The minister denied that there had been a request for counterpart investment by the Saudis and defended that the Saudis want to access Latin America from Brazil.

Today the federal government announced that Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund is going to invest up to US$ 10 billion in projects in Brazil, around R$ 40 billion at current exchange rates. The announcement was made by ministers Onyx Lorenzoni (Casa Civil) and Ernesto Araújo (Foreign Relations) in Riyadh, capital of the Arab country. At the same time as the president's visit to the Emirates, Roberto Ardenghy, director of Institutional Relations at Petrobras, participated in a seminar, in Abu Dhabi, where he reported on the state-owned company's search for buyers for its refineries in the Gulf.

However, no specific investment has been announced, nor have any dates been defined for the start of the arrival of the money, but the tendency is for infrastructure and agribusiness projects to take priority.

According to the ministers, President Jair Bolsonaro (PSL) pledged to work together with the fund to facilitate initiatives, including information on legislation.

The group should be allocated in the Civil House. The amount will come from the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) According to Onyx, the work to carry out the investments will begin “immediately” when the presidential entourage returns to Brazil.

The Investment Partnership Program (PPI) will have a large number of offers over the next year, including the areas of oil and gas, ports, airports, highways and railways. He also said that there is a “great possibility of investment” in the Ferrogrão railroad, 1 km long that would link Mato Grosso to Pará.

• 60 oil platforms will be installed in the Brazilian offshore with the new auctions
• Equinor reaches production of 200 million barrels in Peregrino
• Oil market reheats and 400 jobs are expected to be created

The estimated cost of this project is approximately US$3 billion. The minister denied that there had been a request for counterpart investment by the Saudis and defended that the Saudis want to access Latin America from Brazil.

He stated that reforms promoted by the government, such as Social Security, and measures to reduce bureaucracy were important to attract the sovereign wealth fund.

According to the federal government, Brazil is the sixth country to receive contributions from the Saudi sovereign wealth fund. The others are the United States, Japan, South Africa, Russia and France. The ministers were keen to point out that the amount is the same invested in Russia and twice as much as in France.

Brazil and Saudi Arabia are also negotiating facilitating the entry of tourists from both countries into their territories. The intention is that the permits will be valid for up to five years, payment rates will be reduced and more entry modalities will be released.

Mubadala is one of the two large sovereign wealth funds in the United Arab Emirates. The intention is to invest in ports, roads, mining, real estate and entertainment. @renovamidia

- Jair M. Bolsonaro (@jairbolsonaro) October 29, 2019