Dubai: There is vast investment potential for UAE businesses in Brazil as the country pushes ahead with new strategic policies and projects, Jair Bolsonaro, President of Brazil, said as he addressed delegates at the Global Business Forum (GBF) Latin America 2022 in Dubai.
In his virtual speech, Bolsonaro invited UAE companies to invest in Brazil and explore the attractive business opportunities that are emerging across a variety of economic sectors.
Bolsonaro assured delegates that fiscal irresponsibility and spendthrift ways would no longer thwart business opportunities in Brazil, adding that foreign investors can renew their confidence in his country’s economy.
“We are committed to Brazil’s economic openness, comprising a competitive insertion of our country in the new scenario that will mark the post-pandemic world. After all the challenges of the past two years, which have led us to direct a huge amount of resources to prevent a more severe social and economic downturn, Brazil has resumed the path of economic growth. After a contraction of 4.1 per cent in 2020 - one of the smallest among all countries affected by the pandemic - our GDP has grown 4.6 per cent in 2021,” he said.
Urging a note of caution with regards to expecting a continuous trajectory of economic growth at the same level, Bolsonaro stressed that measures taken to damp down inflation may have an impact, but that in the long run such actions would be beneficial to Brazil’s economy.
“The need to keep inflation under control will make it difficult for us to have the same result this year. We all know too well there is no sustained growth without a stern control over inflation. We have been working with utmost caution to guarantee the continuation of growth for the next years. We strive for growth with short, mid and long-term opportunities not only for the businesspeople present in this forum, as well as for the whole business community as well. I am here to reassure all of you: there will be no spendthrift ways fiscal irresponsibility,” he said.
Bolsonaro highlighted that in the last three years, the Brazil government has transferred 131 assets to the private sector, saying that this had the potential to bring about more than $150 billion in investments and around $25 billion dollars in concession fees. He said that the programme’s portfolio for 2022 comprises 153 assets, with forecast investments reaching up to $60 billion, and asked the audience to consider investing in his country.
