Bayer plans to invest around EUR 100 million through the end of 2009, at its various sites in Brazil, one of Bayer's top 10 markets worldwide in terms of sales. In 2007 Bayer achieved sales of EUR 3.2 billion in Latin America, of which, Brazil accounted for about EUR 1.2 billion - or more than one third.

(f. r.) Bayer CEO Werner Wenning, Sergio Cabral, Governor of the State of Rio de Janeiro, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil, and the Bayer Senior Representative in Brazil, Dr. Horsfried Läpple, with students of the Bayer Soccer Academy at the Belford Roxo site.

Bayer Group CEO Werner Wenning told the media in Belford Roxo, near Rio de Janeiro, on the 50th anniversary of the site's founding, ''Brazil is our biggest market in Latin America, and we want to further expand our position in this growth region.'' 

The announced investment programme will focus on Belford Roxo, where EUR 40 million will be spent on modernisation and technical upgrading of the production facilities for plastics precursors and crop protection products, as well as on infrastructure projects. In addition, partner companies have announced that they will invest a further EUR 55 million at the Bayer industrial park in Belford Roxo.

The projects to be implemented by Bayer and its partners will create 800 new jobs in the Belford Roxo area in addition to the current 2,000 at this location. The site is Bayer CropScience's second-largest formulations plant worldwide for crop protection products, while Bayer MaterialScience supplies the entire South American market with MDI, a raw material used in the production of polyurethane foams, from Belford Roxo.

Also produced at this site are coating raw materials for the automotive, furniture and construction industries. Together with its partner companies in the industrial park, Bayer is the biggest employer in Belford Roxo, a city of 500,000 inhabitants. In addition, Bayer HealthCare operates three production sites in Brazil. The Bayer Group currently employs a total of 3,300 people in the country.

Bayer will invest another EUR 60 million will be invested at the other Bayer sites in Brazil.

''The size of this investment underscores our commitment and is meant as a clear vote of confidence in Brazil,'' Wenning stressed at a ceremony attended by more than 500 guests from politics, industry and society – including Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Rio de Janeiro state governor Sergio Cabral.

Bayer has been active in Brazil since 1896, initially as an agency. The first Bayer company in the country was founded in 1911. Almost exactly 50 years ago, Bayer's first production facilities in Brazil were inaugurated in Belford Roxo by then Brazilian president Juscelino Kubitschek and professor Ulrich Haberland, at that time Chairman of the Board of Management of Bayer AG.

Bayer also maintains a high level of social commitment in Brazil. Among its nearly 20 social projects is the Bayer soccer academy, founded in 1993 in the immediate neighborhood of the Belford Roxo site. Children are only permitted to train at the school if they can prove that they regularly and successfully attend classes at the local school. In addition to soccer practice, the curriculum includes Portuguese, writing and computer classes.

The latest social project in Brazil is also aimed at improving the education of young people, ''PontocomCiencia'' is a Brazilian adaptation of Bayer's ''Making Science Make Sense'' program, which has proven so successful in the United States and other countries. The programme, designed to arouse students' interest in science and research, got under way just a few weeks ago at two schools near Bayer's headquarters in Sao Paulo.