Chancellor announces closer ties with Brazil on infrastructure and financial services
Meetings today in London between the Chancellor and the Brazilian Finance Minister help build a sustained relationship between the two countries.
The Chancellor George Osborne and Brazilian Finance Minister Joaquim Levy have today reached a number of agreements to build on the economic relationship between the UK and Brazil – focussing on infrastructure, financial services and supporting the delivery of Rio 2016.
The agreements, made at the first UK-Brazil Economic and Financial Dialogue (EFD) in London, represent the ambition to deepen ties between the UK and Brazilian economies and take the relationship between the two nations onto the next level.
Speaking following the inaugural UK-Brazil Economic and Financial Dialogue, Chancellor George Osborne said:
This inaugural meeting was an important step in building a stronger economic partnership with Brazil and is something we have needed to do for a long time.
The agreements we have come to today show our shared goal of building stronger, more productive economies that protect us from global challenges and will help us prosper in the future and I look forward to taking the UK-Brazil relationship onto the next level.
Agreements reached during the inaugural meeting include:
Creation of joint UK-Brazil infrastructure taskforce
The new task force will be made up of representatives from both sides and will strengthen infrastructure collaboration between the countries, encouraging investment and expertise in large scale infrastructure projects from both the UK and Brazil.
This will also present commercial opportunities for UK businesses, with Brazil stating their need for high levels of infrastructure development and investment across transport, energy and telecoms over the next 20 years.
Formation of new Capital Markets working group
The new expert group will increase engagement between UK and Brazilian authorities to provide UK technical support on the development of capital markets. The group will assist with financing needs and help position the UK as a partner of choice for Brazil to raise the infrastructure finance it needs.
Collaboration over the delivery of Rio 2016
UK Export Finance has offered up to £80m of financing support to the Brazilian Ministry of Sport to make it easier for British companies to use their expertise from London 2012 and capitalise on opportunities to support preparations for Rio 2016.
A number of commercial deals were also announced alongside the EFD agreements including:
Sepura to provide radio communications for Rio 2016
Cambridge-based digital communications firm Sepura has secured a £5.5m deal to provide radio system coverage in the Metropolitan Area of Rio de Janeiro ahead of Rio 2016. This will allow the radio system to support the communications for all relevant personnel, sports agents, Olympic committee officers and the police forces involved in the event.
Babcock secures maintenance service contracts at two international airports in Brazil
Babcock International Group, through its Brazilian subsidiary, has secured deals with Brazil’s two largest airports to provide a range of services, including the maintenance of emergency vehicles at Rio-Galeão International and facilities management at São Paulo-Guarulhos International.
Babcock has also secured an industrial asset management contract with CSN, one of Brazil’s major mining companies. These deals amount to approximately £10m in total.
Arena Group secures contracts to provide temporary structures for Rio 2016
London-based events company Arena Group has been contracted to deliver a range of temporary buildings and structures in the Deodoro Olympic park ahead of the Games next year. This follows their appointment to design and build a series of test event structures this summer, totalling their contracts to around £10m.
Steer Davies Gleave to help integrate bikes into Rio de Janeiro’s public transport system
London-based transport consultants Steer Davies Gleave has been contracted by the Rio de Janeiro State Secretariat of Transport (SETRANS) to help develop a programme that will improve the integration of bicycle travel as part of Rio’s wider public transport network.
The conclusion of the EFD also saw the UK and Brazil agree that the next EFD would take place in 2016 and that both governments would continue to work together to deepen their economic relationships.
Further information:
- Brazil is the world’s seventh-largest economy, and has a population of over 200 million people
- Brazil is the biggest economy in Latin America, accounting for over a third of the region’s GDP in 2014
- UK is the fourth largest investor in Brazil amounting to over 7% of the total stock of FDI
- UK’s outward investment stock in Brazil amounted to £11.3 billion in 2013
- total stock of Brazilian FDI in the UK in 2013 was $2.8 billion
- total trade with Brazil reached £7 billion in 2013, with £4 billion of exports from the UK to Brazil
- exports from the UK to Brazil increased by more than 50% between 2009 and 2013