Macau, China, June 18, 2026 (Lusa) - Brazil wants to attract more Chinese direct investment in infrastructure, including through public-private partnerships for major projects, an adviser to the Brazilian Presidency told Lusa on Thursday.
Speaking in Macau, Filipe Brand pointed out that Chinese companies already have a number of projects underway in Brazil, but that China is not yet among the country’s top five foreign direct investors.
Chinese companies are, for example, manufacturing the new carriages for the São Paulo metro and building the Salvador-Itaparica Bridge, for which construction was given the green light to proceed in early June.
“There is still a great deal of potential to be tapped in terms of Chinese direct investment,” argued the adviser to the Special Secretariat for the Investment Partnership Programme (PPI), which operates under the Brazilian Presidency.
Brand was speaking on the sidelines of the closing ceremony of a colloquium on investment and infrastructure construction, which brought together officials and government leaders from the nine Portuguese Language Countries to Macau over a two-week period.
The colloquium, which began on 2 June, was organised by the Forum for Economic and Trade Co-operation between China and the Portuguese Language Countries (Forum Macau).
“We hope that this type of initiative, such as the Macau Forum, will help to further strengthen Brazil-China relations and, eventually, attract more Chinese funding for direct investment,” said Brand.
The adviser emphasised that Brazil “has a very rich portfolio of projects across a wide range of sectors”.
“We need capital to invest in motorways, railways, ports, airports, energy, urban transport, social housing, social projects, healthcare and education,” Brand listed.
The PPI is an inter-ministerial initiative that identifies priorities amongst infrastructure projects for public investment in Brazil and currently has more than 200 projects in its portfolio, he explained.
China has been Brazil’s main trading partner for 15 years.
According to data from the Chinese Customs Service, Brazilian exports rose by 36.9% in the first three months of 2026, to US$26.4 billion (€22.9 billion).
At the close of the 17th International Forum and Exhibition on Investment and Infrastructure Construction, the leader of the Macau Forum, Ji Xianzheng, emphasised that the organisation’s action plan, approved in 2024 and in force until 2027, identifies transport, telecommunications, electricity and water resources as priorities in the infrastructure sector.
He promised that China would continue “to strengthen its openness to the outside world and expand the scope of international cooperation, bringing greater stability and certainty to the global economy”.
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Lusa
