Endeavor

tHE CItY's potEntIal After São Paulo, the main finan- cial center of the country, Belo Horizonte is the capital where en- trepreneurs find more alternatives for investment. Local banks moved over R$ 700 billion in loans — and R$ 4 billion was invested direct- ly in entrepreneurs through the Development Bank of Minas Gerais, the largest of its kind in Brazil. Companies in the region also re- ceived more than 80 Venture Capital and Private Equity invest- ments in the last five years, which represents 12% of the national to- tal, only behind São Paulo and at the same level as Rio de Janeiro. Probably as a result, local business- es are those that invest most in in- novation in percentage terms — an indication that the culture around the so-called "San Pedro Valley", the "Silicon Valley" of Minas Gerais, in fact favors innovation. Entrepreneurs also have an easier time finding skilled labor in the city. In addition to wages well below the aver - ages of the south and southeast, the city has many qualified universities and this allows about 1 in 3 students to enroll in high quality courses. Belo Horizonte is also the 3rd larg- est youth rate enrolled in technical proficiency courses, which makes it more likely for entrepreneurs to build a good team. tHE CItY's CHallEngEs Belo Horizonte is more than 400 km from the nearest port and although the state of Minas Gerais has almost 23,000 km of highway, the second BELO HORIZONTE largest road network in the country in absolute terms, the state's size re- quires more. In addition to the long distance internally Belo Horizonte also faces the same challenges as other large cities, such as high costs of real estate and electrici - ty, and complicated urban mobility, 64

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