China to enhance industrial investment cooperation with Brazil
中国意在增强与巴西工业投资合作

Premier Li met with the Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, kicking off a tour of four big South American nations. Several major deals have already been signed, with analysts saying it signifies a major upgrade in both the style and the substance of trade and investment relations between the two countries.

First stop, Brazil. An honor guard greeted Premier Li Keqiang to this Latin American giant, at the start of his regional tour. This is his first official meeting with the Brazilian President, Dilma Rousseff.

The increasing links between the two developing countries has been one of the big global economic stories of the last two decades.

The relationship is evolving. After years of largely selling China raw materials, and buying Chinese goods, Brazil is actively seeking Chinese investment in its infrastructure -something Premier Li has vowed to provide.

"China has accumulated a lot of experience in this perspective. We also have high quality equipment and look to work with Brazil to reduce the costs of building infrastructure in Brazil; and to create jobs for the local population," Li said.

Much of that investment is in huge projects. One major deal the two leaders signed off on is the construction of a 2,000-kilometer high voltage electricity line from an as-yet unfinished Amazon hydroelectric dam, to Brazil's southeastern population centers.

From Brazil's perspective, the timing of this visit could hardly be better.

Partly owing to China's reduced demand for commodities, the economy here is close to recession, and domestic investment in infrastructure has been scaled back.

"Brazil is in a very difficult fiscal austerity situation where they can't spend any extra money on infrastructure projects, which are being reduced tremendously because of the reduction in expenditures, so China's visit and possible assistance in infrastructure projects is very well received," said professor David Fleischer, university of Brasilia.

Twenty years ago these two countries had barely any trade relations at all. Now they are almost dependent on one another.