What does President Lula's visit mean for India's business with Brazil

President Lula and PM Manmohna Singh with the CEOs

President Lula addressing the business meet

President Lula was accompanied by over 100 businessmen, the largest-ever bz delegation to have visited India.The delegates were busy with meetings and deal-makings and some of them are staying behind and visiting other cities. In his speeches, President Lula inspired confidence and optimism among Indian businessmen.

A Brazil- India CEOs Forum was formed and had its first meeting on 4 June. The Forum had a meeting with President Lula and PM Dr Manmohan Singh together. The Forum consists of 17 CEOs from India and 14 from Brazil. List attached. Cochairman from India is Rattan Tata and from Brazil it is Sergio Gabrielli, CEO of Petrobras. The Forum will meet once a year and suggest to the governments their ideas for more trade and investment. But more than that, the CEOs Forum has elevated the level of understanding and dealing to the top level. Earlier the interest in Indo- Brazil business was at the level of middle managers and Vice presidents. This means billions of dollars of deals from the earlier millions !

The governments and business of the two countries have set an ambitious goal of 10 billion dollars of bilateral trade by 2010.

The fact that both the Indian and Brazilian economies joined the trillion dollar ( GDP) economies almost around the same time( Brazil in April and India in May 2007) have given a new confidence boost.

Some of the deals made or in the making

- Petrobras is getting into 3 offshore blocks in India in joint venture with OVL. In return Petrobras has given equity to OVL in 3 offshore blocks in Brazil.

- HCL is gearing up enter Brazil.

-CVRD has already set up an office in Delhi and is doing bz with no of Indian companies. They are looking for investment opportunities.

- Essar is exploring mining opps in Brazil.

- BPCL is getting into a jv with Petrobras for ethanol in Brazil

I am more than ever optimistic and confident that the business with Brazil is going to make quantum leap in the coming years.

India-Brazil CEOs Forum

Mr. Ratan Tata (Co-chair),
Chairman, Tata Sons Ltd
Mr. Subodh Bhargava,
Chairman, VSNL
Dr. Surinder Kapur,
Chairman & Managing Director, Sona Koyo Steering Systems Ltd
Mr. V.R.S. Natarajan,
Chairman & Managing Director, Bharat Earth Movers Limited
Mr. R. S. Sharma,
Chairman and MD / Mr. R.S. Butola, Managing Director, OVL
Mr. Dhruv Sawhney,
Chairman & Managing Director,
Triveni Engineering & Industries Ltd
Mr. Malvinder Singh,
CEO & Managing Director, Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd
Mr. Pramod Chaudhari,
Chairman, Praj Industries Limited
Mr. Ramalinga Raju,
Chairman, Satyam Computers
Mr. S. Ramadorai,
Chief Executive Officer, Tata Consultancy Services
Mr. Gautam Thapar,
Chairman, Ballarpur Industries Ltd.
Mr. Jamshyd Godrej,
Chairman & Managing Director, Godrej & Boyce Mfg Co. Ltd.
Mr. Sunil Kant Munjal,
Managing Director & CEO, Hero Corporate Services Ltd.
Mr. K.V. Kamath,
Managing Director & CEO, ICICI Bank Ltd.
Mr. Mukesh Ambani,
Chairman, Reliance Industries Ltd.
Mr. Deepak Parekh,
Chairman, IDFC
Mr. Tarun Das,
Chairman, Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd & Chief Mentor, Confederation of Indian Industry

Brazilian side

Mr. José Sérgio Gabrielli (Co-chair),
CEO, Petrobrás (Energy)
Mr. Armando Monteiro,
Chairman, Confederation of Brazilian Industry Mr.
Vitor Hallack,
Chairman, Camargo Correa S.A. (Civil Construction, Textiles, Logistics, Energy, Construction material)
Mr. Paulo Godoy,
CEO, Alusa Holding (Energy Transmission, Construction and Cable TV)
Mr. Deonísio Petry,
Managing Director, Figwal Transportes Internacionais Ltd.(Transport)
Mr. Flávio Machado Filho,
Vice-Chairman, Andrade Gutierrez (Construction)

Mr. José Antonio Martins,
Vice-Chairman, Marcopolo S.A. (Commercial Vehicles and Transportation)
Mr. Nilo Jose Panazzolo,
Managing Director International Affairs, Banco do Brasil S.A.
Mr. Giacomo Feres Staniscia,
CIO-CTO, Atech Tecnologias Críticas (Software)
Mr. Rúbio Fernal, Director for Business Development, Odebrecht (Construction)
Mr. Nestor Giacomin, Managing Director, Randon (Transport equipment)
Mr. Orlando José Ferreira Neto, Managing Director, Embraer (aircraft)
Mr. Rui Lopes, Vice-President, Grupo Gerdau, (steel)
Mr. Hermelindo Ruete de Oliveira, Managing Director, Copersucar (sugar and ethanol)