By Lise Alves, Senior Contributing Reporter
SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL –Brazil’s President Michel Temer, is travelling to China on Tuesday to attend the 9th BRICS Summit along with his counterparts from China, India, Russia and South Africa. With Brazil’s economy still struggling to recover, Temer and his cabinet members will also try to persuade the Chinese foreign private sector to invest in some of the Brazil’s infrastructure projects, especially energy, airports and ports.
“Brazil has assets in the area of infrastructure that will interest the Chinese and get them to position themselves to participate in the auctions. China is the country that invested the most in infrastructure in the world. It has a robust financing capability,” Brazil’s ambassador to China, Marcos Caramuru was quoted as saying by government news agency, Agencia Brasil.
In an interview to state-owned Chinese TV, CCTV, President Temer said that Brazil has much to offer foreign investors. “We hope China will be interested in participating in these events, of these concessions that we are going to make, which will naturally bring capital to Brazil,” he said.
During the visit, officials from the two countries are also expected to sign agreements in the areas of trade and investment. Brazil and China are also expected to increase the validity of tourism and business visas between the citizens of the two countries.
Last week the Brazilian government announced a massive plan to privatize 57 federal holdings including airports, electric transmission lines, port terminals and the Brazilian Mint. According to officials these privatizations and concessions are expected to yield R$44 billion to the Union.