Economic development and climate protection are mutually dependent
The Brazilian Vice President, General Hamilton Mourão, sees German companies playing a special role in the country’s transformation towards a green economy. In a virtual conversation with the LADW at the end of September, he assured that economic growth in Brazil would not be at the expense of the climate – economic development and environmental protection would not be mutually exclusive, but the one would not work without the other. Mourão chairs the National Council for the Amazon region and steers the government’s measures to protect the regulatory forest.
In the view of the Vice President, the EU-Mercosur agreement is of strategic importance for more climate protection in Brazil. With the agreement, the country is committing itself to the protection, preservation and sustainable development of the Amazon region while adhering to the goals of the Paris Climate Protection Agreement – it is important to preserve the region for future generations.
The representatives of German business also discussed the potential for intensifying bilateral cooperation with the Vice President. Starting with agriculture and infrastructure, through to Industry 4.0 and digitization. In this context, the LADW members pleaded for an improvement in the framework conditions for German companies in Brazil, for example by concluding a new double taxation agreement.
According to Mourão, the Brazilian government will continue the reforms of the tax system that have already begun in order to further reduce protectionism, bureaucracy and state intervention and to increase the productivity of the Brazilian economy. Particularly against the background that the largest global crisis since World War II, caused by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, must be overcome together, the strengthening of the economy plays a decisive role for the largest economy in Latin America.