Brazil needs to focus on attracting Chinese investments: former ambassador

Brazil needs to focus on Chinese investments now that the peak of exports to China has passed, Clodoaldo Hugueney, former Brazilian ambassador to China, has told a local daily.

As the Brazilian economy can not maintain the same momentum as it could a few years ago when the export of commodities was on the rise and China's growth rate was higher, Brazil should focus now on attracting Chinese investments, Hugueney told Folha de Sao Paulo.

In Hugueney's opinion, the Brazil-China relationship has focused too much on trade and it is now time to shift the focus a little.

Brazil has already benefited from several Chinese companies which decided to operate in the country. Chinese businesses are present in several fields, like oil, energy and transportation. The former ambassador believes Chinese investments in Brazil will further increase.

In order to attract more investments, Hugueney said, Brazil must modernize its business environment, simplifying the process to open a new business, which is widely regarded as very bureaucratic and too slow.

Hugueney also thought Brazil should invest in areas in which the Chinese market is growing.

"China's urbanization process is advancing, which will make people eat more industrialized agricultural products, meat, fruit juice. That opens a great opportunity for the Brazilian agribusiness, not only for exports, but also for investments in restaurants and supermarkets," Hugueney said.

"You must make China a priority in business, as Germany, U.S., France and (South) Korea did," he added. Endi