Speech by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva at the opening of the European Union-Latin America Business Forum, in Brussels, Belgium

I am delighted to take part in the opening of this business summit alongside the president of the European Commission, the prime minister of Spain and the presidents of IDB and CAF.

I believe that it is companies, universities and civil society that give life and continuity to the relations between countries. This meeting confirms that our businesspersons are fully engaged in relaunching this historic alliance, based on the certainty that the success of one another is crucial to our common success.

This is truer than ever now, in times of global turmoil and uncertainty.

The Covid-19 pandemic, beyond claiming millions of lives, has disorganized productive systems across all four corners of the planet.

Climate change highlights the urgency of preserving biodiversity and ecosystems.

The crisis of democracy sows discord, violence and intolerance, undermining life in society and the planning of economic activity.

The war in the heart of Europe casts a blanket of uncertainty over the world, and channels to it resources that were essential to the economy and to social programs.

The arms race makes tackling climate change even more difficult.

Faced with all these challenges, it is up to governments, businesspersons and workers to rebuild the path to prosperity, to the resumption of production, to investments and to jobs.

Latin American and Caribbean countries will continue to play a strategic role for Europe and the world .

Because we are a region that harbors immense opportunities for investment and for expansion of consumption.

We are countries that require investments in wide-ranging logistics infrastructure, as well as in social and urban infrastructure.

We are societies in a process of intense social mobility, forming new and dynamic internal markets made up of hundreds of millions of consumers.

The European Union is Brazil’s second largest trading partner. Our trade flow could reach over 100 billion dollars this year.

A balanced agreement between Mercosur and the European Union – which we intend to conclude this year – will open new horizons.

We want an agreement that preserves the ability of the parties to respond to present and future challenges.

Government purchases are a vital instrument for articulating investments in infrastructure and sustaining our industrial policy.

The US and the European Union took the lead and are already adopting ambitious industrial policies based on public purchases and national content.

Brazil’s large internal market harbors 203 million people with an enormous potential for consumption that is still repressed, and will require increased investments in durable goods, supplies and associated services.

In the next few days we are going to launch a new Investment Plan to address existing bottlenecks.

Following the last six years of setbacks and stagnation, we will once again generate quality jobs, fight poverty and increase Brazilian families’ incomes.

The Plan provides for the resumption of paralyzed construction work, acceleration of work that is already in progress and selection of new projects.

We are going to modernize our logistics infrastructure, investing in highways, railways, waterways, ports and airports.

Brazil already has one of the cleanest energy matrices in the world: 87% of our electricity comes from renewable sources, against the 27% world average, and 50% of all our energy is clean, while the world average is 15%.

And we are going to improve these numbers even more, because we are making generation of solar, wind, biomass, ethanol and biodiesel energy a priority. Our potential for producing green hydrogen is also immense.

Also noteworthy are new opportunities in urban mobility, sanitation, disaster prevention and housing finance – which are going to stimulate the production chains of transport and construction.

The extension of a high-capacity broadband network across the entire national territory will serve as the foundation for the educational policy we are developing, and which prioritizes inclusion and quality.

Quality education is a requirement for growth based on the generation of technology and on innovation, favoring the economics of knowledge.

We are going to establish partnerships between the government and business, across all these fields, in the form of concessions, Public-Private Partnerships and direct contracts.

This new, fairer and more solidary Brazil is being rebuilt without abdicating our commitments to macroeconomic foundations.

 Controlling inflation and balancing public accounts is essential to ensuring stability – the solid foundation for economic expansion and social progress.

With our ongoing tax reform, we are simplifying tax collection and making our economy more efficient.

We have a robust financial system which will allow the sustainable expansion of credit over the coming years.

Our great international reserves, currently around 343 billion dollars, provide a safe cushion against possible external volatilities.

When launching an ambitious investment program, I’m not thinking solely and exclusively of my own country. We don’t want to be an island of prosperity.

We will only grow sustainably through integration into our regional surroundings.

At the last meeting of South American leaders, in May, in Brasilia, I proposed updating the project portfolio of the South American Council of Infrastructure and Planning, reinforcing multimodality and prioritizing high-impact projects for physical and digital integration, especially in border regions.

By building the Bioceanic Corridor that connects the Central-West region of Brazil to the ports of northern Chile, we reduce the cost of our exports to Asian markets and generate jobs and income within our continent.

By hosting the meeting of presidents of Amazon countries next August, we are striving to articulate common initiatives for the protection and sustainable development of this biome alongside seven other South American countries.

We are holders of a unique natural heritage in terms of forests, biodiversity and freshwater. This condition makes us responsible for managing wealth whose preservation and inclusive sustainable exploitation is a national imperative.

We reduced deforestation by 80% in previous mandates. This time we have made a commitment to eliminate deforestation in the Amazon by 2030 – and in this first semester we’ve already reduced it by 34% compared to last year.

We are laying the foundations for the reindustrialization of the country through enterprises that are less polluting, that harbor greater technological density and generate green and quality jobs.

Brazil has returned to the international stage to help face global challenges such as climate change and increasing inequalities.

We will prove, as we have done in the past, that it is possible to produce and grow sustainably and efficiently.

Ladies and gentlemen,

We must send a signal to the world that two regions as strategically important as Europe and Latin America & the Caribbean are committed to a promising agenda.

An agenda for peace, cooperation, expansion of trade and investment, job creation and sustainable growth.

When there is a lot of money in the hands of only a few, there is income concentration and few people consuming while many are facing hardships. Through better distribution of income and money in the hands of many, we place resources at the base of society, expanding consumption and generating opportunities in services, industry and agriculture. This is true in each of our countries and even more so on a global scale.

Brazil is doing its part with a long-term strategy that is focused on credibility; on legal predictability and stability; and on political stability, economic stability and social stability. Only in this way will we be able to develop our countries definitively.

These are essential factors to building a future that is full of opportunities.

Thank you very much.