Foreign investment is 2nd highest of decade
O Estado de S. Paulo
The great potential of the Brazilian consumer market has become target of the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), while the total investment in the economy of the Country shrinks. Between January and May this year, foreigners invested US$ 11.2 billion here in the increase of the capacity of the plants, in commerce, agriculture and services. "It is the second highest figure of FDI of the decade for the period", affirms the president of the Brazilian Society for the Study of Transnational Companies and of Economic Globalization (Sobeet), Luis Afonso Lima. He emphasizes the funds are equivalent to the total volume which entered the Country in the first five months of 1999, a year of privatizations which attracted great amounts of foreign capital.
The perspective for 2009 is that the FDI should reach US$ 25 billion according to the survey with the financial market made by the Banco Central (Central Bank). This figure should remain below the record of US$ 45 billion reached in 2008. However, should the projection for 2009 be confirmed, the foreign investment this year will be the sixth higher since 1947, when the Central Bank started the collection of data, and the fourth strongest of this decade, in spite of the crisis.
Encouraged by the potential of the Brazilian market, the Korean LG, for example, started investing in the production of notebooks in the Country in the middle of last year in the Taubaté plant (SP). At first, the production was 3 thousand units in the month of June. This volume leaped to 15 thousand in December. "Our forecast is to end this year with 200 thousand produced notebooks. This will place the Brazilian market as the second largest for the company in the world, only behind South Korea", says the notebook product manager of the company, Fernando Fraga.
Also, Italian tire manufacturer Pirelli has elected Brazil as the main destination of its investments until 2011. The company will invest U$ 200 millions in the increase of the capacity of the three plants it has in the Country and in research and development. "Until some years ago, the two biggest economies of Latin America were Brazil and Mexico. Today it is clear Brazil has taken the lead", says the international CEO of Pirelli Pneus, Francesco Gori.