Brazil and Colombia reviewed obstacles to further their economic relationship

Representatives of public and private sectors of Colombia and Brazil met in Bogota today to review the obstacles encountered in their trade and investment in order to overcome them and become strategic partners.
This first Trade and Investment Forum Colombia-Brazil was inaugurated by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula exgobernante da Silva, the Colombian president, Juan Manuel Santos and President of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Luis Alberto Moreno.
According to Lula, the meeting should be the first in a series of annual events in which both countries are questioning how they can work together to develop infrastructure, telecommunications, agricultural policies, financial services and better manage energy resources.
For ex president, the agreements which may emerge among the more than 500 businessmen and politicians from both countries gathered at the forum will be the basis of the later sign the president of her country, Dilma Rousseff, with Colombian Santos.
In fact, he was sure that Rousseff and Saints "become more" than he could achieve with the Colombian president coincided with during his Administration, Álvaro Uribe (2002-2010), because there was "good, but lot of mistrust. "
The former head of the Brazilian state between 2003 and 2011 also decided to Latin American integration, something alien to the "rich" as those in the EU, U.S., China and India, and those invited to invest the "poor world", a whole new fishery that can help consumers overcome the financial crisis that some of them pass through.
"Think of ourselves," Lula suggested, to discover where the "growth potential" in Latin America.
During the day arose solutions to the challenges presented by these two countries, as agreed Santos, Moreno and Lula have been "back" for a long time.
For example, Lula proposed to the Colombian government to create a guarantee fund to invest in building new hydroelectric plants, ports and roads, and set long-term strategic projects.
Some employers with a presence in Colombia, Marcelo Odebrecht, the chief executive of Brazilian construction group, said precisely the need to create a regional entity that can support the financing of the construction of the infrastructure needed.
However, Colombian Finance Minister Juan Carlos Echeverry, told reporters his confidence in financial institutions in Latin America, as "very good", and aims to strengthen and to "be creative" when designing new tools.
For their part, Brazil's communications minister, Paulo Bernardo, and Colombia, Diego Molano, agreed today with the Secretary General of UNASUR, Maria Emma Mejia, working on a communications infrastructure that allows access to broadband Internet in all the South American country, an outstanding issue for the continent.
"The bulk of broadband communications is being done through the United States to talk to Ecuador and Colombia and Brazil and Paraguay, the communication has to go through the U.S. and we think we have to start work on this "said Mejia told Efe.
In addition, the possible construction was announced in about 4 or 5 years of a Colombian oil pipeline that has an exit to the Pacific Ocean, according to Minister of Mines and Energy of the Andean country, Carlos Noriega Shot, is "the region of the globe where they are giving the greatest growth for commodities (raw materials) in the world, "said Shot.
"In the case of oil, China and India are demanding huge amounts of oil," he said.
Trade between Brazil and Colombia has quadrupled since 2.004, reaching 3,000 million dollars in 2.010, a figure that represents yet less than 1 percent of total trade of both nations, according to the IDB.
In addition, direct investment in Brazil in Colombia was $ 775 million in 2.005-2.010, while that of Colombia in Brazil was 605 million.