Last year, during the Belgian economical mission we were present at the launch of Rio Negocios, the Investment Promotion Agency of the city of Rio de Janeiro. Last week, the results of the first year of operations were announced: 186 companies passed through the Investment Promotion Agency, investing a total of 750 million R$.

Tags: investments Rio, Rio negocios

Last month, the British agency Employment Conditions abroad published the 2010 report of the most expensive cities in the world for expats.
The study found that RIo de janeiro is now the most expensive city on the American continent, yes, more expensive than New York even.  In 2009 Rio ranked on the 132th place, today it is on 28, New York stands on 29.

And also, the study is not comprehensive and targeted to expats.  It includes food, (groceries and eating out), drinks, tobaco, services, clothing, electrical goods and “motoring”.  It does not include accomodation, car purchase or school fees.  This explains why also Brussels went up in the ranking (from 35 to 25).

But the study reflects a reality. The rise for Brazilian commodities and the strong real play an important part in this.  And as Adage reported last month: Brazil’s emerging lower middle class fires up marketers in Brazil

But it does reflect a reality that prices in Rio are outrageously high, and have been for some time (I’ve been writing about this for awhile). Interestingly, though, Rio and New York were right next to each other on the list – Rio as the 28th most expensive city and New York (Manhattan) as the 29th.

To see the complete ranking of all cities, click here.

Read also this article in Forbes and this article in Business Week.

Brazil received 5 million tourists in 2007. that number went up to 5,7 million in 2009, toppiing India and putting Brazil in the league of Indonesia when it comes to tourism.

The true tourism potential of Brazil remains however untapped, it can easily compete with South Africa (9,1 million tourists a year).

Last week, the Brazilian Ministry of Tourism launched the Aquarela 2020 plan, for promotion of Brazil abroad.  By the end of this decade, the country hopes to attract 11,1 million visitors.  Brazil wants to increase the inflow of funds coming from foreign tourists by 304%, to US$ 17,6 billion US$ in 2020.

Tags: brazil tourism

El Pais was the first to nominate Lula as “personality of the year” (Spanish prime minister José Luis Zapatero called Lula “the man of which the world is fascinated”) and now Le Monda nominates Lula as “L’homme de l’année 2009“.

It’s the first time that Le Monde awards the nomination.  The newspapers refers to Lula’s past as union leader and his battle for social justice and the environment.  Le Monde claims that Lula changed the face of South America and made Brazil into superpower country.

More interesting than the article itself are the comments through which European FUD (Fear Uncertainty and Doubt) are dripping through.

Just look how he won the Olympic bid.  The IOC chose Rio de Janeiro on the basis of Rio’s strong technical bid and long-term aspirations of the future.  The IOC continues that the games will be “good for Rio de Janeiro”.
Let’s turn that upside down: showcasing Brazil through the Olympics could teach the world some important lessons.

Tags: lula da silva, lula homme de l'annee

In 2008, MPX announced the plans for a new Ocean Port for Rio de Janeiro: Porto do Açu.
Strong believing in the prospects of logistic players in Brazil, why bought MPX at 6,95 R$ mid January; today they are trading at 17,85 R$, that is a 156% profit.    We believe the stock has the potential to go above 40 R$ by mid 2010.

Port Açu will start operations in 2010.  It is located 280 km Northeastfrom Rio, just up from Macae and will be serving Rio, Minas Gerais, Espirito Santo and the oil rigs of the Macae area.

The Port, located approximately 280 km northeast of Rio, is under construction and should be completed by the end of 2011.

On July3d, the Governor of Rio de Janeiro State,  announced that the Chinese company WISCO will construct a steel mill at Porto do Açu in partnership with Grupo EBX investments.  The project will create 20.000 jobs.  Grupo EBX is of Brazil’s richest man Eike Batista.

A few days later, China’s JAC Motors confirmed that they will build a vehicle plant in Brazil, also in the new Porto do Açu. The link with the steel mill of WISCO is clear. JAC Motors is China’s leading bus chassis manufacturer. It produces 450,000 vehicles a year including light trucks and multipurpose vehicles.

We’ll keep a close eye on the developments there.