BNDES: Export Financing and the National Interest

Brazilian institutions that act in line with the country's interests have been systematically attacked by the opposition and sectors of the media, in a coordinated action that does not hide political and economic interests. This is the case of BNDES, which plays a strategic role in national development. The attacks on the bank focus on its financing of exports of goods and services from Brazilian companies. There is nothing unusual about this; governments that preceded those of the PT and its allies also adopted the practice of financing national companies, a practice also followed by other countries, such as the USA, Germany, Japan, and China.

The argument starts from premises formulated in bad faith. It goes so far as to claim that financing for Brazilian companies operating abroad would generate jobs overseas and unemployment here, or that there is political and ideological motivation behind the financing choices. Pure nonsense. Brazil does not finance local spending or jobs for foreigners, even though Export Credit Agencies from other countries do. BNDES financing only covers jobs in Brazil and national goods; the credits are released in reais, nothing is remitted abroad. The importing country pays the financing in dollars.

The contracts are audited by the TCU (Brazilian Federal Court of Accounts) and subject to oversight by the Federal Revenue Service; they have a marginal default rate (less than 0,01%).

The service sector currently represents about 80% of the GDP of the most developed countries, approximately 25% of world trade, generating US$6 trillion annually. Brazil cannot remain outside this market, and BNDES (Brazilian Development Bank) has a central role in the process. Our companies possess the technology and highly specialized workforce to participate in this increasingly promising market. The global engineering services market alone generates around US$400 billion annually, and exports account for 30% of this market. We can increase our participation, currently still small, fluctuating between US$1 billion and US$2,5 billion since the beginning of the 1990s.

We cannot think small or have an inferiority complex, believing we will be eternally peripheral. We cannot remain inert. For example: from 2008 to 2012, Brazil's financial support to its service exporting companies averaged US$2,2 billion per year. During the same period, China's official support to its exporting companies reached an annual average of US$45,2 billion; the US US$18,6 billion; Germany's US$15,6 billion; and India's US$9,9 billion.

Brazil is still far from ideal, but even so, BNDES financing has helped create jobs in Brazil. It is estimated that, in 2010 alone, exports of engineering services generated around 150 direct and indirect jobs in the country. We must not only maintain BNDES financing for these projects, but also expand it, because of the positive impact on the Brazilian economy.


With 2% of global exports of engineering services, Brazil holds an 18% market share in Latin America and the Caribbean, second only to Spain (30%). The United States holds 14%, and China, 12%. In Africa, Brazilian companies have 4% of the market, while China has 45%. Competitors offer better conditions for their companies to position themselves in this market.

Brazilian infrastructure investments financed by BNDES are spread across more than ten countries, including Angola, Argentina, Cuba, and Venezuela—in several of them, with projects already underway when the PSDB party was in government.

Behind the bad faith surrounding this issue lie ulterior motives aimed at benefiting foreign companies. It's a historical subservience, on the part of the Brazilian elites, to the metropolises. The same opposition that attacks BNDES loans to Brazilian construction companies that will export engineering services abroad has a project in the National Congress to hand over the pre-salt reserves, valued at US$ 8,3 trillion, to foreign companies. As can be seen, the national interest is millions of light-years away from the ideology of the PSDB and DEM parties and certain sectors of the media.