The inflow has been sudden, and dramatic.

"Up to the end of last year, the amount of Chinese investment in Brazil was tiny, less than 400 million dollars. Over the first half of 2010, it's gone over 20 billion dollars -- and it should hit 30 billion dollars this year," Charles Tang, head of the Brazil-China Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Sao Paulo, told AFP.

Two-thirds of the total coming into Brazil this year will be invested in the oil sector, to which China has privileged access after extending a 10-billion-dollar credit line to Brazil's state-owned Petrobras, and after China's Sinopec bought the Brazilian subsidiary of Spain's Repsol for seven billion dollars.

"China is investing everywhere in the world to ensure it gets the strategic resources it needs. And Brazil, obviously, is important," Tang said.

In return, Brazil gets "capital for its growth and job-creation," he explained.

"China needs the mineral resources, oil and land that Brazil has in abundance," Tang added before predicting that the relationship between the two BRIC economies "has only just begun."

In 2009, China became Brazil's top trading partner, overtaking the United States. Bilateral exchanges topped 36 billion dollars last year.

This year, they will amount to even more, based on Brazilian central bank figures showing trade reached 35 billion dollars in just the first eight months of this year.

Ricardo Anhesini, spokesman for the KPMG consulting firm in Brazil that has helped Chinese companies entering the Latin American nation's market, said there was "a large number of companies interested in selling primary resources, equipment and infrastructure."

The cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro drew most of the companies, while others set up in other southern states which also have good transportation systems.

The approaching 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil also were spurring Chinese investment.

"Several companies are here wanting to address the needs for the Olympics and the World Cup," seeking to profit from Beijing's experience in hosting the Olympic Games in 2008, Tang said.

Anhesini said a Chinese delegation was to visit in December to explore investment opportunities in that area.

"We're recommending they come as early as possible so they can adapt to the Brazilian way of doing business," he said.

KPMG reckons that the interest in supplying the sporting events with equipment will boost Chinese investment in Brazil between 2011 and 2013 to 223 billion dollars.

earlier related report
India, Japan PMs confirm trade pact, discuss nuclear deal
Tokyo (AFP) Oct 25, 2010 - India and Japan's premiers Monday said they had broadly agreed on a pact to step up trade between the population giant and the high-tech nation but needed time for a deal on civilian nuclear cooperation.

India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his counterpart Naoto Kan also stressed the warm ties linking two of Asia's biggest democracies, at a time of high diplomatic tensions between Japan and communist-ruled China.

Kan said after talks with Singh, who was on a three-day Tokyo visit, that "through this meeting, we were able to confirm and be confident about progress in the strategic global partnership between Japan and India".

The two leaders declared the completion of talks on a free trade and investment pact, with a formal signing expected in coming months, under which tariffs on 94 percent of trade would be phased out within a decade.

The deal will help Japanese auto giants, such as Suzuki, who have opened plants in India by lifting tariffs on parts, while also easing access to the market in fast-greying Japan for Indian generic drugs.

"We signed a joint statement confirming the conclusion of negotiations on a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement between Japan and India," said Kan after a meeting with Singh.

Singh called the conclusion of talks launched in 2007 "a historic achievement" which would "open up new business opportunities".

They also agreed to cooperate in fields as diverse as stabilising Afghanistan, combating climate change, safeguarding biodiversity, and pushing UN reforms and global free trade efforts, a joint statement said.

However another key deal sought by New Delhi, on civilian nuclear cooperation, remained beyond reach with the leaders only saying they encouraged their officials "to arrive at a mutually satisfactory agreement... at an early date".

Japan and India launched negotiations in June on a pact that would allow Tokyo to export its cutting-edge nuclear technology to the energy-hungry South Asian nation, a hotly contested market for atomic plants.

But Japan -- the only country to have suffered atomic bombings and a key voice in global denuclearisation efforts -- is worried that nuclear-armed India has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The start of talks on civilian nuclear cooperation brought cries of protest in Japan from survivors of the US atomic bombings of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the final days of World War II.

Kan said that "we agreed to speed up negotiations for civil nuclear energy cooperation, while seeking India's understanding of our country's sentiment as a nuclear-bombed nation".

Singh "reiterated India's commitment to a unilateral and voluntary moratorium on nuclear explosive testing" and both sides "underscored the importance of peaceful uses of nuclear energy and of further strengthening the nuclear non-proliferation efforts," their joint statement said.

Japan -- which was eclipsed this year by China as Asia's biggest economy and has a shrinking population because of its low birth rate -- is searching for new markets, especially the emerging giants China and India.

Ties between Tokyo and Beijing have however sharply deteriorated following Japan's September 8 arrest of a Chinese fishing boat captain near a disputed island chain in the East China Sea.

Beijing has reacted furiously, cancelling high-level talks and civilian exchanges as well as suspending exports of rare earth minerals, which are crucial for Japan's high-tech industries.

In their statement, the premiers "decided to explore the possibility of bilateral cooperation in development, recycling and re-use of rare earths and rare metals and in research and development of their industrial substitutes."

Singh was Tuesday due to meet Japanese parliamentarians, then travel to Malaysia and later Vietnam, where Southeast Asian leaders will meet the premiers of China and Japan for a summit at the end of the week.

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