Brazil has taken another step towards further developing its financial services ecosystem by approving the implementation of open banking.
The country’s central bank has also approved and issued guidelines to be considered while the model is implemented.
By Angelica Mari via ZD Net
Embrapa has made available the updated version of its Social Balance Sheet. It is a publication that focuses on the use and adoption of the technological solutions generated by the Company and its impacts on society. The balance is made for the 22nd consecutive year.
Of the total results delivered by the Company, throughout its history, 165 technological solutions were evaluated in 2018 and the economic impacts it generates form the so-called “social profit”. The results of the Embrapa Social Report show that Embrapa has a social return of R $ 43.5 billion.
Via DATAGRO
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – International private companies have increased their investment in Brazil’s power sector over the last three years even as the country’s cash-strapped state-controlled companies have cut back, a Reuters survey of power companies shows.
Eight out of 11 large foreign private firms operating in Brazil boosted investments in the power sector from 2016 to 2018, some of them by more than 200 percent, the poll showed.
Via The Rio Times
Singapore — Malaysia’s Petronas said Friday it bought a 50% equity stake in deepwater concessions in the Campos Basin in offshore Brazil from Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. or Petrobras.
The deal represents Petronas’ efforts to boost its upstream reserves and production, growing cash flows and shrinking domestic output. A price was not disclosed.
By Eric Yep via S&P Global Platts
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazilian supermarket chain Grupo Pão de Açúcar SA on Wednesday posted first-quarter sales up 12 percent from a year ago, closing the gap on Carrefour Brasil, the market leader in Latin America’s largest economy.
GPA, which is owned by France’s Casino Guichard Perrachon SA, reported gross revenues of 13.8 billion reais ($3.46 billion), driven by gains in its wholesale division, Assaí.
By Gabriela Mello via Reuters
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Top consultants McKinsey and “Brazil at Silicon Valley” have produced a report that aims to shed light on Brazil’s digital development. And the result seems clear to the authors: Brazil has the potential to become the next big thing in the digital revolution.
Mauro Mantica from the famous Bocconi University in Milan is also convinced of the digital potential of Brazil.
Via The Rio Times
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazilian retailer Magazine Luiza on Tuesday announced it would start selling physical books online for pickup in its chain comprised of almost 1,000 stores, using its national footprint to compete with traditional booksellers and Amazon.com Inc.
Brazil’s more established booksellers are facing financial headwinds, leading Saraiva Livreiros SA and Livraria Cultura to file for bankruptcy protection last year.
By Gabriela Mello and Alberto Alerigi Jr.
SAO PAULO, April 23 (Reuters) – U.S. agricultural machine maker AGCO Corp said on Tuesday it would launch its flagship Fendt line of equipment in Brazil later this year, targeting large soybean farmers in the vast center-west region.
AGCO will first bring the German-made line of Fendt Vario high-power tractors to Brazil’s grain heartland, the company’s South America chief Luís Felli said at a presentation in Sao Paulo.
By Marcelo Teixeira via Yahoo! Finance
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The man in charge of Brazilian sugar giant Cosan Ltd. has little interest in talking about the sweetener. These days, he’s all about railways, writes Bloomberg in its latest report. Cosan is controlled by 69-year-old Rubens Ometto, one of the sixty most powerful men in Brazil.
The business that gave life to Cosan — the world’s biggest sugar-cane operation — has been stuck in the doldrums following years of depressed global prices and government policies that curbed the expansion of cane ethanol in Brazil. In stark contrast, the commodity powerhouse is ready to invest “tens of billions” in a plan that will reshape how the nation’s crops get transported, Chief Executive Officer Marcos Lutz said.
Via The Rio Times
Brazil’s coastline of some 3,000 nautical miles includes several large cities in a layout that makes Brazil the ideal location to develop, manufacture and operate maritime transportation technology that could also have international market potential.
