São Paulo – The Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) is going to seek Arab investors for projects in Brazil. In a press conference on Friday (06), in São Paulo, the organisation’s president, Luciano Coutinho, said that the organisation’s strategy includes the promotion of ‘road shows’ abroad to attract capitals for investment funds and projects in the areas of infrastructure, production of ethanol, oil and gas, agribusiness and environment, among others.
"Brazil has a very rich portfolio of options of projects," he said. "There are areas of economy around the world, sovereign funds, which may turn a small share of their assets to the high quality investment alternatives there are here," added Coutinho.
In this respect, he added that "one of the important targets" of these efforts should be the Arab countries, especially the Gulf region that, despite the recent reduction in oil prices, have accumulated great savings in recent years, when prices of the commodity were at their peak.
Last month, the government announced investment of US$ 100 billion from the National Treasury in the bank for financing in different sectors. According to Coutinho, the measure served to dispel doubts regarding the institution’s capitalisation capacity. "This does not mean that we are going to keep our arms crossed. We are going to seek opportunities. We are just not interested in collecting expensive money," he said.
Last year, the Brazilian bank made available 92.2 billion Brazilian reals, around US$ 40 billion, in loans, more than multilateral fostering institutions like the World Bank, which made available US$ 13.5 billion, and the Iter-American Development Bank (IADB), which loaned US$ 7 billion.
The executive said that the BNDES has lines of credit and negotiation with these institutions and others, like the Japanese JBIC. The bank finances not only projects in Brazil, but in other countries too, if they involve companies, services or products from Brazil.
Still in the international area, the BNDES plans to open in the second half of this year a representative office in Montevideo, the Uruguayan capital, and should establish a subsidiary in London, England.
*Translated by Mark Ament
