AKIPRESS.COM - Chinese premier Li Keqiang lifted the wraps Tuesday on a multibillion-dollar series of trade and investment deals with Brazil, as Beijing looks to invest $50bn in South America’s largest economy.

The news unveiled on the Chinese official visit is a huge boon for Brazil as it endures a fifth straight year of low growth after a period of rapid expansion fueled by an Asian demand for commodities that has since slowed.

Li’s host, President Dilma Rousseff, hopes Brazil can direct Chinese cash to overhaul decaying infrastructure as the country’s tourist magnet Rio de Janeiro prepares to host South America’s first ever Olympics next year.

Headlining deals agreed on Li’s first official visit to Latin America were a pair of finance and cooperation deals worth $7bn for Brazil’s state-owned oil firm Petrobras.

At their talks, aside from the Petrobras agreements, Rousseff and Li also signed a range of deals designed to further bilateral cooperation on trade, investment, agriculture, energy and transport, official sources said.

Brasilia and Beijing also finalized a $1.3bn accord to sell 22 Brazilian Embraer commercial jets to China’s Tianjin Airlines, Embraer said in a statement, while Brazil’s Vale, the world’s biggest iron producer, announced extended cooperation with China on maritime transport of iron ore.