2010 starts, the Brazilian people are glowing with self confidence.

One of the main challenges for Brazil to sustain growth is to make sure that a qualified working force c an sustain that growth; an enormous challenge for Brazil to overcome.
Brazilian people with a Bolsa Family can now join for free the Proximo Passo programm and get free training. The needs are immense: only in the civil construction sector, the program needs to fill 146.547 open vacancies.

Tags: confianca

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

In 2007, the Carlyle Group, one of the largest US private equity funds already made a first move into Brazil by taking a significant investment in Scopel.

David Rubenstein, co-founder of Carlyle Group (CYL.UL), plans to announce seen two or three deals in Brazil.  The deals would run “in the hundred million-dollar area”.

“We also recognize that Brazil is the fifth most populous country in the world and its GDP will probably be the fifth-largest in the world in the next decade, so we need to be here,” he added.

Full article on Reuters.

Tags: carlyle brazil

Domestic market revenues for Embraer should reach US$ 500 million this year, totaling 10% of total revenues (last year: 4%).

The CEO of Embraer, Frederico Fleury Curado disclosed this information last week.  “Brazil is running contrary to the world, in a good way, with regard to griwth.  The country was able to recover well from the crisis and is going to grow well next year.  Air transportation is about to grow 8-10% next year in Brasil, which is an impressive number.

Azul is one of the new Brazilian companies flying with Embraer 190s; when in Brazil you should try them.  They (next to GOL, TAM and Oceanair already servicing Florianopolis) just started operating flights to Florianopolis where Vinlanda has several projects: Moradas da Ilha (only 2 houses remaining), Casa le Jardin (only 1 house remaining) and Maresias (launch in March 2010).

Tags: casa em florianopolis, embraer

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