Business
Brazil seeks to expand economic ties with African Countries
Brazil has also struggled to match China’s financial clout in the region as Beijing backs its companies with generous subsidized loans. Jinchuan Group, China’s dominant nickel producer, outbid Vale this year when it bought South African mining firm Metorex for more than US$1.3 billion.
Pimentel said his group would be looking at creating new financing mechanisms to support Brazilian projects.
But Brazil believes it has a trump card against China that it intends to play in its new economic push, put simply, that it treats Africans better. Chinese firms have been accused of flouting worker safety laws in some African nations and have also been criticized for importing Chinese workers rather than hiring locally.
“This is our big selling point – that we are arriving in these countries doing more than just selling products and services,” said Pimentel.
“Brazilian companies have a good image in Africa. This compensates for our fragility in financing compared to China.”
Brazil’s shared Portuguese language with countries like Angola and Mozambique, ethnic ties, a common history of colonialism and Brazil’s success in alleviating poverty and hunger at home also help its brand on the continent.
Embrapa, Brazil’s agriculture research agency, has operations in four African countries where it is transferring its technology and expertise in raising crop yields that helped turn Brazil into a tropical farming powerhouse.
Rousseff said during her trip that a pharmaceutical plant being financed and assisted scientifically by Brazil should start next year making cheap anti-retroviral drugs to help Mozambique’s fight against AIDS.
Even with competition from China, Africa’s rich and largely untapped resources mean Brazil still has huge potential to expand its presence, said Jorge Heine, the CIGI chair in global governance at Canada’s Balsillie School of International Affairs.
“Given Brazilian needs and the abundance of natural resources in Africa, it is by no means evident that we are near the limit of the volume of trade between Africa and Brazil,” he said.
