Brazil: the new development plan will have six axes, announces Lula

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced on Monday, April 10, that the federal government’s new infrastructure investment plan, replacing the Growth Acceleration Program (PAC), will have six strategic axes:

Transportation; social infrastructure; digital inclusion and connectivity; urban infrastructure; water for all; and energy transition.

Today, Lula held a ministerial meeting to mark the first 100 days of his third term.

Tomorrow, the president travels to China.

“We have resumed the capacity for long-term planning.”

“And this planning will be translated into a major program that brings back the role of the public sector as the inducer of strategic investments in infrastructure,” he said.

“We will take advantage of the experience we have already had with the PAC and the concession programs to improve these mechanisms, making them even more efficient.”

According to the president, the state governments have already sent their lists of priority works, and the ministries are identifying other structural investments.

The new program is expected to be announced at the beginning of May.

For Lula, public and private investments and financing from official banks are fundamental for development with social inclusion and environmental sustainability.

The government’s idea is to facilitate credit for micro, small, and medium-sized companies and cooperatives and micro-credit for individual entrepreneurs.

“We need to create in society the idea that these banks are public and have a different purpose than private banks.”

“We don’t want them to lose money, but they can’t lend money at the same cost as private banks,” he defended.

According to the president, the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES), for example, has already withheld more resources for investments, which today are used to pay loans to the National Treasury.

“Treasury hand-me-downs,” Lula said.

“Good money is not money kept in a safe, it is money generating projects, development, generating jobs, and this is what is important,” he added, defending responsible spending.

AXES

In the energy transition axis, the government will launch public tenders for contracting solar and wind energy and auctions for new transmission lines to “implement these clean energy parks even faster and more attractive”.

“And we will not miss the opportunity to become a global power of green hydrogen,” Lula highlighted.

According to him, Petrobras will fund research for new renewable fuels and, at the same time, resume investments in the expansion of Transpetro’s fleet of ships.

“I never thought Petrobras was an oil company; historically, it is an energy company that has invested more in research in this country, in innovation.”

“The discovery of the pre-salt resulted from billions of investments”, he said.

The goal of digital inclusion and connectivity is to bring high-speed internet to schools and social equipment, such as health centers.

“I hope to see telemedicine working and that even the most humble people can be assisted by great doctors in large urban centers,” said Lula.

He asked the Minister of Health, Nísia Trindade, to think of solutions for the population’s access to specialized healthcare.

According to the president, railroads, highways, waterways, and ports will again be thought of in a structuring way.

“They will reduce the cost of shipping our agricultural production. And will encourage the flourishing of a new industrial base, more technological and cleaner,” he said.

“Besides this, we will equate the highway and airport concessions that have become unbalanced, resuming the planned investments,” he highlighted.

In the area of water for all, one of the focuses is the resumption of the São Francisco River integration project.

In urban infrastructure, Lula called for attention to improving the housing and living conditions of people who live in slums, stilt houses, and other precarious places.

“There is no more degrading way to live than to live in a stilt house,” he lamented.

According to the president, projects to prevent disasters caused by floods and landslides will be implemented.

With the new sanitation framework, the government wants to unlock and attract R$120 billion in public and private investments to make water and sewage services universal by 2033.

Lula also said that, besides Minha Casa Minha Vida for the poorest population, creating a housing program that serves the lower middle class and those who earn between three and four salaries is necessary.

“The poorest is a priority, but we want to think about the whole,” he said.

The focus will be on investments in hospitals, schools, daycare centers, and cultural and sports centers in social infrastructure.

“The quality of life in the cities is not only made of houses, sanitation, and transportation,” he stressed.

In this sense, the president criticized the episodes of racism in the country.

“We will not tolerate it,” he said.

In more than one hour of speech, the president also addressed several issues dear to the government, such as:

• fighting hunger,
• reducing carbon emissions and zero deforestation,
• the Agribusiness Crop Plan,
• debt renegotiation,
• full-time schools,
• investments in science and technology,
• policies to guarantee rights,
• fighting organized crime,
• and strengthening democracy.

The federal government released a list of public policies and actions taken in the last three months.

FISCAL FRAMEWORK AND INTEREST RATES

During his speech, Lula also pointed out that, with the new fiscal framework, which will replace the spending cap, the government wants to “put the poor back in the Budget.”

“We are also working on a tax reform that corrects the historical distortions of a regressive and unfair taxation system for Brazilians and the federated entities.”

“And it creates a much more dynamic and uncomplicated environment for the business sector,” he said.

The proposal will not have “100% solidarity” for Lula, even though he believes it will be approved.

The president criticized again the level of the basic interest rates of the country’s economy, set by the Central Bank (BC).

“I still think that they are playing with the country, the poor people, and the business people who want to invest. Only those who don’t want to see it don’t see it”, he said.

Since August last year, the Central Bank has kept the Selic rate (the economy’s basic interest rate) at 13.25% annually.

SOCIAL PARTICIPATION

At the opening of the meeting, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin highlighted the government’s quick reaction after the January 8 vandalism acts in Brasilia.

“You saved democracy from an attempted coup, and it came out strengthened.”

“The quick reaction of all Powers and the government itself strengthened the democratic system,” he said.

The next day, the heads of the three branches of government and several governors and authorities walked together from the Planalto Palace to the Federal Supreme Court, passing by the National Congress in a symbolic act in defense of democracy.

Alckmin also said that, in May, the government would install the Economic and Social Development Council, known as Conselhão.

Very active in Lula’s governments, the collegiate had the participation of several businessmen and renowned personalities in different areas.

“Democracy means participation, and we see in all the ministries an enormous participation”, he said.

“A government that listens more makes fewer mistakes; a modern government encourages the participation of organized civil society.”

The forecast is that this semester, the Ministry of Planning and Budget and the General Secretariat of the Presidency will start the debates on the Participative Multi-Year Plan.

With activities in the 27 states, the goal is to provide budget transparency and enable society to actively participate in the action planning process for the coming years.

The vice-president also talked about the various actions of the government in these first 100 days, such as the appreciation of the minimum wage and the extra amounts granted by Bolsa Família – R$150 per child up to 6 years old and R$50 for each member of the family aged between 7 and 18 incomplete years and for pregnant women.

“If Juscelino Kubitschek said it was 50 years in five, we could say it was a thousand days in 100,” said Alckmin.

With information from Exame