Bolsonaro: Arab sovereign fund should boost investment in Brazil

President Jair Bolsonaro said today (Oct. 29) that the Mubadala group, one of the two major sovereign funds of the United Arab Emirates, plans to increase investment in Brazil. “The goal is to invest in ports, roads, mining, real estate, and entertainment,” he tweeted.

According to figures mentioned by Bolsonaro, Brazil received $28 billion in foreign investment in the first six months of 2019, a performance that places the nation on fourth place as the destination of capital inflow among G20 countries—the world’s biggest economies. In addition, data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the president said, show an increase in investment attracted by Brazil.

Bolsonaro is in Saudi Arabia, after visiting Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. In the Middle East, the goal of the president and his entourage of ministers is to attract investors, especially for concessions and privatization projects under the Program for Investment Partnerships—PPI in the original acronym. They are also great buyers of Brazilian agribusiness goods and promising buyers of defense products.

This evening (29), Bolsonaro is to meet with investors at a dinner offered by Mohammed bin Salman, crown prince of Saudi Arabia. In Riyadh this morning, the president met with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. President John Waldron.

Tomorrow (30), before his return, the president is expected to attend a forum on future investment. Bolsonaro is estimated to land in Brasília on Thursday (31) morning.

The Brazilian leader started his trip on October 19 and visited five countries in Asia and the Middle East: Japan, China, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.