Farmers from Kenya have been increasing the amount of land they dedicate to plants known to be good sources of biofuel.

The Seattle Times has published a very interesting article saying that Brazil, the world’s leading ethanol exporter, will help Kenya produce biodiesel and improve its agriculture sector. According to the article, Kenya is an investment hub that Brazilian companies and entrepreneurs can use to seek business opportunities in the wider East African Community, a five-nation economic bloc of more than 125 million people, Brazil’s President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva said at a news conference with Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki.

Silva’s visit is the first by a Brazilian president to the East African nation. Silva and Kibaki did not give more details about how Brazil will help Kenya develop biodiesel or improve its agriculture. For several years, however, a growing number of Kenyan farmers have been increasing the amount of land they dedicate to plants known to be good sources of biofuel. The production of such fuel remains small scale in Kenya.

“Kenya is especially keen on exploiting Brazilian advances in the area of biodiesel technology. Brazil is a world leader in this field and Kenya stands to gain as we seek ways of becoming more efficient in our management of the energy sector,” Kibaki said.

Later at a luncheon in his honor, Silva said trade between Kenya and Brazil has increased six-fold between 2002 and 2009.

“Now is the time for the challenge to diversify exports from Kenya to Brazil and to stimulate Brazilian investments in Kenya. So that is why I came, followed by a Brazilian business delegation that are interested in establishing partnerships and identifying business opportunities,” Silva said.

He said Brazilian construction companies would like to bid to build roads, ports and hydro-electric power plants in Kenya. In recent years Kenya has invested in rehabilitating its dilapidated roads network and expanding it.

Earlier in the day, Kenyan Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula and his Brazilian counterpart, Celso Amorim, signed five agreements to act as a framework for future investments and assistance. The agreements include one that will allow Kenyan students join a university the Brazilian government will build in its northeastern state of Ceara to train 5,000 African and 5,000 Brazilian students in various fields.

Silva and a delegation of Brazilian Cabinet ministers, officials and businesspeople arrived in Kenya on Monday. They go to neighboring Tanzania later Tuesday and then to Zambia before ending their six-nation African tour in South Africa.

The Brazilian leader began his tour last week in Cape Verde, where he attended a meeting with the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States. He then visited Equatorial Guinea before arriving in Kenya.

By TOM MALITI

Associated Press Writer

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Fitch added that it does not expect any major changes in the country's economic policy after the presidential elections

World-renowned credit rating agency Fitch Ratings announced on Monday the confirmation of Brazil’s investment grade.

Fitch stated that Brazil’s Issuer Default Rating will be maintained at the BBB- level, the lowest investment grade granted by the agency. The country ceiling will remain at the BBB level, and the credit outlook was revised from stable to positive.

The outlook was reviewed due to Brazil’s economic performance and resilience in the face of the recession, which exceeded expectations, Fitch stated.

According to the agency, those aspects, together with Brazil’s “relatively prudent economic policies,” can help improve the country’s per capita income level and fiscal solvency ratio.

Fitch added that it does not expect any major changes in the country’s economic policy after the presidential elections, which are to take place in early October.

The agency expects the Brazilian economy to register a growth of 7percent this year, roughly the same projection made by the Brazilian financial institutions on Monday.

Fitch was the second of the world’s three main credit rating agencies to grant Brazil an investment grade, in May 2008, months before the escalation of the international financial crisis. Standard and Poor’s granted Brazil an investment grade in April 2008 and Moody’s, in September 2009.

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Petrobras is working feverishly to develop the presalt region

Shareholders of Brazilian state-run energy giant Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PBR, PETR4.BR), or Petrobras, approved a capital increase Tuesday, clearing the way for what’s expected to be one of the world’s largest-ever share offers.

Shareholders granted the company’s request to increase capital by up to 150 billion Brazilian reals ($84.8 billion) via the sale of up to 3.2 billion common shares and 2.4 billion preferred shares.

Petrobras needs the cash raised from the share sale, which analysts have estimated could be valued at between $50 billion and $60 billion, to pay for the company’s investment plans and rights to produce 5 billion barrels of crude oil from government-held areas in the offshore presalt region.
Chief Executive Jose Sergio Gabrielli downplayed vocal minority shareholder opposition to the capital increase at the shareholders’ meeting, as well as the likelihood of possible lawsuits to block the proposed share sale, according to local news agency Estado.

