With permission by the Brazilian government for payment in the national currency abroad exporters now will be able to close their sales contracts in reais, making it possible to escape fluctuation of the dollar, as is now taking place, with all foreign trade contracts being closed in the American currency.
The Central Bank of Brazil now needs to regulate this procedure. Once this takes place, Brazilian exporters will have additional gain in their sales to the foreign market. By making payments in reais, expenses with exchange contracts are eliminated.
Bank of the South
Established to be an alternative to institutions like the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Bank of the South should begin its operations in 2009 with an authorized capital of US$ 20 billion.
The capital to be subscribed by the member countries will be US$ 10 billion. Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela are going to participate with US$ 2 billion each. The remains will be invested by Paraguay, Bolivia, Ecuador and Uruguay.
The important question, however, is how can the voting power of the three countries that invested most of the capital be the same as that of minority partners?
What is expected is that the Bank of the South should be an instrument to foster development and not an ideological tool. The bank arose as an initiative of the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez.
Up to now, the countries that have formally accepted to participate in the project are Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Uruguay. But the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) partners also include Chile, Colombia, Guiana, Peru and Suriname.
Champions of the Skies
Africa and the Middle East were the regions that registered the greatest increases in passenger traffic on international flights in May, in comparison with the same period last year. The growth was 20% and 15%, respectively, according to figures provided July 1st by the Airports Council International (ACI), an organization that represents airport management companies.
In the area of domestic flights, the flow grew most in Latin America and the Caribbean (4%), followed by Asia and the Pacific (3%). In total, the passenger movement in airports rose 3% in May. In the accumulated result for the year, the growth in the passenger flow was 4.6%.
Cooperatives
The former minister of Agriculture of Brazil, Roberto Rodrigues, is launch this July 4 his book Cooperatives: Surfing the Second Wave -Democracy and Peace (Cooperativismo: surfando a segunda onda – democracia e paz). The book is a collection of articles, documents and interviews he published in recent years.
The book is an insight into decades of dedication to cooperatives, in which he taught and participated in the main organizations in the main civil societies and in the government.
Rodrigues, after talking to heads of state in five continents, restates his belief in associations as the best method for economic and social development, methods viable for construction of a better world.
On Land and Water
The Fisheries Industrial Unit of Consolata Agroindustrial Cooperative, the largest in Brazil, has started operating. Based in the city of Nova Aurora, in the western region of the state of Paraná, the industrial complex, which includes slaughter, industrialization and trade units, received investment of 15 million Brazilian reais (US$ 11.2 million) in funds by the Regional Development Bank for the Extreme South (BRDE) and should generate 100 direct jobs in the city.
The initial slaughter and industrialization capacity of the slaughterhouse is 10 tons of tilapias per day, and the target is to reach 50 tons a day by 2012.
Twenty five years ago, the Consolata Agroindustrial Cooperative, based in Cafelândia, in Western Paraná, dared and established a chicken industrialization unit, a courageous act at the time. Nowadays, poultry products made by the cooperative are reference in the sector.
Blue Skies
In the last 12 months, the automotive industry has grown 20.3%. The minister of Development, Miguel Jorge, has no doubt that the production of carmakers should continue growing. "Today Brazil produces 3.3 million vehicles a year. Our expectation is for this figure to reach 5 million," forecasts Jorge.
The minister, considering global production figures disclosed by Volkswagen, believes that in 2008 the country should overtake Germany in the production of vehicles of the brand. Nowadays the carmaker's Brazilian subsidiary loses only to China and Germany. Since it based itself in Brazil, Volkswagen has produced over 17 million vehicles of the most varied models.
King of Spain
Petrobras was the great winner of the award The Young Author, granted by the World Petroleum Congress (WPC) to the best study promoted by professional youths (up to 35 years of age). Production engineers Jaime Naveiro, Fernando Mendes and Pedro Medina received the award from Spanish king Juan Carlos I, in a ceremony on June 30, in Madrid.
The study analyses the perspectives for the balance between offer and demand of natural gas in the Southern Cone, calculating the commercial advantages of the main countries. Different sceneries have been created to evaluate the impact new projects forecasted for the region may have on relations between countries and what impact they may have on future negotiations.
You can contact the author writing to joel.guimaraes@anba.com.br or joel@agenciameios.com.br.
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