Brazil's announcement this month of the opening of a consulate in Atlanta appears little more than a diplomatic nicety, an opportunity for Rio-bound revelers to pick up a visa or expatriates to cast a vote. Brazil, after all, becomes the 22nd country to establish diplomatic relations in Atlanta.

The consulate, though, underscores a seismic shift in the global economy. As U.S. economic and political power splinters, up-and-coming countries like Brazil fill the trade and investment void.

Brazil, Russia, India and China — known as the BRICs — form a formidable bloc of rapidly developing nations. Stock value for the 50 largest companies in those countries soared a collective 55 percent last year, according to the Dow Jones BRIC 50 Index. Brazil, the world's eighth-largest economy, tallied a record $37.4 billion in foreign investment.

"Not only do you have the huge phenomenon that is China, but India, Brazil and Russia are all growing fast," Adalnio Senna Ganem, Brazil's new consul general in Atlanta, said in a recent interview. "The BRICs will have a very important role in international markets and politics in the future. They will leverage their influence across the world."

Georgia hopes to cement BRIC ties. The state's Department of Economic Development, the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and businesses large and small have boosted links to the fast-developing world with significant trade and investment results.

"A consulate here is huge," said Jorge Fernandez, the chamber's vice president of global commerce. Brazil "is an important partner for the U.S., an important actor in the hemisphere. And the growth of their economy is real [unlike] what I noticed a few years ago."

Low-cost suppliers

Goldman Sachs coined the acronym BRIC in 2003 as the long-unstable economies got their fiscal houses in order. BRICs share the stage with the United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Argentina, Turkey, Thailand and others.

Raw materials — oil for Russia and the Middle Eastern up-and-comers; soybeans, iron ore, zinc and gold for Brazil, Argentina and South Africa — fuel the rise. China and India boom as the world's low-cost suppliers of manufactured goods and services.

Cheap labor and bargain-priced industries lure foreign investors. Global foreign direct investment last year grew 18 percent, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. In Brazil, it shot up 99 percent.

The Chinese and Indian economies continue to grow at roughly 10 percent a year.

"If you're an investor looking toward an area of the world that's growing and developing well, then [BRICs] are an interesting area to be in," said Hans Olsen, chief investment officer for JPMorgan Client Services.

Nearly 40 percent of the world's IPO activity last year occurred in BRICs, up from 32 percent in 2006. Burgeoning middle classes with cash to spend attract consumer goods makers.

Georgia has traditionally targeted Canada, Europe and Japan for investment, a successful 50-year strategy that has led to thousands of jobs and billions of invested dollars. The Big Three won't relinquish their perch atop Georgia's investment ladder anytime soon. But Georgia sees BRIC-loads of opportunity.

The state exported $430 million worth of wood pulp, paper products, chemicals, machinery and electronics to Brazil in 2006, a 19 percent increase from the previous year.

Brazilian imports through the Savannah Customs District — $772 million in granite, lumber, furniture, iron and sugar — jumped 24 percent during the same time period, according to the Georgia Ports Authority.

Georgia targets direct investment from the newly wealthy and expansion-minded BRICs. The state and the metro chamber take business recruitment trips to China, India and Brazil just about every year. Economic Development recently opened an office in Beijing and hopes to establish another in India. The state upgraded its Sao Paulo office in 2005.

Russia is the low man on the recruitment ladder, although the chamber is translating marketing materials into Cyrillic.

Dividends from Georgia's BRIC play roll in. Onward Technologies Inc., a Mumbai, India-based services company, announced this month the opening of an engineering and design office in Kennesaw. A hundred jobs are expected. Last year, Indian outsourcing giant Wipro Technologies said it would open a software development and training center in Atlanta.

Mainland Chinese companies have discovered Atlanta. Last year, Sany Heavy Industry announced construction of a factory in Peachtree City and General ProTecht, an electrical parts company, said it would build a plant in Barnesville.

Shuffling no more

A long-running joke about Brazil: "Brazil is the country of the future — and always will be!"

For years, the country's economy shuffled along, weighed down by debt, inflation and government controls. Today, inflation is curbed, exports zoom and the world's one-time biggest debtor counts a record $160 billion in reserves.

"The Brazilian economy has matured. It's stable and growing even faster than the U.S. economy," said Tim Perry, the country's former honorary counsel in Atlanta.

Georgia targeted Brazil during its hunt for the headquarters of the never-ratified Free Trade Area of the Americas a few years back. While the secretariat never came, the full consulate did. It will offer visa and passport services; promote trade, investment, cultural and academic activities; and serve Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama with a staff of 30.

In 2004, the U.S. Census Bureau pegged Georgia's Brazilian population, mostly in Cobb, Gwinnett, Fulton and DeKalb counties, at 21,500 people, a figure considered low by many in the expatriate community. Weg Electric Motors, Houston American Cement, Gerdau (steel) and Artefacto (furnishings) do business here.

Georgia and Brazil's embrace of biofuel research and production could further two-way trade and investment. Brazil is the world's largest producer of ethanol and expects to double production within five years. Georgia is carving an ethanol and biodiesel industry from the state's timber and agricultural offerings.

Brazil wants to ship ethanol to the United States. Georgia officials offer the port at Savannah as a logical off-loading site. But a steep, 54 cents-per-gallon tariff on imported ethanol keeps out virtually all biofuel.

"The demand in the United States will be huge in the next few years. South America could supply that demand," said Ganem, Brazil's new consul general. "But it's a tough matter because producers here are not willing to have the tariff disappear."

U.S. economy a concern

Despite the BRIC boom, the Dow Jones BRIC Index lost 15 percent of its value in January. GDP projections for India, China and Brazil have been scaled back.

"There's a reasonable fear about what the slowdown in the United States will do to these countries," said JPMorgan's Olsen. "It used to be that if the U.S. suffered an economic slowdown the rest of the world suffered the same fate, if not worse. But we're probably not coupled like we were in the past."

Ganem said the BRICs' economic diversity will insulate them from a U.S. slowdown. Brazil, for example, shipped 27 percent of its exports to the United States a decade ago. Today, only 15 percent end up here.

"We don't see a crisis if there's a recession in the United States," Ganem said.