Should Brazil join the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)? That was the first question asked the former President of Brazil and current head of the BRICS New Development Bank in her Sept. 29 press conference with Brazilian journalists, after being awarded China’s highest award for foreigners, the Friendship Medal, by President Xi Jinping.
Rousseff was enthusiastic:
“The Belt and Road Initiative is a Chinese program, a good international cooperation program. Why? Firstly because it is one of its kind and has a broad scope;$1 trillion has been spent over the last 10 years. It covers infrastructure, roads, ports, airports, digital infrastructure, social structures, both security and health and education, and even sewage and drinking water.
“This is important for Brazil and for the countries of the Global South, too. The proposal is to make a partnership focusing on industrialization, with industries, industrial parks and technology transfer. That’s the greatest opportunity for international cooperation that the Belt and Road brings…. [I]f you look along the entire route of the Belt and Road, especially when it comes to Global South countries … Saudi Arabia and the [United] Arab Emirates have industrial and technological parks; Indonesia has an industrial and technological park….
“Second, the Belt and Road does not require exclusivity. You can partner with the BRI and as many others as you like…..
“For the first time you see an internationally prominent country proposing common development. Usually, a division of labor was proposed: `Look, I’ll industrialize and you produce commodities.’ Today, producing commodities is fundamental.
“We cannot give up being, for example, the largest exporter of food, agricultural and protein products to China, because we are the largest exporter in the world. But what we cannot do is accept an international division of labor in which we produce commodities and they produce manufactured products. This division of labor is old, outdated and does not interest us.
“We have to look for a partnership that transfers technology. How can you catch up with developed countries? … [A] country has to invest a lot in education…. You have to be able to transfer technology from other countries…. The United States and Germany copied from England; Japan copied from the United States; Korea, from Japan and the United States; China, from the Asian Tigers and the West. Countries are always copying each other. The process of transferring technology and achieving the Fourth Industrial Revolution is crucial for Brazil. Brazil can’t just be a consumer of e-commerce apps or Uber, but we must be able to use all the factors of the Fourth Industrial Revolution….
“I want that for Brazil. I believe that Brazil will have a partnership with China, a high-quality strategic partnership. What will it be called? Each country will have its own program. We’ll have the PAC [Growth Acceleration Program] and the other programs to reindustrialize the country and boost scientific and technological development, education, science and technology…. I think Brazil has to take advantage of all the opportunities that come its way.”
