Brazil fails to use billion-dollar Chinese fund due to political blindness.
A serious observation, which serves as a forceful denunciation of how the political blindness of Jair Bolsonaro's far-right government is causing immense economic damage to the country: the anti-China political rhetoric, beyond being reactionary, clashes with all the pragmatism necessary to boost the country's economy, which is still on the verge of stagnation; and it is leading Brazil to stop using the billion-dollar fund conceived by the two countries to promote bilateral economic cooperation.
247 - A serious observation, which serves as a forceful denunciation of how the political blindness of Jair Bolsonaro's far-right government is causing immense economic damage to the country: the anti-China political rhetoric, beyond being reactionary, clashes with all the pragmatism necessary to boost the country's economy, which is still on the verge of stagnation. And it is leading Brazil to stop using the billion-dollar fund conceived by the two countries to promote bilateral economic cooperation.
A report by journalists Daniel Rittner, Ana Krüger, and Carla Araújo indicates that the fund was launched in 2015 as part of a comprehensive strategic partnership between Brazil and the Asian giant, during a meeting in Brasília between Prime Minister Li Keqiang and then-President Dilma Rousseff. It is called the "Brazil-China Cooperation Fund for Expanding Productive Capacity."
The article, published in the newspaper Valor Econômico, points out that "after an extensive selection of projects, there were quite advanced talks for the announcement of the fund's debut funding - probably in October of last year."
"Valor has learned that the transmission line responsible for transporting energy from the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant (PA) to Rio de Janeiro was practically defined as the initial investment."
However, the newspaper points out, "in the final stages of negotiations, Bolsonaro's statements about Chinese investments in the country led Beijing to put a brake on the release of funds."
"According to various sources on the Brazilian side, at no point was there any specific mention by the Asians regarding Bolsonaro's stance, but it was clear that the Chinese prefer to wait and see how bilateral relations will develop."