“It’s par for the course that whomever can’t take part will be feeling slighted. But this process is absolutely transparent and within the rules,” Gabrielli was quoted by Estado as saying.

The planned share offer was expected to be completed by the end of July, but Petrobras officials were guarded about that possibility in conference calls with analysts on Tuesday. Petrobras’s Gabrielli said that the company would now wait for the country’s National Petroleum Agency to receive a certification of the government-held oil reserves before moving forward.

Petrobras has aimed to complete the share offer before summer vacations in the Northern Hemisphere affect market activity in the U.S. and Europe.

The shareholders’ approval followed the release Monday of Petrobras’s investment plans for 2010-14, which called for investments of $224 billion over the next five years.

Petrobras is working feverishly to develop the presalt region, where oil was discovered under a thick layer of salt off the coast of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro states. The oil lies under more than 2,000 meters of water and a further 5,000 meters of sand, rock and a shifting layer of salt.

The federal oil company faces a stiff financial challenge to develop the ultra-deepwater fields. Petrobras needs to raise $58 billion from the proposed share offer and new debt issues to finance the investment plan, as well as an additional $38 billion to cover amortization expenses on current debt, Petrobras officials said.

Petrobras’s net debt-to-market capitalization was 32% at the end of the first quarter, dangerously close to the self-imposed 35% limit needed to comfortably maintain the company’s investment-grade credit rating.

After the share offer, Petrobras expects the company’s leverage to slide toward the lower end of the company’s 25%-to-35% target range–once again opening up global capital markets to the fresh bond issues.

The share offer was first announced last year as part of an overhaul of Brazil’s oil legislation proposed by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. One of the proposals includes a complicated capitalization plan for Petrobras.

Under the plan, Petrobras was to receive the rights to explore and produce up to 5 billion barrels of crude oil from government-held areas. Petrobras would pay for the rights with new shares, with minority shareholders also accompanying the offer. The offer to minority shareholders was expected to generate at least $25 billion in fresh cash.
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By Jeff Fick, Dow Jones Newswires

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Brazil’s economy grew at its fastest rate in at least 14 years in the first three months of 2010, official figures have shown. Its gross domestic product (GDP) surged by 9% compared with the same period a year earlier. However, higher interest rates and the withdrawal of some tax breaks are expected to cool growth eventually. Brazil’s economy is the largest in Latin America and the eighth-biggest in the world. Agriculture and industry were among the growth sectors, the government said.

‘Confirmation’

Much of Brazil’s economy is driven by domestic consumer demand rather than exports – which analysts say means it is relatively insulated from Europe’s debt crisis and the projected slow recovery of the US.

“These figures are confirmation of what the market was talking about, a strong first quarter with very strong domestic demand despite the weak external sector,” said Pedro Tuesta, senior Latin America economist at research firm 4Cast Inc.

The government said the annual growth was the swiftest pace seen since at least 1996.

Brazil’s economy grew by 2.7% on the previous three months – again beating analysts’ expectations.

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How the Winners were Chosen
First, all companies must by in either the Software, Wireless, Internet, or Media industry, be a privately held organization, and be within the Seattle area. From there, each company must meet one or more of the following requirements;
* 100% increase in revenues over the past 3 years; OR
* Over $4M in funding in the past 2 years; OR
* 2X traffic gains to their website in the past 12 months AND over 1M unique visitors a month.

Click here to see the list of companies

About Spring Wireless
Spring Wireless delivers end-to-end mobility solutions designed to enable business and organizations to increase productivity, optimize real-time processes and operations, and maximize their business success. Founded in 2001, Spring Wireless is the global leader in platform technology for enterprise mobility software and the fastest growing company in the market. Spring Wireless got a hold of $12M in venture money in May of 2010.

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The goal, he and other model scouts say, is to find the right genetic cocktail of German and Italian ancestry, perhaps with some Russian or other Slavic blood thrown in. Such a mix, they say, helps produce the tall, thin girls with straight hair, fair skin and light eyes that Brazil exports to the runways of New York, Milan and Paris with stunning success.

Yet Brazil is not the same country it was in 1994, when Gisele Bündchen, the world’s top earning model, was discovered in a tiny town not far from here. Darker-skinned women have become more prominent in Brazilian society, challenging the notions of Brazilian beauty and success that Ms. Bündchen has come to represent here and abroad.