While Russia is internationally recognized in high-speed maritime transportation technology courtesy of their construction and demonstration of the Caspian Sea Monster ground-effect plane, Russia is also at a disadvantage in terms of testing, demonstrating, domestically operating and improving a commercial version of such technology. Much of Russia’s population lives at western inland locations and not along Russia’s coast. A mega-size commercial freight transport ground effect vehicle might optimally be developed in a nation with an extensive coastline that includes multiple large cities spread along that coastline. The vehicle needs to be proven in domestic coastal transportation service.
By Harry Valentine via The Maritime Executive
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Common parts in science fiction films and cartoons, flying cars are becoming closer to reality. Brazil wants to lead the development of this segment in the world, according to executives from Embraer’s Atech subsidiary, present at the 12th LAAD Defense & Security.
“We are already anticipating, preparing a vision and a concept of how we will be able to see the future of the future. It will be air traffic. This is what our project will be”, stated Marcos Resende, director of technology at Atech.
By Xiu Ying via The Rio Times
The Brazilian government has launched a tender to find projects based on emerging technologies as the latest stage of a project aimed at bridging the business and academic worlds.
The program, dubbed TechD, is a public-private partnership with funding of 18 million reais ($4.6 million). The latest stage of the program is looking for startups, incubated projects, IT companies or consortiums and research groups focused on emerging technologies to participate.
By Angelica Mari via ZD Net
It said the bank has approved Brazilian projects on renewable energy, road building, railway construction, sanitation, telecommunications and an oil refinery. NDB has also plans to launch its Americas Regional Office in Brazil.
Via RT
| We are pleased to announce that Jack will be speaking in the upcoming GRC Educators live webinar, “FIRPTA Tax Planning And Compliance After Tax Reform” scheduled for Monday, April 22, 2019 at 12:00pm EST.
The program will provide participants with the U.S. federal income, estate, and gift tax implications and planning techniques to properly advise their foreign investor clients on how to best structure their U.S. real property investments under the new tax rules of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
Advising foreign real property investors requires tax and other professionals involved with foreign real property investors to understand the U.S. tax reporting and withholding requirements to best advice their clients and provide investment structuring options.
The new tax law did not change the existing liability and withholding requirements on the disposition of U.S. real property interests but did affect change in possible FIRPTA investment structures because of the lowered withholding tax rate on capital gains and liquidating distributions paid by REITs. There are additional Net Operating Loss and interest expense limitation rules as well as depreciation rule changes under the new tax law. Also, the use of a blocker corporation may likely be subject to Base Erosion Tax (BEAT) on interest payments made to or accrued by blocker corporations to its related foreign lender.
Additionally, participants will be exposed to the use of offshore common law and civil law wealth transfer structures to invest in U.S. real property and the U.S. tax implications and reporting requirements of said structures investing in U.S. real property.
Areas Covered
· Overview of tax rules that apply to foreign investors in U.S. real estate · U.S. income, estate, and gift tax · Income tax residency and estate and gift tax residency rules · FIRPTA and withholding requirements · Treaty application · A typical structure of blocker corporation for foreign persons or corporations to hold U.S. real property assets · Changes in TCJA tax reform that will specifically impact income from owning or disposing of U.S. real property · Corporate rate reduction and FIRPTA withholding rates · Treatment of REITs · Base Erosion and Anti-Abuse Tax (BEAT) · Depreciation changes · New NOL carryforward rules · Planning opportunities through entity selection or change
After the presentation, there will be a live question and answer session.
We do hope you will join us. Form more information or to register:
Go to: https://www.grceducators.com/FIRPTA-TAX-PLANNING-AND-COMPLIANCE-AFTER-TAX-REFORM
Or call (704) 870-0321 / +00 1 704 870 0321 Ask for FIRPTA Tax Planning And Compliance After Tax Reform on 22-Apr-2019 CODE: Jack-0001 |
Telecommunications company Angola Cables has announced the opening of its carrier-neutral data centre, Angonap Fortaleza in Fortaleza, Brazil.
The completed facility is now open for business and offers scalability, continuous connectivity, host and cloud services for local and external entities.
The facility is a primary interconnection point for the region, which will host Angola Cables’ two newest intercontinental submarine cables, SACS (South Atlantic Cable System) and Monet.
