Agence France Presse | By ANTONIO RODRIGUEZ | January 29, 2004
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva met over 200 executives in Geneva on Thursday from foreign firms such as Syngenta, Mitsui and Alcatel to whip up investment in Brazil's growing economy.
"We want to discuss every project and proposition with the international business community," Lula declared at the start of the unprecedented meeting at the United Nations European headquarters.
"We would like to facilitate investment in the country in an atmosphere of harmony and respect for the rules and values of our society," he said.
"It is fundamental to create opportunities and economic options for our large population," Lula said, noting that Brazil's economy was expected to grow between three and four percent this year.
The meeting, organised by UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), brought Lula and a group of Brazilian ministers face-to-face with business leaders and bankers from 26 countries.
"Brazil is a huge country with vast resources," said Jean-Charles Doux, chief executive of Europe's largest chicken producer, Doux, which employs almost half of its 15,000-strong global workforce in Brazil.
"It is fast developing and people there possess a lot of know-how," he told AFP before entering the meeting room, adding that he was keen to learn about what Lula planned to do to continue his country's development.
Foreign direct investment to Brazil has suffered a temporary decline in line with most of Latin America, according to UNCTAD. This dip is seen as a return to the situation before a boom in global investment flows in the late 1990s.
But investment is expected to pick up following fiscal and social security reforms carried out by the government, UNCTAD said.
After one year in office, Lula said Brazil's economic and social structure had improved vastly but he acknowledged more work remained.
"The nation needs to have ... a substantial increase in employment and to lower the povery rate," he told the meeting.
Executives appeared enthusiastic about increasing their stakes in Brazil, but wanted assurances from the president about the stability of the country.
"Syngenta is the market leader in agri-business in Brazil and we are looking forward to continue to invest," said Michael Stopford, head of global public affairs and government relations at the Swiss agrochemicals group.
"Brazil's agricultural market is huge. It is very production intensive, successful, commercially orientated and future orientated. We think there are a lot of possiblities," he said, noting that Syngenta has already invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Brazil over the past few years.
Companies in the European Union are Brazil's largest investors, accounting for about half of the 18.7 billion dollars (15 billion euros) in foreign direct investment in the South American state in 2002, UNCTAD data showed.
European investment had peaked at more than 19 billion dollars only two years earlier. US investment in Brazil accounted for about one fifth of the total flow in 2002.
Although the bulk of the companies taking part in the meeting are European -- including names such as Nestle, PSA-Peugeot-Citroen and Telefonica -- they also include representatives from Chinese, Japanese and South Korean groups.
On Friday Lula is due to hold talks in Geneva with France's President Jacques Chirac, his Chilean counterpart Ricardo Lagos, and United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan on global efforts to fight hunger and poverty.Agence France Presse:
