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Brazil
In the last decades, Brazil has gone from being essentially a basic goods
provider to a country with an extremely diversified industrial economy. In the
field of science and technology, for example, the country has climbed from 28th
to 17th place among countries with a relevant scientific production, thanks to
the presence of over 79 thousand researchers and scholarship students (2004)
operating in universities and the private business sector.
In 2004, exports reached US$ 100 billion, an all-time record for the period.
Trade surplus also reached a record high of US$ 33,6 billion. In 2003, Brazilian
exports had reached a Record US$ 73 billion, a 21% increase compared to the same
period in 2002. This performance is more impressive if compared to the growth
expectation for world trade this year, of only 2.9%.
As far as the actual establishment of an operation in Brazil is concerned,
the potential foreign investor will have no difficulty in obtaining
skilled professional assistance in preliminary stages, and will find that due to
the large industrial base few problems are encountered in locating joint-venture
partner or a suitable manufacturing facility. Foreign investors may enter the
Brazilian market directly - through a branch or a subsidiary - or through third
parties by means of distribution and sales representation activities.
Distribution and sales representation are, in most cases, cost saving when
compared to the incorporation of a local branch or subsidiary. However, these
alternatives may bring lack of control to the foreign investors over the way the
third parties distribute or sell their products in Brazil and deal with their
trademarks.
In various countries in recent years, the need to effect public-sector
investments in a context characterized by fiscal constraints has led to
Public-Private Partnerships in pursuit of an efficient means of providing public
services. In Brazil, after a year of intense legislative debate with ample
participation of the Government and society in general, the
Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) Law was approved on December 30, 2004
(Law 11.079). A Public-Private Partnership implies a medium- or long-term (5 to
35 year) contracts for the provision of services, signed by the Public
Administration, involving sums of not less than twenty million Reais.
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