Brazil's leading industrialists have begun a charm offensive in the Gulf, aiming to coax Arab investors into a market with small but growing links to the Middle East.
The South American nation, now the sixth-biggest economy in the world, is poised for even greater growth as industrial titans such as the mining company Vale and the aircraft manufacturer Embraer expand internationally and the country prepares to host the 2014 Fifa World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games.
"Brazil is, to some extent, booming," said Fernando Henrique Cardoso, a former president of Brazil who is leading a trade delegation to the UAE and Qatar this week.
"We're trying to extend our contact to different parts of the world."
He was accompanied by delegates from Itaú Unibanco, a Latin American lender that is the eighth-largest in the world and is eyeing expansion to Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
Last year, foreign direct investment in Brazil from Gulf countries totalled less than US$5 billion (Dh18.36bn), out of a total of $66.7bn, said Rainer Schwarz, the head of Itaú Unibanco's current Middle East office in Dubai.
The country was seeking to capitalise further on the investment flows that had made Brazil the "big B of the Brics", said Ricardo Villela Marino, a partner of Itaú Unibanco and chief executive of the bank's Latin American operations.
"Brazil needs a lot of capital for infrastructure, real estate, the energy sector and education," he said.
The links between the UAE and Brazil are steadily growing, as more Gulf investors look to the fast-growing Latin American economy for investment returns.
Mubadala Development, a strategic investment company owned by the Abu Dhabi Government, last month acquired a $2bn stake in Brazil's EBX Group, owned by Eike Batista, Brazil's richest man.
The deal - Mubadala's first venture into Brazil - indicated a growing level of confidence among Middle Eastern investors in Latin America, said Jawad Qasim, the head of Itaú's investment banking business in the Middle East.
"If they were afraid, I don't think they'd have done it," he said.
The Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing has also targeted Brazil in an effort to expand the emirate's tourism trade, while last month the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority hired a leader for its Latin America desk.
Latin America is steadily becoming more important to the Gulf as investors seek new territory, said Aziz Unan, a fund manager at Renaissance Asset Managers who covers eastern European and Middle Eastern stocks.
"It's a new geographic area, historically with limited trade links," he said.
And similar to the Middle East, Latin America was also poised to benefit from a booming youth population and a rising middle class, Mr Unan said.
"From a demographic point of view, there are not that many areas globally where you'll find favourable demographic situations," he said.
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