São Paulo – The Algerian minister of Foreign Affairs, Mourad Medelci, who is now in Brazil, invited Brazilian companies to participate in infrastructure projects pertaining to the Arab country’s five-year investment programme. Medelci met with the Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the minister of Foreign Relations, Celso Amorim, in Brasília this Tuesday (20th).
“Algeria has a programme similar to the Brazilian Growth Acceleration Program (PAC, in the Portuguese acronym), a five-year infrastructure plan, so we are checking for cooperation possibilities, not only in construction, but also in the industrial and agricultural fields. The president (Lula) believes that it would be great to have a mission of ministers and businessmen to Algeria, and another from Algeria to Brazil, before the year ends,” said Amorim, after the meeting.
According to Medelci’s closing address at the 4th Meeting of the Brazil-Algeria Joint Commission, held Monday in Brasília, the five-year program, lasting from 2010 to 2014, should result in infrastructure projects worth US$ 280 billion. At the event, the minister called upon Brazilian healthcare, energy and construction companies already operating in the country to increase their share in Algerian projects.
During one of the meetings that Medelci attended in Brasília, the minister signed a memorandum of understanding with the Brazilian government to strengthen cooperation in bilateral, regional and international matters of mutual interest. Another agreement was established with the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, providing for cooperation with Brazil for developing a dairy industry in Algeria.
At the Ministry of Agriculture, Medelci was welcomed by the Brazilian minister Wagner Rossi, who suggested a partnership between the African country’s government and the Dairy Cattle unit of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), which has experience in Brazil with research and technology transfer to improve milk quality and increase production.
According to Amorim’s address at the Brazil-Algeria Joint Commission, the strengthening of the Brazilian partnership with the Arab country shows that high priority is ascribed to South-South relations. “It is an option for development and the improvement of living conditions for our people,” said the minister.
With regard to Brazilian exports to Algeria, Amorim stated that sales are still slow and showing a deficit on the Brazilian side. “We are aware of the fact that our trade deficit is partly made up by the participation of Brazilian companies in construction work in Algeria, and by other types of investment. This is good, but there is more to be done,” said Amorim.
In the first half, Brazilian exports to Algeria totalled US$ 329 million, as against US$ 321.57 million in the same period of last year. The main products shipped were sugar, beef, soy oil, whole milk and agricultural equipment. Brazilian first-half imports to the Arab country, on the other hand, totalled US$ 1.3 billion, as against US$ 355.96 million during the same period last year. Petrochemical naphtha and petroleum were the main imported products.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum