“Novo PAC” will have more than a thousand projects and a requirement of national funds in works

The investment plan of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) for infrastructure works, has been nicknamed “novo PAC” by allies, must encompass more than a thousand projects and adopt national budget policies as a requirement.

A selection of two companies is in the final challenge and the government is working with the prospect of launching the program still in June, second or special secretary of Articulation and Monitoring of the Civil House, Maurício Muniz.

In interview with CNN, Muniz said that the format of the “new PAC” began with the delivery of priority projects for each one of two 27 governors, at the end of January. All year, they made 499 proposals.

In the last few weeks, there has been a “fine tuning” between the demands of the two states and the priorities defined by the federal government. The Minister of the Civil House, Rui Costa, and his technical team will meet with 15 governors to pursue a common agenda.

Cost has a paper-key in the process. He will preside over the managing council of the programmed future, also formed by the ministers Fernando Haddad (Fazenda), Simone Tebet (Planejamento) and Esther Dweck (Management and Innovation).

This council will be responsible for approving measures, monitoring results and redirecting priorities. There will still be an executive group, taking care of day-to-day decisions, to be coordinated by Muniz na Casa Civil.

The secretary avoids comparisons between Rui Costa and former president Dilma Rousseff, who held the same position and was called “mãe do PAC”. “O father do [novo] PAC is President Lula”, affirmed Muniz.

The Palácio do Planalto has received some suggestions of names for the investment plan. In March, during a meeting with his infrastructure ministers, Lula received “criativity” from the Secretary of Social Communication (Secom) to beat him.

What is certain is the division of the program in seven eixos:

• Transport
• Transition and energy security
• Urban infrastructure
• Social infrastructure
• Digital inclusion and connectivity
• Water for everybody
• Defense

Muniz affirms that one of the responsibilities of the new infrastructure investment plan will be to collaborate with the “neoindustrialization” policy of the country.

Therefore, the government’s intention is to reinstate the requirement of the national budget in projects framed not on a map. In a certain way, it is about a retake of something that had never been in the first versions of the PAC — when there were minimum percentages to be met for the supply of “made in Brazil” items such as rolling stock (locomotives and railway wagons), machinery, engineering and architecture services.

According to the Secretary of the Civil House, now he is studying the requirements of the national budget in areas such as health, defense, energy (photovoltaic panels and wind components), infrastructure (rolling stock and machinery).

The launch date of the “new PAC” is not yet defined and depends on the approval of the new fiscal framework by Congress, which will make clear the space of government for investments in the coming years.

Muniz highlights, however, that the resources of the General Assembly of the Union (OGU) will be just one of the sources for the projects. The plan will include several concessions and public-private partnerships (PPPs).

Among the candidates to win the highlight of the new investment plan – without inclusion confirmed by Muniz – projects such as:

• Sections 2 and 3 of the West-Leste Integration Railway (Fiol)
• Ferrovia de Integração do Centro-Oeste (Fico)
• Trans-Northeast Railway
• Duplication of BR-101 and BR-116, especially in the Northeast
• Duplication of BR-364 (Acre-Rondônia)
• Recovery of the BR-174 (Manaus-Boa Vista)
• Rota Bioceânica (Road integration of Mato Grosso do Sul with non-Pacific ports)
• Santos-Guarujá Tunnel (SP)
• Gas pipeline Rota 4B (RJ)
• Ramal do Apodi (water security work for Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba and Ceará)
• Recovery and dredging of the Lagoa Mirim (RS) waterway