China ready to increase trade and investments in Brazil but infrastructure lacking

Tuesday, May 17th 2011 - 05:51 UTC

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China moved to smooth economic relations with Brazil on Monday, saying it was open to more Brazilian exports and that Chinese firms will broaden their investments in the country. Read full article

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GeoffWard
“Last year China surged to become the biggest direct investor in Brazil but it has been concentrated in commodities rather than in infrastructure or high-tech areas that create the higher-value “smart jobs” Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff wants.”

Everybody wants to invest in a country to maximise the return that that country can provide to the investor.

Thus China builds a specialist port to handle the China-purchased raw materials.
Thus USA extents huge lines of credit for the USA firms to help build for Olympics, World Cup etc.
Thus Foxconn builds Apple (etc) factories in Brasil - and expects to export most of the HUGE new profit back to Taiwan.

Nobody gives something for nothing.

Brasil will get contract-employment and some physical artifacts (football stadiums, typically) that should last perhaps 20 years.

What it will not get is a command-economy directed and effected pan-national infrastructure.

What it will not get is the education of its people.

These need INTERNAL ambitions, structures, plans, programmes, completions, quality controls, maintenence, re-build schedules . . .
and most of all, they need the erradication of state corruption.

Once any single one of these projects is skimmed all the way down the line, there is very little left for the project itself.

Multiply this by EVERY SINGLE PROJECT on the nation's books, and you get a truer measure of Brasil's problem.
May 17th, 2011 - 11:42 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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