Agreements signed eight months ago by President Dilma Rousseff and the Prime Minister of China, Li Keqiang, are slowing advancing and may yield its first fruits in the upcoming months. One of the points with most advancement is the bilateral fund to develop the production capacity.
Focused on industrial and infrastructure projects, it already had a company created in Beijing to manage it – Claifund (China Latin American Industrial Cooperation Investment Fund). The Chinese submitted a fund establishment draft and committed to withdrawn US$ 15 billion from its international reserves to capitalize it. They suggested to use the Bank of Brazil as partner. One of the challenges is to find a solution for the currency risk involved in financing granted in the country.
The Brazilian government committed to contribute with US$ 5 billion. Given budgetary restrictions, one of the possibilities is to use the money returned to public banks as settlement of fiscal “maneuvers”, but the contribution does not need to be paid at once.
During conversations with Brazilian authorities, it was clear that the Chinese goal is to seek return for the invested capital, and not to link its loans to equipment supply. That is, a railway would not need locomotives or rails from Asia, neither hydroelectric plant turbines “made in China” to count on the new fund resources.
“They have demonstrated a lot of interest during talks and guaranteed reservation of resources to the fund,” declared Claudio Puty, former secretary for International Affairs at the Department of Planning, who led a negotiating mission to Beijing in October. “It seems a unique opportunity that should not be wasted,” states Puty, current execute secretary for the Labor and Social Security Department.
Both countries started to think of potential projects to receive funding. One of the potential candidates is the second transmission line that will drain the energy produced by Belo Monte hydroelectric plant, whose concession was bought by the Chinese State Grid last year, with investments of BRL 7 billion by 2019.
Bioceânica railway, a mega project intending to connect Brazil and Peru by rail, has been studied by a group of Chinese engineers based in Brasília. They have already made several trips, including overflights, to project’s alignment alternatives. One of the hypotheses now is the end point of the railway as the southern port of Bahia, in Ilhéus, which can also receive Chinese investors for its construction.
Feasibility studies should be concluded by the end of the semester and comprise three Pacific ways out: ports of Bayóvar (North of Peru), Callao (downtown), and Ilo (South). In Brazil, two ways out were studied: Assis Brasil and Cruzeiro do Sul, in Acre. The first faces topographical difficulties in the Peruvian side; the second way is complicated from an environmental point of view and crosses indigenous lands.
On the other hand, conversations between the Federal Savings Bank and ICBC to constitute another US$ 50 billion fund are slower and there are doubts on the Brazilian side on the willingness of the Chinese bank to really implement it.
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