Lula tells Spaniards that Brazil will be a construction site – 04/25/2023 – Market

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (PT) told Spanish businessmen this Tuesday (25) that he will turn Brazil into a construction site. The speech took place at the Spain-Brazil Business Meeting, held in the center of Madrid. He arrived in the Spanish capital, coming from a visit to Portugal, in the middle of the afternoon.

“We want to attract a new wave of Spanish investment. We are going to transform Brazil into a construction site, working on ports, airports, highways, railways and waterways,” said Lula, adding that there is an infrastructure project to be launched in May.

He also thanked the Spanish businessmen who invest in Brazil and said that he hopes that the Mercosur agreement with the European Union (EU) will be finalized later this year. Although the text is still under legal review, far from being submitted to the various necessary approvals in the blocs and in the member countries, the Brazilian president said he was optimistic: “I think that Spain in the EU presidency will help a lot for this agreement to happen . An agreement I had hoped to have signed when in my first terms.”

The event for about 150 businessmen ended around 7:15 pm (2:15 pm in Brasilia) and was closed by Lula and the Spanish Minister of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, Nadia Calviño. There was no press question session with Lula.

“In recent years, everything has happened. A pandemic, a war with humanitarian, energy and security consequences. And attention to the false dilemmas. That you cannot grow while reducing inequality. Or to make the transition at the same time as the energy crisis,” said Calviño.

“A priority for the Spanish government is closing the agreement between the European Union and Mercosur,” he said, receiving applause from the audience.

Earlier, the Spanish minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Héctor Gómez, and the Brazilian Márcio Elias Rosa, executive secretary of the Ministry of Development, Industry, Commerce and Services, spoke. Topics covered ranged from increasing partnership in the commercial sphere and attracting Brazilian investment to Spain, as well as bringing more Spanish investment to Brazil.

According to the Brazilian government, the stock of Spanish investments in Brazil is US$ 63 billion (R$ 320 billion), with an average inflow of US$ 4 billion (R$ 20 billion) per year over the last ten years.

There was also a round table with executives from Spanish companies with successful cases in Brazil, such as Telefónica, Latam and Mapfre. All the lines were brief and the whole event lasted about an hour and a half.

According to the secretary general of the Department of Economic Affairs and G20, Manuel de la Rocha, Spain is also interested in investing in large projects in Brazil. “We want to learn more about infrastructure programs and win contracts in Brazil. Water, sanitation and renewable energy, for example,” said De la Rocha.

This intention, however, must collide with the more statist ideas of Lula and the PT. On Monday, for example, he returned to criticize the privatization of Eletrobras at an event in Lisbon, which he shared with the Portuguese Prime Minister, António Costa

Other speeches by Lula at the event were about the War in Ukraine, a subject on which he made statements that were not well received by the international community and later recanted. “An insane war. A war that I understand perfectly well as my European friends see it. It cannot be accepted that one country invades another. But nobody is talking about peace. I spoke with Scholz, Macron, Biden, Jinping (leaders of Germany, France , USA and China). What can avoid a world war is to find a common denominator that can find peace and we are committed.”

“Unfortunately there has been a setback. Brazil has distanced itself from the world. It is with great sadness that I learn that I am the last president to come here. And that for six years no Brazilian ruler has visited Europe”, he said.

“It is an obsession to recover Brazil’s credibility in the world. Especially in terms of climate change and also economic growth and the war in Ukraine. Everyone knows that Brazil has extraordinary potential and we are going to use that to improve the lives of the Brazilian people, who today there are 33 million people going hungry”, he concluded, after about half an hour of speech.

Lula came to Spain for two days of official engagements after his visit to Portugal. The first was this business meeting. On Wednesday, he will be received by Spanish President Pedro Sánchez, at 10 am (Madrid time), at the Moncloa Palace, seat of government.

Afterwards, he will attend a lunch with King Felipe VI at the Royal Palace, an event with no access to the press. The president should return to Brazil still on Wednesday.