Brasília--Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang headed to Brazil on Monday on a three-day visit with a promise of $50 billion in investment for creaking infrastructure as his hosts finalize preparations for next year's Rio Olympics.
Li, who was due to land late afternoon in the capital Brasilia, will hold talks Tuesday with President Dilma Rousseff, for whom the investment will be a major boon. Brazil's economy is battling a fifth straight year of poor growth and spiraling inflation.
Li will head for Rio on Tuesday evening to see some of China's investment in the city, which Brasilia supplanted as the capital in 1960 but which will in August next year welcome South America's first ever Olympic Games.
On Thursday, Li will continue a Latin American swing designed to increase Chinese influence in the region, heading to Colombia before visiting Peru and Chile.
Chinese investment in Brazil has grown exponentially over the past decade, with the Asian giant becoming Brazil's main trading partner in 2009.
Trade between China and Latin America as a whole rose some 2,550 percent between 2000 and 2012 from barely $10 billion to $255.5 billion.
AFP
