Brazil announces massive concessions package to improve infrastructure

The Brazilian government announced on Tuesday a massive plan of concessions of railroads, highways, airports and ports, in a move to improve the country's infrastructure.

The new phase of the so-called Logistics Investments Plan (PIL) foresees investments of 198.4 billion reals (64 billion U.S. dollars), with 69.2 billion reals (22.32 billion dollars) expected to be made before 2018, the last year of President Dilma Rousseff's current term.

"With better infrastructure, we can better attend to the agribusiness sector... More efficient transport system will also benefit the industrial sector, reduce import and export costs," said Planning and Budget Minister Nelson Barbosa.

There will be no shortage of resources for the plan, and the various projects will be financed by the Brazilian Development Bank, said Finance Minister Joaquim Levy.

The government will help reduce the risks of the projects and continue the efforts to stabilize the national economy, Levy said, adding that the fiscal adjustments carried out over the past few months prepared the ground for the concessions plan.

"What we did in the first months of the year was essential to what we did today. Only with a firm fiscal situation can we attract investors," he said. Enditem