By Abigail Opiah via Data Economy
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Brazilian consumer is ready for digital disruption. In many ways, it has already begun.
By Richard Mann via The Rio Times
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The craze for cryptocurrencies has reached an all-time high in South American countries, particularly Brazil. The recorded trading volume in the country surpassed 100 thousand Bitcoins last week – a new Latin American record, according to data from the CoinTrader Monitor, a tool that analyzes and monitors Bitcoin prices in Brazil.
According to the site’s index, cryptocurrency exchanges mediated by NegocieCoins and TemBTC contributed the most to this record. Exchanges made through Bitcoin Market, Bitcoin Trade, BitBlue, bTCBolsa, 3xBit, and BitCambio also played a part, facilitating trades of over 100 BTCs in a period of 24 hours.
By Richard Mann via The Rio Times
BRASILIA, April 16 (Reuters) – China could agree to allow more Brazilian meat imports following high-level talks set for May, the Chinese ambassador to Brazil told Reuters on Monday.
Yang Wanming declined to comment on how many meat processing plants could be approved to export to China but said the issue would be discussed when Brazil Agriculture Minister Tereza Cristina Dias travels to China in May.
By Jake Spring via Reuters
Joint statement from the American Museum of Natural History and the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce:
“With mutual respect for our work and goals of our individual organizations, we have jointly agreed that the American Museum of Natural History is not the optimal location for the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce Gala Dinner. This traditional event will go forward at another location on the original date and time.”
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – China’s Beiqi Foton Motor Co Ltd is eyeing the acquisition of Ford Motor Co’s Brazilian plant in the industrial city of Sao Bernardo do Campo, newspaper Valor Economico reported on Friday.
By Carolina Mandl Via Reuters
SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL – When Alvimar da Silva realized Uber did not reach some of the more dangerous, far-flung areas of São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, he saw an opportunity: If the popular ride-sharing service did not go there, he would.
After six months of driving for the US application in the gridlocked city, da Silva launched in 2017 his own rival service JaUbra in the sprawling northern district of Brasilândia.
By Richard Mann via The Rio Times
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – While working to renovate Rio de Janeiro’s zoo, workers found historical artifacts dating back to Brazil’s imperial past at the Quinta da Boa Vista park, in the northern part of the city.
Classified as an ‘archaeological treasure’ by Rio’s city government, the more than 30,000 items found are believed to be from the beginning of the 19th century to the first years of the 20th century.
By Lise Alves via The Rio Times
(Reuters) – Brazilian Economy Minister Paulo Guedes said on Wednesday he is “optimistic” that Congress will pass a pension reform bill that will generate savings of 1 trillion reais ($261.68 billion) over 10 years, in line with the government’s ambitious proposal.
Guedes is also confident Brazil will exceed its 2019 privatization goal of raising $20 billion from the sale of public assets by as much as 40 percent, he told a conference in New York, without giving any detail on which sectors or assets.
By Jamie McGeever via Reuters
One of Brazil’s best-funded startups, iFood is making a multimillion-dollar investment in artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance its offerings.
The Sao Paulo-based food delivery company will plough $20m into a new AI “academy”, which will be focusing on research in machine learning, deep learning, behavioral science and logistics efficiency.
By Angelica Mari via Forbes
Miami real estate agents have one reason to be happy – Brazilian buyers are back as a dominant buyer pool in South Florida, amid an increase in foreign investment.
Political turmoil in Brazil and a strong dollar have kept buyers away from South Florida in recent years – until now. Brazil ranked as the top country buying South Florida homes in 2018, according to a new report from the Miami Association of Realtors.
By Katherine Kallergis via The Real Deal
Brazil has seen a return to growth in IT investments in 2018 with numbers surpassing global average spend, according to data released by the Brazilian Association of Software Companies (ABES) and IDC.
IT spending for 2018 in Brazil went up 9.8 percent, reaching $47 billion, according to the research. This compares to the initial predictions of 4.1 percent growth for that market and average global spending of 6.7 percent.
