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Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva - Source: Reuters
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will meet next week with his counterparts from Russia, China and India, all members of the group of emerging economic powers known as the BRICs.
They will discuss the world economic crisis, the role of the US dollar as a reserve currency, and ways to reform global financial institutions.
Here are some highlights of Lula's presidency, which began in January 2003 and will end in December 2010.
- Brazil's most popular president in recent history and the first of working-class origin, Lula was elected in 2002 and re-elected in a landslide in 2006.
- The former metalworker and union leader has overseen Brazil's longest period of economic growth in three decades. In 2008, Brazil also won a long-sought investment grade credit rating.
- Around 19 million people have been lifted out of poverty during the Lula administration, thanks to robust economic growth and government stipends for poor families. That is more than twice the population of neighbouring Bolivia.
- The Lula government has raised Brazil's international profile, advocating on behalf of developing nations in global trade talks while acting as a moderator in South America. It still seeks a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
- Lula has bounced back from several corruption scandals involving key advisors and his own Workers' Party, which has portrayed itself as a bastion of ethics in the otherwise murky world of Brazilian politics. Through it all, Lula has remained immensely popular, earning the nickname "the Teflon president."
- He has failed to reform unwieldy tax and labour laws, as well as a corruption-prone political system, despite campaign pledges that we would do so.
- Lula has drawn harsh criticism from environmentalists who complain that his government has prioritized economic development over conservation, putting the Amazon rain forest at risk.
- As president, the once-radical Lula has governed as a moderate, disappointing the far left of his own party.
