Chinese businessman's adventure in Brazil
(Chinanews.cn)
Updated: 2006-07-14 13:50
Lu Weiguang, a Chinese businessman, accompanied President Hu Jintao visiting
Brazil as a representative of Chinese entrepreneurs in November 2004. His
adventure in Brazil also made him among one of the Forbes China's 40 richest in
2005.
Lu Weiguang (C) held activities with local
Indians in 2005. [Chinanews.cn] |
Lu Weiguang, 39, was born into a merchant family of Wenzhou, Zhejiang
Province. After graduation from college, Lu became an official of the Wenzhou
Fisheries Administrative Bureau. In 1994, He quitted his job and started to sell
floorboards. Three years later, he had garnered enough money to set up his own
floorboard factory in Shanghai. In 1998, the central government issued a
regulation prohibiting individuals from cutting down trees in forests, thus
depriving Liu's factory of its raw material source. Since then he had been
toying with the idea of buying forests in Brazil.
In Brazil, local Indians control most primeval forests. They have lived there
for generations and considered themselves to be the defender of the forests. He
must get permission from chiefs of the Indian tribe if he wanted to buy
forests.
Lu sent money to Indians through the local Indian fund, and he bought lands
for them to improve their living conditions. He also managed to bring them
medicines and medical equipment. Gradually, Lu became a close friend of the
Indians, and was deeply impressed by their customs.
When he appealed to Indian's chiefs to buy some forests, they immediately
agreed. In 2004, he bought totally 1,000 thousand sq. meters of primeval
forests, the size of the area of the Chongming Island near Shanghai. He thus
became the first foreign owner of Brazil's forest.
Lu owns almost everything in the forest, including plants and animals, and
various other natural resources. Lu also contributed 50 sq. meters of the forest
he bought to another tribe living in it, lest these Indians migrate to other
places. He also set up a timber producer in Brazil, creating job opportunities
for local people.
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