German President comes to Brazil to announce investments
Folha de S. Paulo
The President of Germany, Christian Wulff, arrives today in Brasilia with a delegation of nearly 60 businessmen and a basket of proposals for investments in Brazil. The main ones are in ports, airports and urban transport, essential for major sporting events. With US$ 20.6 billion in bilateral trade in 2010, Germany is the main partner of Brazil in Europe and the fourth in the world, only behind China, USA and Argentina. It has nearly 1,200 companies in Brazil, according to the Brazilian Ambassador in Berlin, Everton Vargas.
Central Bank data show that between 1950 and 1995, Germany was responsible for the second largest inventory of direct investments in Brazil, only behind the United States. Then it fell to the fifth place and, between 2001 and 2010, it ranked eighth in the country, with US$ 10.9 billion, nearly 5% of the total investments. Wulff should express support to the new postponement of the bidding for the bullet train connecting Rio to São Paulo because a German pool of companies is interested in the dispute. The discussions include Siemens, in electronic engineering, and the State-owned Deutsche Bahn, largest railway company in the country.
With the announcement of the Dilma Rousseff Government that the Brazilian airports will be managed by the private initiative, the German Fraport, a mixed-economy company, entered the dispute. It manages the Airport of Frankfurt, one of the most important "hubs" of Europe, as well as those of New Delhi (India), Cairo (Egypt) and Lima (Peru). Du Sport, responsible for the largest river port in Europe, the Port of Duisburg, already has studies for modernization and expansion of the port of Santos (SP).