In 2022, the Brazilian Machinery Manufacturers Association (Abimaq) wants Brazil among the world’s ten leading machinery manufacturers – the country currently ranks 14th in the list of main producers of machinery and equipment. It is the audacious ABIMAQ 2022 project. In the 1970s, the Brazilian Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was growing at high rates and Brazil was the fifth largest machinery manufacturer worldwide. The national industry was showing its power. At that time, the industrial GDP answered to 45% of the Brazilian GDP.
In the decades that followed, the picture changed and the industry lost strength to other segments. But ABIMAQ wants to turn the table and go back to the figures of 1970. And the conquering of new markets is among the strategies of the organisation. In 2008 and early this year, important steps were taken, such as trips to Venezuela to work, mainly, in two segments: oil and agriculture, and the mission to North Africa, organised Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, for market prospecting.
Machinery for oil and gas
With regard to Venezuela, a partnership with PDVSA (Petróleo da Venezuela S.A), for supplying machinery and equipment to the oil industry, is being worked out. The president at ABIMAQ, Luiz Aubert Neto, and the president at PDVSA Industrial, Angel Nunes, have already signed a document that provides for the opening of an office of the Venezuelan company at the head offices of ABIMAQ, in São Paulo. The Arab countries are also under the focus of ABIMAQ. The representatives of the organisation and sector businessmen, who participated in the mission to North Africa, in January, said that there are good business opportunities in that region.
Educate to grow
Another import point of the 2022 project is education, which must be a national priority. Education-related expenditures, both public and private, should be regarded as investment rather than expenses, with a privileged fiscal treatment and credit policy. The interest rate policy has not been forgotten either, as well as the acclaimed tax reform.
Bahrain remains steady
Projects worth more than US$ 30 billion are underway in Bahrain, in spite of the international crisis. According to a story by newspaper Khaleej Times, from Dubai, the enterprises are in the fields of real estate, infrastructure and other sectors. The information quoted by the newspaper was taken from a survey published this week by the country’s minister of Oil and Gas, Abdulhussain Mirza.
According to the report, economic reforms and privatisations have turned the small kingdom into one of the favourite destinations for investors in the Gulf region. According to the publisher of the newspaper, Sunny Kulathakal, quoted by the Khaleej Times, the diversification of the economy and the adoption of a prudent economic policy have helped the country to cope with the effects of the crisis in a more efficient manner.
The financial sector is particularly strong in Bahrain, answering to 26% of the GDP. In total, according to the paper, 400 international banks and financial institutions are present in the country.
Investment during the crisis
Even with the crisis and the low oil prices, the countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) should invest US$ 204 billion in the oil industry this year, according to an article by newspaper Gulf News, also based in Dubai. The bloc is comprised of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Oman.
Housing in Iraq
In Iraq, the prime minister, Nouri Al-Maliki, announced that the local government is going to hire international companies soon in order to build from 100,000 to 200,000 housing units in the country. The information was published by Iraqi newspaper Aswat Aliraq.
According to the prime minister, approximately 10,000 units in each province, with an area of 100 square metres each. Each unit should cost US$ 46,000, to be paid over the course of five years.
Green savings
Acácia Mangiun, a tree of Australian origin, is starting to become the favourite species of Brazilian reforesters, large and small. A wood regarded as noble, it recovers degraded areas and produces honey all year round – its nectar is in the leaves. In one hectare it is possible to plant 2,500 trees, with an initial spacing of two by two metres.
The first cutting (one third of the trees) happens in the fourth year, the second one, also of one third, in the eighth, and the third in the 12th year, when the roughly 1,200 remaining adult trees (one cubic metre each) will be worth, at current prices, 1.8 million reals (US$ 743.2), or the equivalent to an annual income of 150,000 reals (US$ 619.3) per hectare.
The handling system provides for replanting in each of the three cuttings (there will always be growing trees) so that it is possible to sell carbon credits, currently worth around US$ 500 per hectare each year. Not to mention the income that should be generated with the first two cuttings and the production of honey.
*With the collaboration of Alexandre Rocha. Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
