energy, security and the reduction of bureaucracy, ancillary obligations and the tax burden", emphasizes President Sérgio Duarte.

Rio de Janeiro lost almost 20% of its industrial park in the last five years, which represented the closing of more than three thousand factories and the consequent loss of 100 thousand jobs. The impact on employment was amplified by the closing of 160 medium and large industries. If we managed to attract an average or large industry per month to the state, which is a great challenge in a pandemic environment, fiscal recovery regime and fiscal war between states, Rio de Janeiro would take more than 13 years to recover its industrial park. The challenge is great, the journey is long, but Rio Indústria is pursuing this objective.

But at this time of calamity, as important as attracting is to guarantee the permanence of the industries installed here, by increasing their competitiveness to preserve employment and income for the population and economic activity and tax revenue for the state. Recently released, the Doing Business Subnational Brazil 2021 report attested that the state of Rio de Janeiro has the highest tax burden in the country for small industries. Rio de Janeiro's competitiveness needs to be reviewed in its three pillars: production cost, business environment and consumer market, for Rio de Janeiro to resume its development trajectory.

Rio Indústria's achievements bring relief to companies 

Rio Indústria works strongly to harmonize the interests of the companies it represents. In May, the Association presented two important requests to the Finance Department: the extension of the term of adhesion to the Special Program for Tax Credit Installment of the State of Rio de Janeiro, in order to allow new companies to join this Program; and the extension of the period for payment of the amount due as ICMS Tax Replacement, within 30 days after the current maturity, even if the direct application of this period, which is done gradually, allowing companies a relief in their flow of box, while we do not overcome this scenario of economic instability.

"The economic impact of this current scenario for industries is unprecedented and these claims bring great encouragement to companies that seek to recover in the face of this moment. We believe in restructuring and in the strong potential of industry in Rio de Janeiro. We continue to seek to propose and represent it in all applicable spheres", highlights Sérgio Duarte.