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Fernando Pimentel , Brazil’s Minister for Development, Industry and External Markets, writes exclusively for Corporate Africa on the special relationship between Brazil and the African continent, and outlines his plans for stronger development in the future.

How does Brazil see Africa? On the world map we find one another face to face on each side of the Atlantic Ocean. Brazil doesn’t look at Africa from a top-down perspective, but rather as an equal nation with excellent potential. This relation based on mutual respect is not only due to geography. Brazil has a special relationship with Africa because, of all the countries in the Americas, Brazil has the highest population of Africans. We are equal, and we see each other this way.

This perception makes a huge difference to relations between Brazil and Africa and is the reason why we, Brazilians, feel at home when we are in Africa. We are the same people, and share part of the same history. Brazil was a colony for 300 years and Brazil knows what it means to be a colony. Africa became independent and has been rebuilding its own history ever since. Due to an earlier start in its independence process, a different economic history and its current socioeconomic conditions, Brazil has the means to offer quality goods, services, and technology to African countries, not as mere consumers, but as a partnership between two nations in search of development and the reduction of inequalities.

The ideal scenario

For us, ideal international trade does not mean a country having permanent strong surpluses to the detriment of other nations. This is not what Brazil seeks in its relation with strategic partners, including Africa. Brazil favors growing trade flows that translate into the balanced and equal global market. This is the path for everyone’s prosperity and shared economic growth.

In diplomacy, we do not use the language of domination or submission, but one of cooperation and mutual growth. This has oriented Brazilian relations with its partners across the Atlantic. Thanks to a strategy devised by former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in 2003, Brazil began a historical strengthening of ties based primarily on trade. It is important to note that this policy is being continued during the government of President Dilma Rousseff.

A decade ago, trade transactions between Brazil and Africa totaled US$ 6.1 billion. Trade flows have since increased by 434 per cent, reaching up to US$ 26.4 billion. In ten years, Brazilian exports to Africa increased from US$ 2.9 billion to US$ 12.2 billion and imports went up from US$ 3.3 billion to US$ 14.3 billion.

Brazilian exports to Africa rely on export financing mechanisms that enable operations in the region. Since 2004, disbursements for 130 operations leveraged exports worth US$ 8.4 billion. Beyond trade, a comprehensive agenda in cooperation has been implemented in areas such as agriculture, health, education, professional retraining, culture, and justice. Major Brazilian international cooperation disbursements have been directed to the African continent. Our presence in Africa will deliver a legacy of technology transfer, labor capacity building projects and social programs. According to a study from the World Bank and the Brazilian Institute of Applied Economics Research, almost 60 per cent of Brazilian international cooperation resources were spent in African countries in 2010. SouthSouth Cooperation projects alone cover 780 activities in African countries, some finalized and some currently being implemented.

Brazil’s presence in Africa will deliver a legacy of technology transfer, labor capacity building projects and social programs.

Brazil’s presence in African development

Since I took office in the Ministry in 2011 I have taken part in and/or led six Brazilian missions to Africa. In Brasília, I have hosted eight delegations from African countries. This intense agenda can also be perceived from the perspective of Brazilian companies in the continent, which can be illustrated by Petrobras’s activities in seven

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African countries, totaling investments of US$ 2.4 billion between 2008 and 2012. Vale also has a billionaire portfolio of approved investments in Africa, with particular focus on the Moatize coal mining complex, the biggest foreign direct investment project in Mozambique. It comprises investments in infrastructure that created a logistics corridor between the coal mines and the Nacala port.

Weg, an electric engine manufacturer, has been operating in South Africa since 1980, where it employs around 600 workers. In Angola, there is a strong Brazilian presence in the economy, particularly in sectors such as construction, mining, and energy.

Nonetheless, this increase in trade and in credit supply for infrastructure and technology cooperation is only a part of Brazil’s developing relationship with Africa, the goal of which is to integrate our economies in to global production chains.

Global trade No country completely controls the whole chain of its industrial production. It is possible, and examples testify to it, that a country can be competitive in mining but not competitive in steel production. Or, it can be competitive in producing steel without owning major iron ore reserves. China’s steel prices are the most competitive worldwide and the iron used in the production is imported from Brazil or Australia.

Nowadays, the world economy is made of production chains distributed according to opportunities, to competitiveness niches and to the natural advantages of each country. Brazil needs to raise its participation in these global production chains. Our economy is already, in many ways, integrated. While Africa starts its industrialization process, some nations are at a more advanced stage. The continent must face the challenge of building an industry focused on the 21st century. What can Brazil do, from a position of development?

To support each African country to raise the conditions needed to integrate its economy in to global production chains, building an environment of prosperity and social stability. And we shall do it in partnership with Brazilian companies.

Regarding the relations between Brazil and Africa and Africa’s role in shaping modern Brazil, the friendship ties and the mutual respect indicate a role for our country on the African continent: to support the construction of a better world for future generations of Brazilians and Africans.

The friendship ties between Brazil and Africa, and the mutual respect indicate a role for our country on the African continent.