These days, Baku is hosting the Climate Action Week (BCAW-2025), a large-scale event aimed at accelerating climate initiatives and fostering collaboration between governments, businesses, and the scientific community. The forum’s agenda includes high-level political dialogues on energy, finance, climate adaptation, the development of small and medium-sized enterprises, and just energy transition.

A key focus of BCAW-2025 is supporting small businesses in their transition to a sustainable “green” economy. Among the summit participants from Brazil is Vinicius Nobre Lages, Head of International Affairs of the Brazilian Support Service for Micro and Small Enterprises (SEBRAE), and former Minister of Tourism of Brazil.

In an exclusive interview with AZERTAC, he shared Brazil’s experience in digital transformation and sustainable entrepreneurship development. His insights and recommendations are particularly relevant for Azerbaijan, which seeks to integrate innovative approaches to supporting small businesses and strengthening the green economy within its national climate agenda.

- With which countries is SEBRAE already implementing joint projects to exchange experience?

-SEBRAE has developed international cooperation networks, particularly with African countries through the CPLP (Community of Portuguese Language Countries). Beyond the Portuguese-speaking nations, SEBRAE has recently expanded cooperation to Nigeria and South Africa, recognizing these countries' strategic importance in the African continent. South Africa and Nigeria maintain strong diplomatic ties with expanding trade and investment flows, with both countries strategically positioned in their respective regions, presenting enormous opportunities for collaboration.

SEBRAE also cooperates with other Latin American counterparts and multilateral institutions. The organization works with the World Bank, OAS, UNDP, and maintains partnerships with the SBA/SBDC in the United States. It's important to note that Brazil shares borders with 10 of the 12 South American countries, and 11 Brazilian states have direct contact with these international business communities across these border regions.

Regarding Azerbaijan, this cooperation is not only possible but has already begun taking concrete form. At COP29 in Baku, SEBRAE, Azerbaijan's KOBIA, and the International Trade Centre signed the historic Joint Declaration on Baku Climate Coalition for SMEs Green Transition, inviting other international institutions to support the Declaration.

Brazil and Azerbaijan held their inaugural Working Group on Trade and Investments meeting in September 2025, marking an important step in enhancing collaboration between the two nations, as they have maintained diplomatic relations for over 30 years, with tourism, education, and parliamentary relations highlighted as key areas of their ongoing partnership.

Azerbaijan and Brazil have tremendous potential to gain from exploring cooperation opportunities between KOBIA and SEBRAE. Our long-standing experience working with oil and gas, renewable energy, agriculture and food production, handicrafts, tourism, and corporate connections along supply chains between larger corporations and small businesses offers valuable lessons. Additionally, our work in advocacy for small businesses in Congress to improve the business environment, and our work at the sub-national level with local authorities to improve territorial development strategies, are among the best practices we could share.

Beyond that, there is potential to improve international trade between both countries with special focus on small businesses. We have a plethora of technical solutions, methodologies, and training programs for all sectors. We also focus on reducing the gender gap and supporting other less-included segments of our economy such as indigenous populations, helping them overcome barriers to access credit, training, knowledge, and market opportunities.

- Which SEBRAE tools could be useful in post-conflict recovery and sustainable business creation in regions like Karabakh?

-Listen, there’s no substitute for peace and a more harmonious social fabric. While SEBRAE does not have extensive direct experience working in post-conflict zones, we can draw valuable lessons from our experience with displaced populations due to environmental catastrophes in Brazil, such as severe floods that destroyed the livelihoods of thousands of families and the socioeconomic fabric of some regions of our country.

SEBRAE has partnered with The International Organization for Migration (IOM), and the UNHCR on the Refugee Entrepreneurs Platform, which lists hundreds of businesses from refugee entrepreneurs and provides mentoring, guidance, and technical support to help refugees achieve financial self-sufficiency.

These experiences have taught us that for those suffering from displacement, when small businesses start to rebuild their way forward, when local small businesses restart their activities—even in post-conflict areas—the livelihood of the communities improves considerably.

I would say that some of our portfolio of development strategies would help, as long as the humanitarian and social work is in place and there is a collective will of the local communities to rebuild their economic systems from scratch, allowing entrepreneurship from the bottom of the economic fabric to regain traction.

Our work with refugees coming to Brazil also demonstrates that once they gain economic citizenship—that is, once they have opened a business or have been able to use their competencies—it becomes a much easier job for them to adapt to their new country. This principle applies equally to post-conflict recovery, where enabling entrepreneurship becomes a pathway to social reintegration and community rebuilding.

