Renata Giraldi      Reporter Agência Brasil

Brasília – Saturday evening (March 3) president Dilma Rousseff left for Germany where she will stay until Tuesday, March 6, in the city of Hannover. Dilma will be accompanied by a committee of 200 people, including ministers and business leaders.

Today, Monday, March 5, Dilma and the German chancellor (prime minister), Angela Merkel, will have a working lunch and then a private meeting to discuss the international crisis and bilateral cooperation. There is a full agenda: the strategic partnership agreement of 2002 between Brazil and Germany, the upcoming Rio+20 meeting in June on sustainable development, the G-20, the reform of political and economic institutions of global governance and bilateral relations.

Germany is Brazil’s fourth biggest trade partner, with total volume reaching $24 billion in 2011, an increase of 17.4% over 2010.

Also today, the president and the chancellor will participate in the inauguration of an annual technology fair (“Feira Internacional de Tecnologia de Informação, Telecomunicações, Software e Serviços - Cebit”) where the focus this year is on Brazil. It is expected that 350,000 people will visit the Cebit, one of the largest fairs of its kind (4,200 exhibition stands from 70 countries). The fair should result in business opportunities for Brazilian firms. Brazil is now the world’s sixth biggest technology consumer market. Dilma will visit the fair together with Angela Merkel and it is expected they will hold a joint press conference there.

One of the most important bilateral Brazil-Germany efforts at the moment is an exchange program (“Ciencia Sem Fronteiras”) that is supposed to send over 10,000 Brazilian students to study in Germany between now and 2014.

Allen Bennett – translator/editor The News in English

Link - Dilma viaja hoje para a Alemanha onde discute crise internacional com Angela Merkel