Brazil taps Asian funds

The Brazilians are making themselves felt in Asia.

Just after Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva paid a visit to China, where he made a call for Russia and China to join the G3 and sealed several commercial deals with the Chinese (see "Brazilian president has ambitious trade plans"), the Brazilians are now trying to tap funds from Asian investors.

A delegation of Brazilian government and private sector officials was in Singapore on Monday to participate in Brazil's Asia Conference 2004, where they shared their views on the country's outlook and investment opportunities.

Joaquim Vieira Ferreira Levy, Secretary of the Brazilian Ministry of Finance, said that there were many opportunities for Singapore firms to work in Brazil.

Details are reported in The Business Times article, "S'pore firms urged to expand to Brazil".

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was elected president of Brazil in October 2002. As a former trade union leader, financial markets had been uneasy with his victory, and the Brazilian real fell against the dollar leading up to and immediately following the election.

Lately, however, the money appears to be coming back (see "Brazil sees net dollar inflows of $1.577bn in May"), and the real's exchange rate has been rising (see "Brazil Real Rises 4th Day 5 on OPEC Quotas: Latin Currencies").