Minister receives Chinese businessmen to boost investment in mobility in Brazil

This Thursday, the head of the Brazilian Presidency’s Communications Secretariat, Minister Paulo Pimenta, received a group of representatives from mega Chinese transport company CRRC. Around 1,000 railroad cars manufactured by CRRC are currently in operation in Brazil. MetrôRio alone owns 100 of these cars. Most of them belong to Line 4, installed for the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games hosted by the city of Rio de Janeiro.

During the meeting, Mr Pimenta proposed mediating a dialogue between Chinese investors and Brazil’s ministries of Cities and Transport, who are responsible for urban mobility and cargo transport, respectively.

The Minister also pointed out that, on March 25, Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will be in China to chair a meeting between the Brazilian and Chinese economic sectors. "We’re going to establish a good dialogue concerning the field of transport, especially in the railway sector, in which China has a wide range of investors", he said.

Mr Pimenta also mentioned that he spoke with Brazil’s Vice-President and Minister of Development, Industry, Foreign Trade and Services, Geraldo Alckmin, about a meeting between Brazilian technology, agribusiness and infrastructure representatives with Chinese investors during the President’s agenda in China. "I can put you in touch with whoever is organizing this mission to contact our business community in China".

According to Mr Pimenta, Brazil is going through a good phase for expanding investments in transport. A change in the sector’s contractual legislation now allows for a speedier bidding process and less bureaucracy in service concessions.

"The government recently changed our rail legislation, now allowing companies to express interest in investments while requesting a grant to build new rail stretches – if, in fact, the stretch to be granted will be later integrated into the national branch line", said Pimenta.