/ 25 May 2013

Brazil to cancel $900m debt to strengthen ties with Africa

President Dilma Vana Rousseff
President Dilma Vana Rousseff

"The idea of having Africa as a special relationship for Brazil is strategic for Brazil's foreign policy," presidential spokesperson Thomas Traumann told reporters on Saturday on the sidelines of African Union (AU) celebrations to mark 50 years of the continental bloc.

Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff was in Addis Ababa for the celebrations, her third trip to Africa in three months.

Among the 12 countries whose debts were pardoned, Congo-Brazzaville was the highest with a $352-million debt cancelled, with Tanzania's $237-million debt the second largest.

Traumann said the move was part of Brazil's efforts to boost economic ties with Africa, home to some of the world's fastest growing economies.

He added that Brazil recently established an agency to support investments in industry and development in Africa and Latin America.

"The idea is to concentrate Brazilian help," including in agriculture, social programs, as well as direct financial support of Brazilian companies, he said.

Rousseff, visiting the Ethiopian capital for the AU celebrations, has met with several African leaders including Ethiopia's Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, with whom she signed a series of cooperation agreements on agriculture, education, air transport and science.

Brazil's interest in Africa
Brazil's interest in Africa is part of a larger trend boosting so-called "South-South" cooperation, which has attracted investment from emergent economies in developing countries, namely in Africa.

Today's 54-member AU is the successor of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), established in 1963 in the heady days when independence from colonial rule was sweeping the continent.

Brazil, one of five members of the BRICS (Russia, India, China and South Africa) emerging nations group and with a gross domestic product of $2.425-trillion in 2012, is the world's seventh largest economy.

The Brazilian economy, with its population of 196-million people, is forecast to grow 3.5% this year. – AFP