Portugal's Belmiro Bullish On Brazil After Cardoso Mtg
Dow Jones Newswires
OPORTO, Portugal -- One of Portugal's business leaders and a major
investor in Brazil said Saturday he remains "extremely confident" President
Fernando Henrique Cardoso will take the steps necessary to fend off
economic crisis.
"Our position is that in the long term President Cardoso will introduce a set
of constitutional changes that will stabilize the economy," Belmiro de
Azevedo, CEO of Sonae Investimentos SGPS (E.SIV) told reporters
after meeting with Cardoso.
"(Cardoso's) intention is to use the mandate that he has to proceed with
structural changes that are important to increase Brazil's credibility so that
long-term capital can consolidate," Azevedo added. "Short-term
speculators won't have the conditions to attack the economy."
Cardoso is in Oporto for the eighth annual Ibero-American summit here
this weekend, which will bring together 21 Latin American, Portuguese
and Spanish heads of state.
Azevedo's Sonae has investments of some 600 million Brazilian reals in
that country, mostly in the retail and services sector, and accounts for
more than 5,000 jobs.
Later this year the company will inaugurate a new wood-processing
factory in Brazil. After buying a German company that specializes in wood
derivatives like agglomerates and building materials earlier this month,
Sonae will be one of the world's biggest companies in the sector, Azevedo
said.
Azevedo said he would like to see investments of over 1.0 billion reals in
Brazil by the year 2002.
"Sonae hasn't reduced its investments in Brazil; on the contrary, in fact it
has increased them," Azevedo said. "Sonae is one of the Portuguese
companies most interested in continuing to invest further."
Azevedo said that Cardoso was curious to know how Sonae's
international partners viewed the Brazilian crisis
"He is concerned about the perspective from outside, and that is good,"
Azevedo said. "I gave him my perspective, which is very optimistic."
-By Erik T. Burns; 351-1-343-2517; eburns@ap.org |