-How can Brazilian entrepreneurship support models be adapted to Azerbaijan's realities?

- Brazil is a huge country with great diversity, not only natural—with 6 biomes including the Amazon region and Cerrado—but also ethnic and socio-culturally diverse. The South of Brazil, neighboring Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay, is much different from the Northeast and the North of Brazil.

SEBRAE was created in 1972 to foster sustainable development of micro and small businesses and stimulate entrepreneurship in the country. The organization operates with impressive capillarity, forming a network of 700 onsite service centers, with each of Brazil's 27 federation states running entities with their own sub-regional units to address regional differences .

Taking this into consideration, our approach to small business development—comprising capacity building, fostering innovation and entrepreneurship, and advocating for a better business environment—does consider these regional differences. We try to understand the singular challenges of each business individually and their place in sectoral and industry supply chains, as well as the singular aspects of each territory.

I would say that our experience with regional development and industry-specific development could help KOBIA, our Azerbaijani counterpart, to design specific projects for each sector, territory, or structural challenge faced by small businesses in Azerbaijan.

Most importantly, our experience shows that intersectoral approaches—cross-industry initiatives aligned with national and regional strategies—create a better framework for small business development than just offering training or mentoring individual businesses per se. It creates a more powerful impact when small business development is considered an integral part of sectoral or industry development, as well as regional or territorial development.

I am here for the Baku Climate Action Week 2025, where I spoke about the crucial role small businesses have if we are to meet the goals for NDCs (Nationally Determined Contributions) and mitigate the impacts of climate change. Small businesses, which comprise 95% of all businesses in our countries and are responsible for two-thirds of jobs created, scattered in every single town and territory of our countries, must be engaged in climate action and be prepared either to mitigate and decarbonize their business models or to adapt to the extreme weather we will continuously face in the years ahead. No matter the industry, the region, or the challenge, we indeed have a lot to learn from each other.

- What innovative digital platforms and technologies does SEBRAE use to support entrepreneurs?

- The digital transformation is considered a twin transformation with the green transformation. That's why we have been investing in raising small business awareness of the interlinked challenges of both green and digital transformations. We partner with most of big tech companies such as Google, Meta, Sales Force, Amazon. The Brazilian Government digital platform - gov.br - has also an array of useful tools for small businesses.

Digitizing a small business is only the beginning. We help them digitize their operations, use data and analytics, and achieve a minimal literacy level to evolve in this digital journey—from basic digitization up to using AI, automating parts of their business, or going fully digital.

SEBRAE offers a comprehensive digital service channel designed to support entrepreneurs anytime, anywhere, offering a dynamic platform to publicize businesses and access rich content including videos, podcasts, and articles tailored for entrepreneurial profiles. The platform enables real-time dialogue with the SEBRAE team, access to thousands of resources covering essential themes like innovation, finance, taxes, technology and digital marketing.

Most small businesses in Brazil use cell phones as their day-to-day tool, and smartphones nowadays carry a lot of computational power together with cloud-based tools. From managing production cycles to tracing logistic operations to trading, digital has become part of their daily lives. So I would say we have experience in helping small businesses become digital, including the use of AI.

WhatsApp is widely used in Brazil not only as a communication tool but for business purposes, and as we know, it has AI-embedded solutions. This is extremely helpful for the green transition since small businesses can use those tools to manage their mitigation strategies.

- Could these technologies be applied in countries with developing digital infrastructure, such as Azerbaijan?

- Absolutely. The Joint Declaration signed at COP29 calls for global collaboration to support small businesses in their shift to sustainable business models, with commitments to raising awareness, enhancing capacity building, improving access to green finance, and fostering innovation to help small businesses adopt sustainable practices, emphasizing South-South cooperation and bioeconomy solutions.

I would need to assess how the country is digitally covered by Internet, cloud services, and data centers, but I am sure that what is already in place is a great starting point to plan for this twin green-digital transformation. The beauty of these digital solutions is their scalability and adaptability to different contexts and levels of infrastructure development.

The key is starting where the entrepreneurs are and building from there. Many of our digital solutions are designed to work on basic smartphones with modest internet connectivity, making them accessible even in areas with developing digital infrastructure.

-How does SEBRAE help businesses adapt to sustainable development and green economy challenges?

