German President Horst Kohler’s visit to Brazil in early March 2007 was eclipsed by the simultaneous arrival of U.S. President George W. Bush. In spite of the short shrift given by the Brazilian and international media to Mr. Kohler’s visit, Agencia Brasil, the Brazilian government’s news agency, reports that the German president’s presence prompted Lula to “invite German businesses to invest in energy and infrastructure in Brazil”.
Agencia Brasil goes on to specify that “President Lula invited German businessmen to participate in the Growth Accelaration Program (“Programa de Aceleracao do Crescimento” – PAC).
During a reception for President Kohler at the Palacio do Planalto, in Brasilia, Lula said that German businesses should invest in the PACs because these companies have proven competence in the energy field.
According to Lula, the Germans, who invest US$ 9 billion yearly in Brazil, are the sixth-largest national group of foreign investors. He also pointed out that 1,200 German companies have a branch on Brazilian territory and, together, represent 8% of Brazil’s GDP.
Germany is Brazil’s largest European trade partner. In 2006, trade between the two countries totaled over US$12 billion. Brazil exported US$ 5.5 billion to Germany, while the latter imported US$ 6.5 billion from Brazil.
The state dinner offered to the German President had to be rushed, so that he could return to Sao Paulo one hour before the arrival of President George Bush in that city. The following day, Mr. Kohler remained in Sao Paulo and followed the intense activity around the signing of a bilateral ethanol agreement between the U.S. and Brazil.
Brazil and Germany have a long history of shared traditions. The country received a large influx of German immigrants in the second half of the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth.
The immigrants established themselves mainly in the south of Brazil, in the states of Sao Paulo, Parana, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul.
Figures such as Jorge Bornhausen, Lauro Muller, Adolfo Konder, and Filipe Schmidt have left their mark on the Brazilian political landscape. Other German descendants were closely involved in the development of the Brazilian ethanol automotive fuel industry: Col. Ernesto Stumpf invented a special Venturi carburetor for ethanol-powered internal combustion engines in the 1950s (earlier post), and President Ernesto Geisel (1974-78) started the Pro-Alcool (Pro-Ethanol program) in 1974.
More recently, David Zylberstajn and Henri Philippe Reichstul, directors of the newly-established Brenco (Brazilian Renewable Energy Company – earlier post), have sealed alliances with international organizations to further develop the Brazilian sugar and ethanol industry.
Follow what's happening in the Brazilian ethanol market on Ethablog, the only blog in English dedicated to Brazilian ethanol.
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