Dilma says that she intends to keep “atmosphere favorable for investments”

During her speech to the Council for Economic and Social Development (CDES in Portuguese), which lasted 55 minutes, president Dilma Rousseff has made an extensive rationale to claim that there has had no investment in planning and major infrastructure works in her and ex-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva preceding governments. Speaking of looking to the future, Dilma pointed guidelines that she considers relevant for the country. We intend to continue creating favorable atmosphere for investments in order to increase the country’s competitiveness. The country needs that, she said.

There should be necessary to implement new actions in order to enhance investments, she announced. She defended the promotion of the private credit market development and long-term guarantee instruments to large scale projects. She cited, for example, the model by which the investment itself is considered a guarantee, under study at the Ministry of Finance.  

In logistics, Dilma affirmed that it shall be necessary to settle the coastal regulatory marc and expand the investments in rail and water modes.  Still in this area, she affirmed that it is necessary to continue investing in highways. She cited that her government has redefined the highways concession model, which now requires investments in duplication, integral improvement, route redefinition and modernization.  She said that in her government 5,348 km of highways have been granted.

In energy, president defended that it is necessary to expand the investments in generation and transmission in order to guarantee the supply security and affordability. In urban mobility, she sustained focus on subways, Light Rail Vehicles (VLTs) and BRTs, the articulated buses.

She admitted that it is necessary to increase sanitation coverage in Brazil, recognizing that the covered area is currently small. Still in the area of infrastructure, Dilma said that we must take advantage of two major Brazilian river basins in order to make the rivers our roads.

The president defended that it is necessary to look at the oil and gas sector as a big chain and not only as exploitation. One of the important things we did was the resurrection of the shipbuilding industry; we are now the fourth in the world shipbuilding industry and built 18 shipyards, she listed.

In education and technical education, Dilma announced that next week the Ministry of Education, José Henrique Paim, shall disclose the guidelines for Pronatec 2.0, a continuation of the current program of free technical qualification courses and a new stage of the Science without Borders, which distributes scholarships abroad.

Rousseff also said she will launch the third stage of Minha Casa, Minha Vida (My Home, My Life) program, with a goal of hiring 3 million homes. She suggested that this number could reach 4 million – a million per year – to repeat the pace of the current stage of the program, which hired 2.750 million homes. She pointed out that the realistic goal is 3 million. His opponent, the former governor of Pernambuco, Eduardo Campos (PSB), promised to keep the program and hire 4 million homes.

Dilma made a long speech to claim that the Growth Acceleration Program (PAC) 1 and 2, together with the investment in logistics program allowed an accumulation of experience and knowledge to build large structural works in Brazil. She pointed out that, since the 80 and 90, with the debt crisis and fiscal debt, there have been no large investments or major projects have been planned in the country. We have resumed the planning in 2007 with PAC and started making investments in the country in a state of need, she said.

The president concluded her speech quoting the French economist Thomas Piketty, who has affirmed that the social imbalance has grown all over the world during the 70. According to Dilma, Brazil is not included in that study, because it has reduced the social imbalance over the last years. We are on the counter flow, she affirmed.

She defended that the path to Brazil to enter the knowledge society is to expand the investments in education, in infrastructure and fighting poverty.

About the violent protests in Sao Paulo on Thursday as a result of the strike in the Subway, the president said it is regrettable.