- Why invest in Brazil?
- The Brazilian model - Dilma Rousseff, president of Brazil
________________
Why invest in Brazil?
Brazil lives, currently, a single moment in its history. By taking opportunity of the solid macroeconomics stability of the 2000’s, the country, which was claimed to be considered as high risk for investors, became in 2011, the fourth largest receptor of direct external investment in the world. By matching sustainable growth, fiscal balance and investments in infrastructure, Brazil ranks third among the most safety countries for investment in the Americas, according to the risk grading agency Standard&Poor’s, in addition to being considered an ascension symbol of developing countries. The fifth largest Stock Exchange in business volume in the world, BOVESPA, is placed in Brazil; a State bank which has higher financial capacity than the World Bank, the National Bank of Economic and Social Development (BNDES); and the fourth largest company in market value in the world, Petrobras. Besides, the country counts on five great industrial plants, which ally technology, high productivity and sustainability.
___________________
The Brazilian model - Dilma Rousseff, president of Brazil:
"The world is changing fast. We are experiencing an inflexion in the global distribution of wealth, with a number of countries emerging as new centres of economic and social development. Brazil is one of these new centres. It will become the world’s fourth-largest economy by 2030, behind China, America and India. More important, in the past eight years we have lifted over 40m Brazilians—almost the size of Spain’s population—out of poverty and into the middle classes, with access to health, education, credit and formal employment.
We are also living in a period of crisis for the advanced economies. Debt accumulation is no substitute for rising wages, and market self-regulation is no substitute for government regulation. The rich world is now searching for a more balanced economic model and there are some common policies that we should all pursue in 2012 to build sustainable and inclusive democracies.
Together with our South American neighbours, we have come a long way from a past plagued by slavery and the predatory exploitation of the land and its indigenous inhabitants. The colonial heritage left deep social scars and inequities. The recent improvement in Brazilian living standards and income distribution has been the result of a political decision to benefit poorer families. The maintenance of stable macroeconomic policies and the expansion in our social-protection programmes have started a virtuous circle of development led by the domestic market.
The Brazilian model has proved to be self-reinforcing. Bigger government transfers to the poor have expanded consumption and created new opportunities for investment. Financial incentives for private investment and increased public investment have raised Brazil’s output capacity and productivity, so that the economy can grow faster without excessive inflation. And the government’s labour policies, especially our minimum wage, have guaranteed that the productivity gains get transmitted to wages, the source of the growth of the middle class. Today Brazil’s fast-growing consumer market supports self-sustained economic development not just in Brazil but throughout our region.
The expansion of Brazil’s middle class has also involved actively incorporating those historically excluded from development. The government’s policies are markedly pro-women. They also seek to eliminate child labour and school evasion. They are protective of the elderly and counter racial discrimination with the help of affirmative action.
A bigger say in the world
We see the future in the deepening of our national project based on growth with inclusion and sustainability, and in linking it with the destiny of our South and Latin American friends. We are fortunate to live in a low-conflict area of the world, irreversibly nuclear-weapons-free, and extremely promising in terms of its energy, mineral, industrial and food-production potential. We believe in broad-based regional integration, and in similar relations with the wider world.
Governance structures need to change accordingly, to reflect the world as it is today, in particular the UN Security Council, the IMF and the World Bank. Developing countries need to have their voices heard, and their concerns and contributions taken into account."
Source: www.economist.com
