Concessions will not stop, but they will change, says former PT minister

Minister of Planning in the PT era, Miriam Belchior, who participated in the formulation of the government plan for the Lula-Alckmin ticket, says that concessions in the area of ​​infrastructure will not follow the same logic as the current administration if former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva Silva (PT) wins the October election.

“We are going to continue making concessions in the areas of highways, railways, airports, but combining this with public works. It is not the logic that only private investment will solve our problems,” he said.

In an interview with SheetBelchior also criticized public bids in the sanitation area, which, according to her, have been based on private interest.

Belchior was responsible for the PAC (Growth Acceleration Program) in the government of former President Dilma Rousseff (PT).

She avoids giving details about the new structure that an eventual government would have, but criticizes the merger of the Ministry of Finance and Planning, which resulted in the Ministry of Economy: “it became mastodontic”.

We are in a scenario of low growth and high inflation. What is the solution to solve it? We have a set of measures for this, but as they are of an economic nature, I prefer not to deal with all of them. What I can say is about the importance of an investment plan, especially in infrastructure, which must be done precisely to leverage the economic recovery and generate quality jobs. It is one of the central actions foreseen in our government program. But to address all aspects of low growth, there is a larger set of measures.

Is there no investment plan today? since the blow [impeachment] that removed President Dilma Rousseff [em 2016], what has prevailed, especially now, was a view that the market solves all problems, it does not need state action. We have a different view. It is important to combine public and private investments. There are things that the private sector can do, but others are more difficult to enter. We believe more in this mix.

How would it be? When Lula talks about a big investment plan, he is mainly talking about infrastructure. [Se eleito] In January, he calls governors and mayors to discuss a proposal for an investment plan, which certainly has the logic that we adopted in the PAC and which comprises public investment and private investment. We will continue to make concessions in the areas of highways, railways, airports, but combining this with public works. It is not the logic that only private investment will solve our problems.

What would be granted and what would be public investment? The concession won’t stop, but it won’t stay the same either. There are things that don’t stand to be granted. There are regions of the country that do not have enough income for toll fees, for example. It’s no use making a concession that you know will not work out ahead. From our point of view, many concessions in the area of ​​sanitation are being made without looking at the national interest, only the private one. We know that the road network needs investment in maintenance. with the ceiling [de gastos] the government has spent very little on road maintenance. Looking at the national interest is not a priority for the current government.

In addition to housing subsidies for the poorest population, what are you thinking of changing in the housing area? Minha Casa, Minha Vida was launched in 2009 and until 2016 we made a series of improvements to the program. We improved the size of the unit, as well as thermal and acoustic comfort. Now we have other improvements and one of the most important is to advance in taking advantage of buildings that already exist in the most central areas of cities to make housing production. We know it’s more expensive, but all the infrastructure is already in place, there’s already a school, there’s health, there’s sports.

How to reuse buildings in urban areas? It depends. There is a survey that there are about 5 million buildings and idle land in more central areas, where there is complete infrastructure. Not all are apartments, because they are not public areas, for example. Taking an abandoned building that has no commercial use and renovating the building and transforming it into housing units is much smarter, even from a security point of view. But this requires a few things as it is a private property and needs to be acquired. We’re still putting this together, but we think it’s a challenge worth taking on.

In an eventual Lula government, would the Ministry of Economy be split into three folders: Industry, Planning and Finance? This is not up for debate. [O Ministério da Economia] it got a bit mastodontic, and that’s a discussion for the transitional government. But the organizational structure for me has to reflect what you want to do. It is having bodies that are important to guarantee policies that you want to implement. In my opinion, the issue of racism has to gain enormous relevance. The size of the difference in the rights of the black and non-black population is very large. I think maybe it’s important to have a structure for that.

X-ray

Miriam Belchior, 64

She was Minister of Planning and Budget in the Dilma government, holds a degree in food engineering from Unicamp and a master’s degree in Public Administration and Government from FGV. She participates in the elaboration of the government plan of the pre-candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT).