Foreign investment in infrastructure grows 30% in 2008 and reaches US$ 3.8 billion
Valor Econômico - 02/03/2009
The six main sectors of infrastructure received US$ 3.8 billion in foreign investments last year. This amount is equivalent to 8.6% of the direct funds that entered the country. Oil and gas were the areas in which there was the greatest inflow of foreign money. The mid-term trend is that the investments should reach US$ 10 billion a year, according to specialists, but the capacity the Brazilian economy has of increasing the attraction of foreign resources in 2009 depends on the results of the international crisis and on the reestablishment of foreign credit. In 2008, the oil and gas industry registered the inflow of US$ 1.339 billion, according to a survey of the Brazilian Association of Infrastructure and Basic Industry (Abdib, in Portuguese). The data, in all segments, can also be underestimated. When a foreign company opens a holding or becomes part of a specific purpose company in Brazil, the investment is accounted in the services sector. Irrespective of that, the funds invested in infrastructure increased by 30% compared to previous year's. As a proportion of the total direct foreign investments, the six sectors - oil and gas, electric energy, sanitation, construction, transport and telecommunications - practically maintained the number of 8.5% registered in 2007. The president of the Abdib Paulo Godoy believes there will be difficulties this year to finance large projects in infrastructure with foreign capital. For him, the extra contribution of R$ 100 billion (US$ 43.5 billion) to the BNDES, announced recently by the Government, considers this uncertainty situation. "Foreign investors will probably continue cautious and selective, mainly in the first half of the year, with a tendency of improvement in the last six months of the year", foresees Godoy.