A
country in motion
The land area of Brazil extends over 8.5 million square kilometers,
occupying just under half (47%) of the area of Latin America. The country
possesses 20% of all the world’s biodiversity; an example of this
natural wealth is the Amazon Rainforest, with 3.6 million square kilometers.
The political and administrative organization comprises three main Branches
of Power: the Judiciary, the Executive and the Legislative, and the
principle of autonomy among the Union, the Federal District, 26 states
and 5,563 towns and cities (IBGE/2003).
Ranking
fifth among the world’s most populated countries, the population
of Brazil amounts to 50 million families or approximately 180 million
inhabitants (2004), the majority - 81% - in urban areas. The national
birth rate, which reached as high as 6.3 in 1960, currently stands at
2.1 children per female. The result of this decline, which can be associated
to an improvement in social indicators and consequently in quality of
life, will be a population whose majority of citizens will be aged between
15 and 44 years within the next four decades. This will represent one
of the largest job and consumer markets among the countries on the American
continent.
Diversified
Economy
Brazil
accounts for three fifths of the South American economy’s industrial
production and integrates various economic groups, such as Mercosur,
G-22 and the Cairns Group. The country’s scientific and technological
development, together with a dynamic and diversified industrial sector,
is attractive to foreign enterprise: direct investment was in the region
of US$ 20 billion /year on average, compared to US$ 2 billion/year last
decade.
Brazil
trades regularly with over one hundred nations, with 74% of exports
represented by manufactured or semimanufactured goods. Its main partners
are: the EEC (representing 26% of the balance), the US (24%), Mercosur
and Latin America (21%) and Asia (12%). One of the most dynamic sectors
in this trade scenery is the so-called “agrobusiness” sector,
which for two decades has kept Brazil amongst the most highly productive
countries in areas related to the rural sector.
The
owner of a sophisticated technological sector, Brazil develops projects
that range from submarines to aircraft and is involved in space research:
the country possesses a Launching Center for Light Vehicles and was
the only country in the Southern Hemisphere to integrate the team responsible
for the construction of the International Space Station-the ISS. A pioneer
in the field of deep water oil research, from where 73% of its reserves
are extracted, Brazil was the first capitalist country to bring together
the ten largest car assembly companies inside its national territory.