Think Brazil: May 10-19
Aimed at promoting Brazil in the UK, series of diverse events spanning trade/investment, science, culture and education gets underway.
The partnership between Brazil and the United Kingdom, which stretches back to the nineteenth century, is about to be further strengthened through a series of events under the banner “Think Brazil”. There will be 22 events in total, taking place at venues in London, Oxford and Manchester.
The aim is to fine-tune the shared agendas of the Brazilian and British governments and to draw attention to business opportunities in both the public and private sectors. The two countries are among those that attracted the most foreign investment in 2016, with the UK in second place globally (US$ 179 billion) and Brazil in sixth place (US$ 50 billion). The UK itself is the fourth biggest foreign investor in Brazil.
The Brazilian ambassador to the UK, Eduardo dos Santos, stresses the importance of Think Brazil as a means of promoting partnerships:
Our affinities go beyond football. We have mutual interests in diverse areas such as education, and science and innovation, which can generate cooperation beyond the traditional trade relations. In that sense, promoting Brazil in the United Kingdom represents the openness and continuity of a successful dialogue.
The opening events, on May 10, focus on two important individuals in the Brazilian cultural arena: Antonio Callado (1917-97), a Brazilian writer, playwright and journalist, and Thiago Soares, a principal dancer with London’s Royal Opera House.
On May 11, a seminar at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) on the subject of the Zika virus will be attended by the UK’s future ambassador to Brazil, Vijay Rangarajan, who will shortly be taking up his post in Brasilia. The event is the result of a partnership between the LSHTM, the Brazilian embassy in London, and the UK’s Science and Innovation Network (SIN) in Brazil.
During the weekend of May 13-14 there will be two special events: the Brazil Forum (at the London School of Economics and also Oxford University) and the third instalment of the “UK-Brazil Conversa”, an initiative originally conceived by a former UK ambassador to Brazil, Alan Charlton.
The second week will include events in the areas of financial services, oil and gas, healthcare, infrastructure, and no fewer than five events related to education – including a British Council conference, with the support of Universities UK International (UUKi), which will focus on opportunities for UK-Brazil partnerships in higher education (May 18).
On the evening of May 18 there will be a major celebration in the form of the “British-Brazilian Awards”, which will highlight the success of 23 Brazilian companies that have expanded into the UK and 18 British companies that invested in Brazil in 2016.
Think Brazil is an initiative on the part of the Brazilian embassy in London and the UK’s diplomatic representation in Brazil (the embassy in Brasilia and the consulates in other cities). The full list of events is available here.