For 25 years, Odebrecht has helped take Brazil to the world
Emílio Odebrecht Chairman of the Board of Odebrecht S.A.

Between the late 1960s and the first half of the 1970s, Brazil experienced the so-called economic miracle, a time of huge investments in infrastructure, when massive projects were built in nearly every part of the country. GDP grew by over 10% per year; annual inflation was less than 20%, and the nation boasted spectacular financial reserves that skyrocketed from USD 656 million in 1969 to USD 6.417 billion in 1973.

Odebrecht played an active role in Brazil’s development during that period, working on major special-technology projects after building up the necessary expertise over the previous decades. However, by the mid-70s, we began to realize that the “miracle” was coming to an end and that our country would soon be unable to provide the conditions that our standards of growth required. We had to look forward and take a proactive stance.

As a result, we took a three-pronged approach: investing in the growth of engineering and construction, diversifying our businesses, and internationalizing our operations. The third path was without a doubt the most difficult to take because Brazil was not yet duly inserted in the global market, so we had to blaze a trail and anticipate events. By 1979, we had started international operations and were working on our first projects in Peru and Chile. From then on, our growth process never stopped.

Today, Odebrecht is in the vanguard of Brazilian companies that are active in the global market. In 2003, Construtora Norberto Odebrecht, Brazil’s leading service exporter, earned USD 1.28 billion outside Brazil, which corresponds to 81% of its gross revenue. And Braskem, Brazil’s seventh-largest product exporter, increased the value of its 2002 exports by 49% in 2003, reaching the record figure of USD 617 million. These numbers place the Odebrecht Group among the top five Brazilian exporting conglomerates.

Other Brazilian companies have successfully followed the path of international growth by riding on the coattails of our product and service exports. This is gratifying, because one of our basic commitments is to work as an agent for development. And our exports are an important part of that commitment. By strengthening them, we are helping insert Brazil in the international market on an increasingly competitive basis.

The fruits of decisions made nearly 30 years ago by members of the first and second generations of Odebrecht entrepreneurs, the positive results we are reaping today reaffirm the importance and necessity for the next generations – those already integrated into the Group and those who will join it in the future – always to exercise long-term vision.