Brazilian industrialists seek opportunities in Brics countries
A group of 30 Brazilian industrialists have flown to South Africa to take part in meetings with businesspeople from other countries making up the Brics, the bloc made up of Russia, India and China, as well as Brazil and South Africa.
China is among Brazil’s top partners, but now another goal among Brazilian entrepreneurs is to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the other three countries—especially India.
“India is expected to show vigorous economic development and growth in the coming years. It would be very interesting if we could share in this growth and have greater scope not only in trade but also in mutual investment. We already have many enterprises located in India and, no doubt, with this new level of economic growth, many opportunities are likely to arise,” President-elect of Brazil’s National Industry Confederation (CNI) Ricardo Alban said in an interview with Agência Brasil.
Alban is leading the group on this trip and said there are also opportunities to be explored in Russia and South Africa. “With Russia, we have a lot of synergy when we talk about agribusiness in the area of fertilizers. We need to interact a bit more to develop new technologies surrounding fertilizers. With regard to South Africa, there’s a long road to economic development. It’s a gateway, which should serve as a base for this new moment we’re talking about in Brazil, i. e. neo-industrialization, the industry of tomorrow.”
In his view, Brazil needs to be at the forefront of the green economy. “At this time, when we’re all talking about neo-industrialization, we have to take advantage of this new demand from the world. The world is going to look for green economy and demand sustainably manufactured products. We can become a country that exports sustainable energy commodities. We need to decarbonize our industry and make it sustainable so that we can lead the way with effectively green manufactured products.”
Alban argued that dialogue and interaction with the BRICs is key, as these nations account for 42 percent of the world’s population (3.2 billion) and 25 percent of its GDP (25.8 trillion dollars). In addition, these countries have abundant natural resources, with large reserves of products such as oil, natural gas, iron ore, and water, not to mention millions of hectares of arable land.
