Category: General

The veteran emerging-market investor Mark Mobius said he plans to add to his Brazil holdings, lauding the first few months of President Jair Bolsonaro’s administration even as other investors have shown skepticism.

Mobius, who left Franklin Templeton Investments in 2018 to set up Mobius Capital Partners, said the president’s performance has been “terrific” as he works to push through a pension overhaul that analysts see as key to revitalizing Brazil’s economy. He expects the bill to pass this year and predicted more money will flow into Brazil as the agenda takes hold.

By Vinicius Andrade via Bloomberg

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.”

Brazil’s tourism profile among Americans reached unparalleled heights in the earlier half of this decade when the South American nation hosted back-to-back international sports tournaments: the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

One million foreign tourists visited Brazil during the World Cup, according to officials at Embratur, the Brazil Tourist Board. More than 60 percent were visiting for the first time and U.S. and Canadian residents bought more than 200,000 match tickets, trailing only Brazilian purchases, said FIFA. Meanwhile, flights to Brazil increased by 289 percent between in the weeks prior to the 2016 Rio Olympics compared with the same period in 2015.

In the years since the country’s tourism officials have followed up on those high-profile events with a program of measures designed to ease American and Canadian travel to the country, even as the government struggled with economic and political unrest.

By Brian Major via Travel Pulse

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Program provides incentives for automakers that prioritize the use of biofuels

Brazil´s President Michel Temer sanctioned this Monday, December 10, 2018, Law 13755, creating ROTA2030, a program that establishes incentives to increase efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in transportation, and gives a direction of future investments in research and new technologies for the automobile industry in Brazil. The measure was published at the Federal Official Gazette this Tuesday, December 11th.

ROTA 2030 was a program widely discussed by all the actors involved in the production and commercialization of cars and fuels in Brazil, with the participation of civil society representatives and a wide representation of Parliamentarians from the two houses of Congress.

ROTA 2030 is considered the Siamese brother of RENOVABIO, since it establishes incentives for the increase of efficiency in the technology used by vehicles, just as RenovaBio promotes the energetic-environmental efficiency in the production of biofuels.

One of the most important elements of ROTA 2030 was the approval of the Parliamentary Amendment authored by Deputy Arnaldo Jardim, approved in the form of Paragraph 4o. of Article 2 of the legislation, which reads as follows:

Paragraph 4. Hybrid vehicles equipped with an engine that alternately or simultaneously uses gasoline and ethanol (flexible fuel engine) shall have a reduction of at least three percentage points in the rate of IPI (industrial products tax) in relation to conventional vehicles of similar class and category, equipped with the same type of engine.

According to Congressman Arnaldo Jardim, the device is a way of recognizing the externalities of ethanol, which is a fuel that makes the difference, as it generates income, employment, is renewable and still fights greenhouse gases.

On Thursday, in a ceremony at the Presidential Palace, President Michel Temer, Ministers and members of the Parliament will celebrate the enactment of the Law, and Toyota will announce the installation of the first worldwide assembly line of hybrid vehicles with flex technology, capable of using ethanol fuel.

Below is the full text of Law 13755, published in the Official Gazette of December 11th, 2018.

DATAGRO, December 11, 2018.

LEI NO 13.755, DE 10 DE DEZEMBRO DE 2018

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