By Angelica Mari via ZD Net
All the tensions that have rattled Brazil traders over the past few weeks have done nothing to shake Teresa Barger’s optimism over the country.
The chief executive officer and co-founder of the $2.6 billion Cartica Management LLC hedge fund is sticking to her “very bullish” views on Brazil, confident that growth in Latin America’s largest economy will start to pick up and that a planned overhaul of the nation’s pension system will be approved. That means she avoids watching the developments too closely, sidestepping the jitters that come with it.
By Aline Oyamada via Bloomberg
BRASILIA, April 3 (Reuters) – Growth in Brazilian economic activity picked up to its strongest in over a year in March, driven by solid increases in domestic new orders across both the manufacturing and services sectors, IHS Markit Insight said on Wednesday.
The closely-watched purchasing managers indices (PMIs) for March, often seen as a leading indicator of overall economic growth, showed the sixth straight month of service sector growth and ninth consecutive month of rising manufacturing activity.
By Jamie McGeever via Nasdaq
Minister Tereza Cristina (Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply) launched this Wednesday (03) the Rural Landscapes Project, to preserve the Brazilian savannah, in an event with the participation of the German ambassador to Brazil, Georg Witschel, the interim director of the Bank (Bird) in Brazil, Doina Petrescu, and the president of the Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock of Brazil (CNA), João Martins.
With support from Bird and a partnership with the German Technical Cooperation Agency (GIZ), the Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communications (MCTI), through the National Institute of Space Research (INPE), Embrapa and the National Rural Learning Service (Senar), Rural Landscapes will train and provide technical and managerial assistance to 4,000 rural producers from nine states and the Federal District, focusing on the productive recovery of the cerrado and income generation. The initiative is coordinated by the Brazilian Forestry Service of the Ministry of Agriculture.
Via DATAGRO
A potential solution to the ailments of modern-day health care may be burgeoning from inside one of Brazil’s biggest slums.
Startup firm Dr. Consulta is betting it can capitalize on demand for affordable, a la carte services for the increasing number of Brazilians who don’t have private health insurance. It’s proven to be an attractive proposition, luring investors including the billionaire co-founder of 3G Capital Inc., Jorge Paulo Lemann, and venture capital firms like Kaszek Ventures and Madrone Capital Partners.
By Vinicius Andrade via Bloomberg
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue University’s College of Agriculture and the Brazilian Ministry of Education through CAPES, a public foundation for the development of graduate education in Brazil, have signed an agreement to forge a new educational partnership.
Karen Plaut, the Glenn W. Sample Dean of Agriculture at Purdue University, welcomed Mauro Rabelo, Brazilian national secretary for higher education; Connie McManus Pimentel, director of international relations for the Brazilian agency CAPES; and Luiz Valcov Loureiro, executive director of Fulbright Brazil, to Purdue on March 26. The delegation met with Suresh Garimella, executive vice president for research and partnerships, and College of Agriculture associate deans and department heads, and toured campus facilities. The visit culminated with a signing ceremony to establish a new CAPES-Purdue Agriculture Ph.D. Fellows program.
By Maureen Manier via Purdue University
This is a soft launch of EBANX new business and the product is available to selected customers. Over the next few months, the option will be available to all Brazilian companies that sell on the Internet and wish to use EBANX solutions to process online payments within Brazil. In addition, for the next year, local processing of EBANX is expected to begin in four other countries in Latin America.
Via Finextra
SAO PAULO — Traffic lines, honking cars and a polluted Pinheiros River that lacks any sign of life are routine sights for the more than 1 million people who drive daily through the Pinheiros Expressway.
But this scenario is about to change. At least partially.
Legado das Águas (Legacy of the Waters), a startup owned by the Votorantim Group, was appointed last December by the Secretariat of the Environment of the State of Sao Paulo to join Projeto Pomar Urbano (Urban Orchard Project) to help recover the Pinheiros River’s riparian vegetation using only native species of the Atlantic Forest.
By Eugenia Álvares Affonso via Boston University News Service
