The question was put by Willian Mathis in a very interesting article posted in Brazzil.com. He says Brazil is possibly one of the globe’s most popular and successful nations, experiencing limited negative impact from the global economic crisis that ravaged Western economies, and having beaten out both Chicago and Tokyo for home field advantage in the 2016 Summer Olympics.

In another  quite revealing article by Sarah Lacy for Tecnocrunch.com,  she says Brazil is sort of a strange country to throw into the “emerging market” category. It’s not a particularly young country like India or Israel, nor is it a country like China or Russia that embraced capitalism fairly recently. Brazil is as old as the US and has had a decently built out infrastructure of things like roads and phone lines for some time.

Yes, it’s a growing country with a young and stabilizing democracy that has a long way to go in terms of technology, modernization and bridging a quality of life between very wealthy and very poor. In that sense, it shares enough in common with emerging markets that Wall Street, at least, tosses it in the “BRIC” bucket. Indeed, Wall Street has had a way bigger crush on Brazil to date than Silicon Valley.

“We will triple trade between Israel and Brazil by 2015” Paulo Skaf, president of the Federation of Industries of the State of Sao Paulo, said at a conference in Jerusalem attended by the Brazilian president, Israeli President Shimon Peres and a group of Israeli and Brazilian business leaders.  Brazil is Israel’s largest trading partner in Latin America, with a number of large Israeli companies already exporting to Brazil.

Lula da Silva, whose main goal of this visit is to promote Middle East peace and diplomacy over Iran’s nuclear program, urged Israeli businesses to invest in Brazil, citing the country as one of the fastest growing in the world coming out of the downturn with growth of more than 5% forecast for 2010.

“I am launching a new investment plan in soon and I invite Israeli companies to take an active and significant part. Israel is known for its strong capabilities in technology and science. Thus, we encourage intensive cooperation with Israel.”

Earlier, the Brazilian leader had announced to President Peres that Brazil had given its final approval for a free trade agreement between Israel and the Mercosur bloc - Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. Israel is the first country outside South America to sign a free trade agreement with the bloc.

A surge in consumer demand and a strong recovery in investment suggest Brazil’s economy is on course to grow at least 5.5 per cent this year, according to data released by its national statistics office. Consumption by families increased 7.7 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2009 against the same period in 2008. Investment rose 3.6 per cent in the same period, or by 6.6 per cent compared with the previous quarter. Foreign investors are piling money into Latin America’s largest economy as the country builds houses, roads and stadiums for the 2014 World Cup soccer tournament and 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Gross domestic product has tripled since President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva came to power in 2003.

Monday, April 26, 2010
8:00 AM – 3:00 PM
The Grand Hyatt New York
109 East 42nd Street
New York City

To Register:
Click here to register online or click here to download the registration form.

Sponsorship and table reservations:
Please call the Chamber’s Executive Director, Sueli Bonaparte, at 212-751-4691 or email sueli@brazilcham.com.

UK energy giant BP has announced it is to enter the deepwater offshore Brazilian oil-exploration market by buying assets owned by US oil and gas producer Devon Energy in a deal valued at US$7bn. Under the terms of the deal, BP will acquire assets in Brazil which include interests in 10 exploration blocks in Brazil, including seven in the prolific Campos basin. Discoveries over the past decade have suggested that Brazil could be one of the biggest oil producers in the world. Other firms have been in Brazil for years. US giant ExxonMobil started exploring in 1999, for example. Most of the Brazilian oil fields are deep underwater, making the cost of extraction high. But oil producers are attracted by the size of the fields, suggesting the potential for large profits. “This strategic opportunity fits well with BP’s operating strengths and key interests around the world, offering us significant additional long-term growth potential with an emphasis on high-margin oil,” said BP group chief executive Tony Hayward.

Brazil has around 200 million inhabitants and its middle class represents nearly half of them – 49,22%, says a recent report by the Brazilian Getulio Vargas Foundation. It´s been growing since the end of last decade. According to the report, close to 91 million Brazilians, who now are part of the middle class – known in Brazil as class C – absorbs 46% of the country´s national income, with average per capita ranging from US530 to US2.530. Another study by the research institute, Data Popular says that more women are working in Brazil and many are breadwinners and that class C women will spend about US90 billion, in 2010. The country is set to create 2 million jobs this year.

Over the next two-three years, developing countries led by China and Brazil will overtake rich nations in adopting genetically modified crops, said Clive James,  chairman of the U.S.-based International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), quoted by The Wall Street Journal. According to the cientist, Currently, 46% of the land under genetically modified crops is in developing countries, but their share will increase to more than half in two-three years. Recently, the industry funded group announced that Brazil had become second biggest biotech grower after the US. It also said industry predicts big increases in GM soybean, maize and cotton production in 2010.

A wide survey by the World Economic Fórum (WEF)shows that the average  number of women holding the CEO level position in Brazil is high – 11% – if compared with more advanced countries, like Belgium, Canada, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States, which have no female CEOs among the 600 responding companies. “The Corporate Gender Gap – 2010”, just released by the WEF, also shows that Brazil is not low in the ranking when it comes to number of women who work in the country: 34,76.%. The country, however, has its downturns. Of those surveyed, the countries in which the lowest number of companies offer parental leave were Mexico (18%), Brazil (33%) and India (54%). Almost all countries are implementing some form of affirmative policies. In the United Kingdom and the United States, all companies that completed the survey affirmed that they have established such measures (quotas, targets and/or other affirmative policies). On the other end of the scale lies Brazil, with  0%. In its introduction, the report says: “The Global Gender Gap confirm the correlation between gender equality and the level of development of countries, this providing support to the theory that empowering women leads to a more efficient use of a nation´s human talents.

In 10 years time, Brazil will increase its market share of meat exports – beef, pork and poultry – to 44.5% of world trade in the sector. At the moment, Brazil’s share of the world meat export market is 37.4%. According to forecasts at the ministry of Agriculture, exports of poultry, now 41.4% of the world export market will rise to 48.1%. Beef exports, now 25%, will rise to 30.3%. And pork exports, now 12.4%, will rise to 14.2%. “The only reason these numbers are not better is because of the world financial crisis,” explains José Garcia Gasques, the coordinator- general for Strategic Affairs at the ministry, adding that domestic Brazilian product of meats is expected to rise over 37% between now and 2020, which will mean an additional 8.4 million tons. To people worried about environment destruction, Mauro Pires, director of the Department for Combating Deforestation Policy at the Ministry of Environment, says Brazil  big enough to protect its ecosystems while farming on large scales. “As Brazil becomes more productive using modern technology and better land management skills, we all win because there will be less destruction.” He adds: “With more meat production, Brazil becomes more competitive in exports. But this expansion must be confined to open areas so that further deforestation is avoided.”

Brazilian industrial production had its biggest rise for a January in 15 years: the industrial output rose 16,9% from January 2009, according to the census bureau IBGE. It said that the double-digit jump from a year earlier–which was the largest for a January since 1995–reflected the low base of comparison as January 2009 was still in the trough of the global economic downturn.

Paulo Leme, an economist at Goldman Sachs, told The Wall Street Journal that industrial production has returned to the high level recorded in January 2008. “After expanding vigorously for about 10 months, the pace of growth of industrial output has accommodated,” he said. Now, the big question is if Brazilian Central Bank is goig to raise the benchmarking Selic tax in its setting committee meeting, due to be held in 12 days time. he Selic is at all time low at 8.75%. Some analysts believe that the committee will wait at least a month more before raising it.