- Title: BRAZIL: Rio Industry ???
- Date: 16th May 1973
- Summary: #1::ASA NORMAL 0-9. MS Guy and girl walking along copacabana beach, sea background 9-15. LS People on Copacabana Beach, Sugarloaf, sea 15-25. CU Little kid playing in sand, father picks him up 25-33. MLS Boys playing soccer along beach 33-39. MS Sugarloaf and hi-rise apartments along copacabana 39-47. MS Rio's famous
- Embargoed: 31st May 1973 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Country: Brazil
- Reuters ID: LVAAAMCCO9641Y617AQ0VZR99P7Z
- Story Text: Rio de janeiro, Brazil, with its trademark of sugarloaf Mountain and international reputation for being a tourist's paradise, is showing off suite another face to the world lately--its booming industry and business scene.
For the benefit of nearly 2,500 influential businessmen who are visiting the city during the 24th Congress of the International Chamber of Commerce (May 21 to Saturday 27 May), Rio is putting on a special industrial show.
This is the first time the Chamber of Commerce has held its bi-annual world meeting in Latin American. Delegates represent 80 nations, including the east European communist bloc countries.
Rio, in turn, showed the delegates not only its natural beauties, but opened a trade fair called, "Rio Export," to exhibit its wealth of industrial products. The fair slogan: "Rio, The Marvellous City, Yes--But That's Not All."
From all the publicity about Rio's natural attractions, the delegates were somewhat prepared for the striking scenery, during the tours to the Christ Statue atop Corcovado Mountain, and along Copacabana and Ipenema beaches.
The bigger surprise for the businessmen was the export fair. The 200 stands exhibited products ranging from electronics, heavy trucks and construction machinery, to long-distance buses, furniture and household appliances, foodstuffs, medical apparatus, and recreation equipment such as pleasure boats. One of the biggest export promotions in Brazil, the fair is expected to generate more than $50 million worth of sales.
This is the other face of Rio, a boom town within Brazil's fast-expanding national economy. Brazil's exports are expected to hit $5 billion this year, continuing the 25% annual of recent years.
Rio is still Brazil's undisputed centre of tourism, and will remain so. More than 70 percent of Brazil's 400,000 foreign tourists last year visited the city of Sugarloaf, Corcovado, Copacabana, Carnival and Soccer. Tourism too is an important boom industry, growing at 15 percent a year. Traffic of the richer tourists from the United States and Europe is expanding at 25 percent a year.
Rio has been and still is Brazil's cultural and fashion centre, the nation's style-setter, and leading maker of perfumes and cosmetics.
The city is the major centre for advertising and publishing. Rio is Brazil's most active transportation centre. The port of Rio is the country's second largest, moving more than 25 million toes a year, and nowhere is the value of air traffic greater.
Rio residents are the richest and best educated in Brazil, Per capita ???emmy in Rio last year was $1,200. In Sao Paulo, per cognate income was ??? $900. For the whole of Brazil, it was $500.
General economic activity in Rio has jumped some 80 percent over the past few year. Industrial output is growing at 10 percent a year. Rio's state development agency approved 71 new industrial projects in the last year-and-a-half. The new industries include shipbuilding, pharmaceutical, chemical plants, plus new steel mill, and auto and electronics plants. Rio has a greater preparation of foreign companies that any other region of Brazil; from IBM to Alfa-Romeo, and telefunken, to General Flectric, Siemens, Gillette, White Martins, and Shell.
Rio's industrial output is still only 20 percent of the total of the manufacturing giant of Sao Paulo. But too, one-third of the Sao Paulo total is linked to auto production.
On the other hand, Rio's strength is its high industrial productivity and its much larger service sector. Rio's per capital volume of service is 50 percent higher than Sao Paulo.
Rio products fully 20 percent of Brazil's grows national product of some $52 billion; this from an area less than one percent of the total nation. Rio too is expanding its role as the nations centre for financial decisions.
The majority of the country's major banks, insurance companies and brokerage houses make Rio their headquarters. Leading the list is the huge federal bank, Banco do Brazil, the largest in Latin America. Rio is also the site for main offices of Brazil's government housing and development banks.
Downtown Rio's banking district also includes branches of the major international banks; representing the U.S., England, France, Japan, Canada and Germany. The Rio de Janeiro stock market is by far the most important and most active in Latin America. Volume in 1971 averaged around $20 million per day.
Rio's position in the Brazilian business world is strengthened by having the main offices of the important government corporations operating in petroleum, steel, communications, rail and maritime transport.
Supporting its drive to expand high-technology industries, Rio can count on a well-developed research and development industry. Rio has Brazil's main concentration of research institutes and technical laboratory, and is the leading supplier of know-how and engineering services.
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