An Ocean of Opportunities
Brazilian exports have tripled in the last ten years and now the country requires huge investments in port infrastructure. Investment projects in the coming years are likely to exceed R$19 billion.
The Brazilian infrastructure sector is gearing up to sup- port the strong growth of the country’s foreign trade. In the last 10 years exports have more than tripled, while imports have more than doubled. In order to handle the trade boom Brazilian ports – which handle 95% of the country’s trade by volume and 85% by value – have been receiving significant public and private investments.
At the same time, large-scale projects in transportation logistics (railroads, highways, waterways and airports) are now underway or will be starting in the short or medium term and will promote greater integration with the country’s ports system.
For its part the federal government has made the rules _______________ the ports sector more flexible _______________ the recent publication of Decree 6,620, which allows Brazilian and international private companies ________________ build and operate new public ports under concession. Ports Minister Pedro Brito said he hopes Brazilian ports will receive investments totaling R$19 billion through the coming years.
Investments are needed to expand and modernize Brazilian ports to handle the growth of foreign trade. From 1998 to 2008 Brazil’s total trade flow, counting imports and exports, jumped from US$108 billion to an estimated US$400 billion, of US$281 billion in 2007.
Brazil is also expanding the number of countries with which it trades. From January to September of 2008 Brazil exported to 224 countries and imported from 109. While Brazilian exports still include a strong element of commodities (petroleum, iron ore, soy, grains, coffee and sugar as well as newcomers such as ethanol and bio-diesel) they now also include high-value- added items such as airplanes, vehicles, engines, auto parts, processed meat and steel products.
The sentence:
“The Brazilian infrastructure sector is gearing up to support the strong growth of the country’s foreign trade.” can be correctly translated as: