Dear Mr Rick Waugh, CEO of ScotiaBank

Dear Mr Waugh

We have never met. However, I have just read a tweet about you co-chairing the Canada-Brazil advisory Group. Looking at your achievements and representation Mr Waugh, that's just awesome, and so very fitting!

However, the first thing that went through my mind after reading the article is that Brazil is but one apex of the BRICS, expected to be amongst the top economies of the 21st century. So if you're exploring opportunities in Brazil, the rest of the BRICS ought to be on your radar too, with South Africa additionally serving as the gateway to Africa for all the BRIC nations. Indeed, over the next three years, tariffs and the movement of goods through the 26-country African Free Trade Zone (AFTZ), incorporating the South African Development Community (the SADC), the East African Community (EAC) and the Common Markets of East and Southern Africa (COMESA), running from South Africa to Egypt, ought to be significantly eased, which would be a brilliant opportunity for the the IBSA Group (India, Brazil and South Africa), as well as for the BRICS, and by inference, potentially for Canada too. And that's just the start, as West Africa are soon to be considered in the AFTZ context.

Banking has got such a significant role to play developing the newly emerging power economies, whether in the primary (capital intensive), secondary (capital/transactional/people) and/or tertiary (transactional/credit/savings/people) industries. Indeed, the more these industries are stimulated in tomorrow's global economies, the greater the probability of developing an increasingly powerful consumer cohort, which, as we know, seems to drive so much of the modern global economy. Already, the BRIC have 40% of the global consumer base... that's quite something, and this all hasn't even started yet!

The next thought was that the scale of the opportunity could easily position Canada as one of the next northern hemisphere superpowers, with Russia and China, as a result of the significantly increased trade between Canada and the BRICS. This might be a bit extravagant, but what's the point of thinking if you're not going to think big! And I haven't even expanded on the CIVETS (Columbia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey, South Africa) economic group yet, which also intersects via South Africa into the BRICS, opening an entirely different context of opportunity.

Well, that's my 2c Mr Waugh. Have a great day! I am aware that ScotiaBank is Canada's most international bank, so there's plenty in your idea already. If anything, the original topic was quite inspirational for me as you see here, and will be an engaging conceptual topic for me to discuss as a Future Global 100 leader, for 6 hrs, while leading a roundtable with 50 of the world's biggest companies in Hong Kong in November!

Kind Regards
Guy Pearce