BRAZIL: GOVERNMENT PUSHES UNSUSTAINABLE GROWTH.
[The following article by Jose Pedro S. Martins is reprinted with the permission of Noticias Aliadas in Lima, Peru. It appeared in the Feb. 22, 2005, edition of Latinamerica Press.]
A new initiative launched in Brazil in January that puts infrastructure projects on the fast track has been applauded by some economic sectors. But these rushed plans backed by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva have worried environmentalists who fear large public-works projects are not factoring in limited natural resources, particularly the Amazon rain forest.
Falling behind
During his first term, which began in 2003, Lula launched the Zero Hunger (Fome Cero) Program, in an attempt to position his administration on social initiatives (see NotiSur, 2003-02-21, 2003-04-11, 2004-01-16 and 2004-02-06). The program failed to bring the desired results, but Lula's Family Purse (Bolsa Familia) program, a welfare initiative, helped win him a second term last year (see NotiSur, 2006-10-06 and 2006-11-03).
The Growth Acceleration Program, however, takes a different road. The program will cost US$242 billion over the next four years and will employ state companies, such as the national oil company Petrobras, and use private capital, which will each cover 43% of the total. The remainder will come from federal government funds.
Environmentalists sound alarm about fast economic expansion
The initiative will focus on energy generation, basic sanitation, and road construction throughout Brazil, whose economy grew an average of just 2.8% last year, according to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), far from the regional average of 5.3%.
In an effort to spur growth, the government also intends to reduce interest rates and control public deficit. The government has said that it will "unblock" the economy, a seemingly vague expression that has alarmed environmentalists.
Lula's administration is aiming to lift obstacles to granting construction licenses for environmentally harmful works projects, such as the construction and operation of hydroelectric and thermoelectric plans. The president has said economic growth will be a centerpiece of his second government.
In a Dec. 21 speech during the inauguration of a biodiesel-fuel plant in the southeastern state of Mato Grosso, Lula unveiled his hefty agenda and said he will lift the "hurdles" he finds among the environmentalists, the attorney general's office, Afro-Brazilians, indigenous Brazilians, and...
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