Developing economies face many challenges, but they offer immense opportunities no matter the level of development in the country. In general, the challenges are given more attention in academic and political debates. We need to focus more on opportunities because their use is key to overcoming challenges.
Governments need to foster a favorable environment for expanding opportunities to fuel private sector confidence and generate business, investment and jobs. Multilateral institutions, for their part, need to continue to improve technical support by financing development. In this context, there are vast possibilities to expand the sharing of knowledge and business and investment between Brazil and Africa.
The African Development Bank provides a conducive platform for enhancing the sharing of knowledge between Africa and developing countries in other regions, including Brazil. In this sense, in 2011, Brazil established a South-South Cooperation Fund with which it donated US$ 6 million.
There are possibilities for strengthening bilateral cooperation, especially in areas where Brazil has positive experiences,such as agriculture, both large-scale and family farming,social protection programs and public management systems, such as the national budget system.
There are also many business opportunities to explore, starting with trade between Brazil and African countries, which remains relatively low. The improvement of financing instruments and guarantees and the promotion of connections between the private sectors on both sides of the Atlantic can and should contribute to the expansion of trade relations.
The outlook for direct investment is also wide. This includes greenfield investments and acquisitions and international expansion of companies. In general, the private sector of Brazil and the African countries have a domestic focus, not valuing the opportunities of expansion and use of mutual benefits.
In short, there are very positive prospects for Brazil and Africa to rely on their developmental trajectories.
Fostering increasingly favorable environments for the flourishing of opportunities and working together to broaden the knowledge bridges and economic relations between Brazil and Africa are intrinsic parts of this agenda.
With collaboration of Rafael Ranieri, coordinator of Policy for International Organizations at Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management.