Visiting Mexican President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto stressed here Thursday to need to strengthen economic and trade ties with Brazil. While meeting Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Nieto, who will take office in December, said stronger ties, including in the sector of poverty reduction,
would benefit all Latin American countries.
Hailing Brazil's achievement in the fight against poverty, Nieto
asked the Brazilian government for help in establishing similar
policies in Mexico.
"I asked for the president's collaboration to learn about
(Brazil's) successful experience, which can help define the public
policies we will have in Mexico to fight poverty and support the
portion of the population that needs it the most," Nieto said.
According to Brazilian government figures, 35 million Brazilians
have been lifted out of poverty and joined the middle class in the
last decade during the administration of former president Luiz
Inacio Lula da Silva (2003-2010) and his successor Rousseff.
Official figures showed Mexico has about 50 million people, or 46
percent of the population, who are living in poverty.
The president-elect said he is particularly interested in the
Brazilian program "Science without Frontiers," which distributes
government scholarships to about 100,000 youngsters to study at some
of the world' s best universities.
Nieto also said he wants to use Brazil's oil giant Petrobras as a
model for modernizing Mexico's state-owned oil company Pemex.
Petrobras has opened some of its capital to the private sector
but the company is controlled by the government which owns the
majority of shares.
"That is a model that inspires what we want to do in Mexico," he
said, stressing Petrobras became a "larger, more competitive"
company with the participation of the private sector.
The president-elect is on a six-nation Latin American tour.
