
The Argentine government signed Thursday a contract to purchase twenty mid range aircrafts from Brazilian manufacturer Embraer for recently nationalized flag carrier Aerolineas Argentinas. President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner said these will be the first new aircrafts for Aerolineas in 16 years.

Direct foreign investments in Latinamerica and the Caribbean are showing a significant resistance to the global crisis and in 2008 reached a record 139 billion US dollars, up 9.4% from the previous year according the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

The business climate in Latinamerica experienced a slight improvement in the last three months having jumped from 2.9 points in January to 3.6 in April, although it is still one of the worst levels in seven years, reported the Brazilian Foundation Getulio Vargas

Brazil and China signed Tuesday in Beijing thirteen accords to promote trade, investments and cooperation plus a 10 billion US dollars loan for Petrobras. It was also agreed that bilateral trade in the near future is to be done using the Real and the Yuan.

Two of Brazil’s biggest food companies announced on Tuesday plans to merge, creating an exporting powerhouse in a stock swap deal prompted by the global financial crisis. Executives from Perdigao SA and Sadia SA said they expect their new enterprise, to be called Brasil Foods SA, to become the world's top exporter of processed meat and chicken.

Brazil's President Lula da Silva is to sign a “voluminous” financing agreement for government managed Petrobras on a visit to China next week said Energy Minister Edison Lobao.

Peru's president Alan García officially opened this week Lima Cargo City, considered the most modern air freight logistics centre in Latinamerica, built with an investment of more than 35 million US dollars.

Fiat is eyeing US auto giant General Motors' operations in Latin America as well as those in Europe (Opel) and discussions on a possible deal are under way, an industry source said Tuesday.

Spain’s pulp and paper manufacturer Ence is ready to accept 400 million US dollars from its Portuguese competitor Portucel to keep the pulp mill project in Uruguay alive. Portucel would take a considerable share of the mill, forested land and would join Ence in a strategic alliance according to reports in the Spanish financial newspaper Expansion.

Chinese automaker Chery reportedly is planning a 700 million US dollars factory in Brazil to tap the country's growing market and to learn more about bio fuel engines according to Sao Paulo’s financial daily Gazeta Mercantil.