The Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, defended today (18) that the integration of Latin American countries and the production of clean energy are key elements for attracting foreign investment and promoting industrialization and growth in the region.
“We understand that regional integration is imperative for our development”, defended the minister in a panel on leadership in Latin America during the World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland, with the participation of the presidents of Colombia, Gustavo Petro; from Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso; from Costa Rica, Rodrigo Chaves; and the Vice President of the Dominican Republic, Raquel Peña.
Haddad said that the two previous governments of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and President Dilma Rousseff always looked generously on Latin America. He pointed out that the integration process involves investment in infrastructure, trade agreements between the countries and the strengthening of Mercosur, including the incorporation of new members.
The minister highlighted the possibility of integrating Latin America through transmission lines and said that the region has great potential to attract investments from companies interested in integrating their production chains with the generation of clean energy, whether solar, hydro, wind or green hydrogen.
“This can be a factor of attraction for industries that want to produce from clean energy, so that their entire production chain is in step with the environmental determinations that are unavoidable today”, he pointed out.
For Haddad, only with this integration will the countries of the continent be able to face the great economic blocs represented by the European Union, China and the United States.
“I think that the integration of our markets to gain considerable scale is an important element for attracting foreign investment compatible with our needs to offer higher quality jobs for our workers. So, it is not just investment in education that needs to be made, but the attraction of a type of investment that our region currently has a major deficit for,” he said.
