Time to Invest in Rio?

So Obama couldn’t lock up the 2016 Olympics for Chicago, and instead the spoils went to Rio de Janeiro. And from what I can gather on Google Earth, it seem that Brazil has some serious infrastructure-related development to get after in Rio before the 2016 Summer Games…

As a result, it seems to me that Project Rio is going to mean a variety of investment opportunities in the host country over the next few years. The country is on the rise economically thanks to soy, iron, and steel exports –- and politically, as Obama recently called Brazilian President Luiz Lula da Silva, “the most popular politician on earth.” That’s gotta say something.

“What you need is better roads, better hotels, better communications -- infrastructure, food services," Jack Dzierwa, a strategist at U.S. Global Investors, told the WSJ. "You're not just building stadiums; you need to support these stadiums. It's an all-encompassing project."

Likely beneficiaries will be mobile phone carriers, airlines, media, steel, and transportation companies, as analysts have speculated that investors will feed close to $20 billion into these projects over the next few years. Rio is also set to host the 2014 World Cup, which means development will begin soon -- seeing as the world seems to get a bit more amped for futbol than it does for discus and Michael Phelps.

Then again, there’s definitely a question of how much the projects undertaken to build new arenas, etc. actually benefit the infrastructure of a host city’s economy. Is it really worth the investment, or will things just return to the way they were after the Games and international attention shifts elsewhere, cough, China?

Should we be buying stock in Petrobras, Brazil’s state-run oil company?