Rio de Janeiro – President Dilma Rousseff announced this Thursday that her government will promote this year a new series of road, rail, port and airport concessions to the private sector, which may include air terminals in cities such as Porto Alegre, Salvador and Florianopolis.
“We are going to launch a new concession process to offer a new logistical map for Brazil and rationalize transport costs in the country”, said the president at the inauguration ceremony of the expansion and modernization works of a private port in Rio de Janeiro.
Dilma said that, after a first process in which the airports of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Brasília, Campinas, Belo Horizonte and Natal were awarded, the government is studying bidding for other air terminals with international flights.
“We are going to make new airport concessions. We are studying some alternatives. We studied (the concession of) Porto Alegre, Salvador and Florianópolis, but there may be others. There are several hypotheses ”, he pointed out.
According to her, one of Brazil's main goals is to increase transport by waterways, especially of grain grown in the western region of the country and which are exported through ports on the Atlantic Ocean.
“We will give priority (in the concessions) to transport by waterway because Brazil needs this logistics a lot and this will generate an important cost reduction for grain exporters”, he pointed out.
According to the president, the change in the regulatory framework for ports has already allowed for an important leap in the participation of the private sector in the country's maritime terminals.
“38 private projects have already been authorized for the private sector, including 22 new maritime terminals, with an expected investment of R$ 11 billion”, he detailed.
The works inaugurated today in Rio de Janeiro were the result of an investment of R$ 1,5 billion, most of it private, in an agreement with the companies that operate in the port, which committed to providing the resources in exchange for the extension of the deadline. of the lease.
According to Dilma, another 27 companies that operate ports announced investments of R$ 11,2 billion in exchange for having their concessions extended.
These projects depend on authorization from the Federal Court of Auditors.
This investment turned Rio's maritime terminal into the largest continuous pier for container operations in all of South America and increased its capacity by 63%, now allowing it to handle up to 300 vehicles per year.
“It was an investment that allows Rio de Janeiro to have one of the most modern ports in the country and that contributes to laying more solid foundations for Brazil's growth,” he said.
The president said that, in order to face the “temporary difficulties” that affect the Brazilian economy, the government is not only promoting a fiscal adjustment, but also intends to attract private sector investments in infrastructure and logistics.
“I want Brazil to recover its pace of growth. This is my obsession,” she specified.
Source: Exam
