Latin America: Developing the IEC Latin American region

This article originally appeared in the February 2007 issue of IEC e-tech.

Following on from the successes of regional centres the Asia-Pacific in Singapore, and North America in Boston, the IEC in 2007 will be opening a third centre in São Paulo, Brazil to serve Latin America. The IEC Regional Manager for the new centre, Amaury Santos, is currently visiting countries in the region, ahead of the official opening later this year.

The IEC Latin America Regional Centre (IEC-LARC), in São Paulo, Brazil, is being set up by Regional Manager, Amaury Santos, a Brazilian native who was born in the very south of the country in Santa Rita do Sapucai, which is the main city in the Minas Gerais (or General Mines) State and known as the “electronics valley” because of its recent extensive technological development.

The 42-year old Santos first trained as an electrical technician, graduating from the Federal school of São Paulo, then going on to do his Electrical Engineering degree at the Mackenzie Presbyterian University of São Paulo, one of the oldest institutions of higher education in Brazil, founded originally in 1870 as the American School and today one of Brazil’s leading institutions of higher education. He specialized in International commerce at the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV), the São Paulo School of Business Administration .

Santos speaks four languages,  Spanish, Portuguese, English and French fluently which allows him to speak to his colleagues in the IEC Central Geneva office as well as communicate with any business partner, member of the academia or government official anywhere in Latin America. He recollects his six-month stay in Grenoble, France with fondness. Before that, when still in Brazil and in charge of the export department of the company he was working for, he already had the opportunity to practice the language since his boss was based there. Exporting to Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America was also the reason for him learning the Castilian language.

When not busy setting up his marketing plans and organizing training events and seminars in the regional centre, you can find Santos studying for the law degree he’s taking at the Mackenzie University. In this task he’s not alone since his wife, who’s a practising gastric surgeon, is also studying law. Meanwhile, their 7-month-old daughter gets attention from two grand parents who are also lawyers. Santos feels that this legal approach and knowledge is a great help when it comes to dealing with the international world of standardization although he’s quick to point out that on his side of the family, they’re mostly engineers.

Low to high voltage
Professionally, he’s worked in areas of low, medium, high and extra high voltage equipment and in departments as varied as technico-commercial, export, sales, marketing and promotion. The IEC defines low voltage as any voltage in the range 50–1000 V AC or 120–1500 V DC and high voltage as in excess of 1 000 V for alternating current and at least 1 500 V for direct current. He’s particularly impressed by the number of important conferences that are due to take place this year dealing with ultra high voltage. “There’s really no limitation on the level of voltage because it’s relatively easy to design a high-voltage product, but when it comes to building a transformer for 1 100 Kv, now that’s different. You have to think of the distances involved in the transmission lines! In Italy they have already tested 1 050 Kv”.

Necessity for purpose-built marketing tools
When it comes to his marketing experience, he claims that normal marketing classes serve little purpose in the areas of medium and high voltage for, as he says: “It isn’t possible to use classic marketing training because we’re not talking of standardized areas of practice. This is an area of great specialization where development times are incredibly long and where we’re no longer talking of standard off-the-shelf products, but systems. Thus, in the course of my career, I’ve had to develop my own marketing tools internally and this is now going to be of great help in setting up the Latin American centre.”

He states his objectives within the region as being to:

• Increase the awareness of the Latin American countries to the IEC’s role and importance;
• Increase the participation of countries from the region in producing International Standards and in using and participating in the IEC Conformity Assessment Schemes;
• Support countries in helping to reach out to all relevant stakeholders in their respective countries to build truly representative national committees.

Santos points to a map of Latin America and indicates the tremendous potential his area holds. Indeed, to date, there are only 3 full South American IEC country members, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, the latter of which is not treated as part of the Latin American region. At present, only one country, Colombia, is an Associate Member, although there are 21 Affiliate countries following the specific programme for Affiliates that is headed by Carlos Rodríguez of Costa Rica:

• Antigua and Barbuda
• Barbados
• Belize
• Bolivia
• Costa Rica
• Cuba
• Dominica
• Dominican Republic
• Ecuador
• Grenada
• Guatemala
• Guyana
• Haiti
• Jamaica
• Panama
• Paraguay
• Peru
• Saint Lucia
• Trinidad and Tobago
• Uruguay
• Venezuela

Four further countries, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Saint Kitts and Nevis, are potential Affiliate Programme candidates.

He expands on the participation of other countries in the Latin American region. “Chile is one country that has incredible prospects. There is political, legal and economic stability there and they’re able to attract investments not just for the domestic market but also for exportation. The consumer is now requesting additional services because although it’s relatively easy to set up a small manufacturing plant and export to Chile, it’s even better to build a plant in Chile and then export to other countries. The IEC is here to help countries like Chile realize their full potential and understand the contribution they can make to the IEC   There are great investment possibilities and good universities in Chile, both federal and private with a high level of resources in engineering and other branches which makes them fully able to participate in international forums. It’s an excellent opportunity for the IEC and these countries to work together in attaining these expansion goals.”

“We really need more full members. Uruguay, at present an Affiliate, has made a commitment to become a full member in 2009 and Colombia is at present an Associate. At the same time, there are few countries with their own National Committee (NC). These countries first need help in using International Standards and adopting them in order to increase their own participation. This is where the Affiliate Programme is so useful.”

Lack of knowledge among industrial associations
“In some cases, countries may not understand the benefits of having a national electrotechnical committee. Indeed my job will be to help guide the parties – be they the industry experts, trade officials, or the consumer or industrial associations – to see the benefits of setting up a true national committeeThe true benefits of IEC membership can only result from having such a national committee. They also need to participate in the production process of writing standards. The IEC Community wants more participation from all countries.  There is also a need for governments to help their own country to organize the standardization process. Once this is set up, it should be possible to work using an independent structure but that’s up to each country.”

“However, that’s not all. Take the case of Chile and Brazil which have strong consumer associations. To create a true standard requires input from all which means that regulators, industry, academia, consumers and government all need to participate equally in the process, not just as users, but also with their own standardization contributions.”

Next steps
“The next few months are going to be busy before we open the office officially. There are promotional activities that need to be prepared on every level in order to provide a good mixture and create viable projects. One of my efforts will be to explain that the IEC is a truly global organization, and not North American or European.”

“I want to change the perception that standards are produced internally behind closed doors. At the same time I think that participation in the standardization process can only help promote a country to attract investment. So one of my primary aims is to demonstrate that standards can also be written with the input of Latin American countries, not by some remote, unknown capacity.”

IEC Latin America Regional Centre (IEC-LARC)
Av. Paulista, 1439 - 11° Andar - Cj 114 - Bela Vista
São Paulo - SP - Brazil - CEP 01311-200.

Telephone: +55 11 3289 1544
Telefax: +55 11 3289 0882.

Source: International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).