RIAS - EXPORTING
ADVICE
4
info exchange
WHAT'S Nf.wS Issue 12 December 1996
Rural Investment Advisory Services (RIAS), a wholly-owned
Rabobank International subsidiary, is playing an essential
role in scouting for opportunities and promoting the Rabobank
name in emerging markets, while at the same time contributing
invaluable assistance in those areas where foreign offices are in
the process of putting down roots.
Established in 1989, RIAS' mission is to
convert Rabobank's home-market strengths
into new foreign profits by projecting its
domestic experience and technology in
rural banking, farming, and cooperative
development into the fast-evolving
international agribusiness arena. Headed
by director Gerard van Empel and deputy
director Jan van der Wijngaart, the nine-
member team is particularly active in such
emerging regions as Central and Eastern
Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa.
KNOW HOW TRANSFER
The traditional food and agribusiness
sectors in these markets are rapidly being
transformed into market-driven production
systems - a transformation that is even
faster and more extreme than that which
Europe's farmers were forced to undergo
well over a century ago. Nevertheless, the
cooperative production and banking
structures that evolved in Holland, and
which helped the country grow into one of
the world's top agricultural exporters, have
also left Rabobank, which finances 90
percent of Dutch agribusiness activity, in
possession of valuable technologies and
unique know-how that can now be
profitably transferred abroad.
DUAL ADVISORY ROLE
One of RIAS' tasks is to assist in the
ongoing market transition as an instrument
of supranational donor organizations such
as the World Bank, the European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development (EBRD),
and the European Commission, as well as
the Dutch and other national governments.
It helps them realize their development aid
policies in emerging economies by
providing consultancy services and
operational line-management to local and
regional governments, to banks, to
agricultural cooperatives and to other
agribusiness enterprises. It helps in the
process of cooperative institution-building,
supports rural financial systems, and
directly assists in numerous agricultural
and agribusiness projects. Moreover,
remariks Van der Wijngaart, 'we are
working not only at the behest of the donor
organizations, but also actively generating
new business on our own account and for
our foreign branches as well.'
PLANTING SEEDS
Unsurprisingly, the transition of the
former centrally-planned communist states
into market economies has occupied a
great deal of RIAS' time and attention of
late. Here as elsewhere the development of
an adequate rural credit system - and
appropriate rural credit policy instruments
- are indispensable preconditions for
strong agricultural and agribusiness
development. RIAS is at present operating
with a World Bank mandate in a so-called
'twinning arrangement' with Bank
Ukraina, a new Ukrainian financial
institution reconstructed from a part of
the Agroprom system that previously
dominated rural banking in the former
Soviet Union. By providing banking
expertise, strategie planning, human
resource management skills and marketing
advice today, RIAS is also hoping to plant
the seeds for an even closer relationship
between Bank Ukraina and Rabobank in
the fullness of time.
NETWORKING
Similarly, in Latin America, it has initiated
an internal joint venture with Raibo do
Brasil to provide agribusiness consulting
amid a far-reaching restructuring of the
entire cooperative structure which is now
underway in this region. This involves the
transformation of multi-functional
cooperatives into more specialized
organisations - for example producing
exclusively chickens or dairy products - that
can quickly adapt to changing market
conditions and take advantage of the
economies of scale. 'Our local manager in
Brazil, Teun de Boon, saw this as an
opportunity to get in early and assist in the
process of change,' says Gerard van Empel.
Active in emerging markets - Jan van der
Wijngaart and Gerard van Empel.
The formation of this joint venture, RIAS
do Brasil, is a good example of how we can|
add value to the package of services that an
already established Rabobank branch can
offer its customers abroad.'
MARKET INTERNATIONALIZATION
Likewise, in Russia, RIAS is offering
agribusiness consultancy services through its
joint venture with two Russian partners to
clients of the local branch which are looking
for partners abroad - an activity that could
ultimately generate valuable business for
Rabobank's own mergers and acquisitions
(M&A) team. This search for closer
transnational relationships increasingly
characterises the agribusiness sector
RIAS - VOORDELIG
SAMENWERKEN
RIAS fungeert regelmatig
als vooruitgeschoven post
om onze belangen in het buitenland te
behartigen. Met name werkzaam in
snelgroeiende markten, let zij op kansen
voor onze bank. De werkzaamheden van
RIAS liggen vooral in het overbrengen van
kennis en technieken in de agrarische
sector. De samenwerking met Rabobank
International wordt steeds verder
uitgebreid. Met Raibo do Brasil is een joint
venture opgericht, die advies geeft aan de
Braziliaanse overheid ten aanzien van het
herstructureringsproces van de
coöperatieve structuur.Ook in Rusland
wordt al advies gegeven aan onze klanten.
RIAS is met name actief in Centraal en Oost-
Europa, Latijns-Amerika, Azië en Afrika. Voor
het realiseren van hulpprogramma's van
organisaties als de Wereldbank, EBRD en
overheden treedt RIAS ook op als adviseur.
Het gaat daarbij o.a.om bancaire expertise,
strategische planning, personeelsmanage
ment technieken en marketing advies.