Taís Araújo just finished a run as the first black female lead in the coveted 8 p.m. soap opera slot. Marina Silva, a former government minister born in the Amazon, is running for president. And over the past decade, the income of black Brazilians rose by about 40 percent, more than double the rate of whites, as Brazil’s booming economy helped trim the inequality gap and create a more powerful black consumer class, said Marcelo Neri, an economist in Rio de Janeiro.

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Vale acquired for US$ 3.0 billion the direct and indirect stake of 58.6% in the equity capital of Fosfertil, which corresponds to 72.6% of the common shares and 51.4% of the preferred shares, from Bunge Fertilizantes S.A., Bunge Brasil Holdings B.V., Yara Brasil Fertilizantes S.A. (Yara), Fertilizantes Heringer S.A. (Heringer) and Fertilizantes do Paraná Ltda. (Fertipar) – equivalent to a price per share of US$12.0185. The remaining US$ 1.7 billion is attributable to the acquisition of a portfolio of Brazilian fertilizer assets owned by BPI, which includes phosphate rock mines and phosphates producing units and does not include retail/distribution operations.

Pursuant to Brazilian corporate law and capital markets regulations, Vale will launch a mandatory offer – to be filed with CVM, the Brazilian Securities Commission, in the short-term – to buy the 0.19% of the common shares held by the minority shareholders of Fosfertil for US$ 12.0185 per share, the same price paid to the other common shareholders of Fosfertil, as previously disclosed.

As announced on February 10, 2010, as part of the acquisition of Fosfertil, Vale holds an option contract with The Mosaic Company (Mosaic), which gives us the option to acquire Mosaic´s direct and indirect stakes in Fosfertil, corresponding to 27.27% of the common shares and 16.65% of the preferred shares and to 20.27% of the equity capital of Fosfertil, for US$ 1,029,811,129.77, at a price per share of US$ 12.0185. This transaction is expected to be concluded in the near future

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  that the Brazil the lowest unemployment rate in Brazil for the month of March since 1998, when it was 15.1%, even although unemployment in March rose to 13.7%, from 13% in February. The numbers are from a survey by the labor-union-linked Department of Socio-Economical Statistics and Studies (“DIEESE”), which took place in six metropolitan regions (São Paulo, Salvador, Belo Horizonte, Distrito Federal, Porto Alegre and Recife ).

The total number of jobless there is slightly over 2,760,000. DIEESE estimates the number of people holding jobs in those metropolitan regions at over 17,400,000. Between February and March, the DIEESE survey found that there was little variation in average take-home wages. Strong Output After a timid rise at the beginning of the year, the Brazilian industrial sector now shows strong growth.

According to a survey by the National Industrial Confederation (CNI), its production index rose from 49.2 in January and 50.8 in February to 62.9 in March. When the index is above 50 it indicates growth. Thus, the average production index for the first quarter was 55.5, the best since the third quarter of 2004.

A spokesperson for CNI says the numbers show that for all effects Brazil has come out of the Great Recession with flying colors. The percentage of installed capacity being used is now running at 74%. Just before the crisis, during the first quarter of 2008, it reached 75%. Confidence in the Brazilian industrial sector has remained steady (and high) during all of the first quarter. The CNI confidence index was 66.1 in March, compared to 66.2 in January.

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The Brazilian company will present biofuels initiatives and a methodology to prepare sustainability reports

Petrobras will showcase its experience in sustainability initiatives in the Amsterdam Global Conference on Sustainability and Transparency, from May 26 to 28, in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The event is organized by the Global

Reporting Initiative (GRI), an entity that is a global reference in guidelines

for organizational economic, social, and environmental reporting. The exclusive

sponsor of the GRI Readers’ Choice Awards 2010, in which readers from around the world choose the mostcomprehensive and transparent sustainability reports, the Company will participate, Thursday (05/27), in plenary sessions to discuss the direction sustainability is expected to take in the upcoming years.

Petrobras Biocombustível’s manager for Safety, Environment and Health, Fernando Toledo Pierre, will participate in the Business session, at 2 PM (local time), and will talk about strategies for the sustainable production of biofuels.

Biodiesel and ethanol contribute to the diversification of the energy matrix,with positive impact on reducing global warming. Biofuel production also allows for job and income generation on the farmland, taking advantage of Brazil’s favorable conditions, such as its climate, water, and a major agricultural frontier to be explored, without any need to advance into forest areas or demarked reserves.

photo: http://www.wiltonjr.com/tag/meio-ambiente/page/2/

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