-We started 15 years ago managing energy efficiency, water use, and waste management. That was much easier than the current challenges of decarbonizing a business or a value chain. The results of managing water, energy, and waste more efficiently come within a month through the water or electricity bill, whereas achieving perceived results in a decarbonization strategy may take much longer.

SEBRAE promotes circular economy principles for small businesses, based on three key pillars: Design (creating products for reuse and recycling), Utilization (maximizing use of materials without unnecessary disposal), and Recycle/Reutilize (not discarding products but reusing them). The circular economy model, initially applied in large technology companies and startups, has now spread to small and micro enterprises, helping maximize the use of available resources and increase gains.

SEBRAE has created the SEBRAE Sustainability Center in 2011, in the state of Mato Grosso, internationally recognized as a reference center for best practices.

We have come a long way since Rio+20, where sustainability was finally integrated more comprehensively into our approach to helping small businesses. The results are clear now: sustainability is good for business, both in terms of positive impact and in saving money, and it can position a business at another competitive level.

- Are there any cases that might be of interest to Azerbaijan?

- Yes, absolutely. As I mentioned, energy efficiency, water and waste management are foundational areas. But we also have significant experience in sustainable land use, innovative sustainable business models, circular economy, renewable energy, bioeconomy, and regenerative agriculture, among others.

At COP30 in Belém will feature a special area for small business owners, where SEBRAE will showcase how Brazilian small businesses and startups have creative and innovative solutions in energy and decarbonization that can add value to more sustainable business models

Brazilian Amazon startups are investing in sustainable innovation models aimed at the global market, with initiatives like those processing regional fruits as pulp and powdered fruit, working directly with cooperatives to create opportunities for hundreds of families from traditional communities through fair trade while using technology to better manage and predict harvests, reduce waste, and add value to products

Come to COP30 in Belém and you will see a showcase of business models and scalable solutions that we have been applying. This will be an excellent opportunity for Azerbaijan to observe firsthand how small businesses can lead the green transition.

- Do you see potential for economic partnership between Brazil and the countries of the South Caucasus, particularly Azerbaijan?

- Yes, absolutely. Brazil and Azerbaijan are actively working to strengthen their trade and investment ties, with discussions at the inaugural Working Group on Trade and Investments session focusing on a broad range of topics covering bilateral, regional, and global agendas.

Our Brazilian Ambassador to Azerbaijan, Manuel Montenegro, is a great enthusiast of such partnership. We face common challenges regarding greening our economies, integrating our economies in the face of new geopolitical challenges, and because we are both major oil and gas producing countries in need of making the transition to a post-fossil fuel era.

Azerbaijan's Deputy Foreign Minister Elnur Mammadov's visit to Brazil encompassed comprehensive discussions on bilateral cooperation, exploring opportunities for enhanced collaboration in politics, economy, energy, transport, education, tourism, culture, and humanitarian affairs, with both nations showing mutual commitment to expanding the scope of partnership across these diverse sectors.

- Which sectors could become growth areas—agriculture, tourism, startups, handicrafts?

- All these sectors present significant opportunities:

Food Production and Agriculture. Tourism, as a former Minister of Tourism I would say there is tremendous potential for tourism development, particularly eco-tourism and cultural tourism, drawing on our respective rich heritages.

Handicrafts: Traditional crafts represent not only cultural preservation but also economic opportunities for artisan communities.

Services and Banking: Financial inclusion and modern banking services for small businesses are critical enablers.

Digital Technologies and Social Technologies: The digital transformation creates opportunities for leapfrogging traditional development stages.

Health and Social Programs: Our basic health and social programs, including those targeting small business owners, could provide valuable lessons.

Startups and Innovation in Strategic Sectors: Particularly in oil and gas, where both countries need to innovate for the energy transition.

The creation of innovative ecosystems around your major economic sectors is key to embracing the future. By combining Azerbaijan's strategic geographic location, energy potential, and multicultural society with Brazil's experience in small business development, we can create powerful synergies that benefit entrepreneurs in both nations.

In conclusion, the partnership between KOBIA and SEBRAE, formalized at COP29 and building toward COP30, represents a historic opportunity for South-South cooperation. Both our nations face similar challenges—transitioning from fossil fuel dependence, building inclusive economies, supporting small businesses that form the backbone of our economies, and adapting to climate change. By sharing our experiences, methodologies, and best practices, we can accelerate progress toward our shared goals of sustainable, inclusive economic development. The journey from Baku to Belém is not just about two climate conferences—it's about building lasting partnerships that will transform the small business landscape in both our countries for generations to come.