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Occupying fully half of the southern continent, richly
endowed not only with vast forest resources but also
immense deposits of practically every mineral known to
man, and with half the continent's population, Brazil is
the only country in South America with the potential
natural and human resources to become a world power.
Here, according to many, is the next giant of the western
hemisphere.
While the Brazilian giant has yet to rise to his full
height, he is anything but asleep. There is the bright,
bold challenge of Brasilia, a futuristic world carved from
virgin wilderness. And there is underway the audacious
project of clearing the jungle across some of the most
formidable terrain ever beheld by eyes of man to build
the Trans-Amazon Highway. More than half of this 3,000
kilometer highway has already been opened to traffic
and work on the remainder goes ahead at a rapid pace.
Even more significant, however, than either of these
ventures—fantastically expensive in the short run but
hopefully bridges to future prosperity—are the dry sta-tistics
of Brazil's economic growth.
During the past seven years, Brazil has experienced
the most accelerated economic development of its his-tory
and, indeed, one of the periods of most rapid devel-opment
any country has ever experienced. Statistically,
the expansion is quite staggering. The Gross National
Product, for the last three years, has maintained an
average growth rate of 10% per annum. Exports have
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