RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Infrastructure Minister Tarcisio de Freitas said on May 14 that concessions of public assets to private enterprise will yield the country approximately R$260 (US$49) billion in infrastructure investments by the end of 2022.
According to Freitas, the amount is approximately 40 times the ministry’s budget.
“We will hold some major auctions in 2021 and we will hold important auctions in 2022, and R$260 billion means 40 times the Ministry of Infrastructure’s available budget. So there is no way to compare. We have no other way to leverage the infrastructure,” he said in an online event organized by the Brazilian Association of Infrastructure and Basic Industries (ABDIB).
According to the minister, the economic impacts of this process will not be immediate, but will turn the country into “a large building site” within a few years. “The economic repercussion takes a little while to be seen, because we are talking about a concession contract, which has an initial service phase, it’s the time to prepare the project, secure the license, and above all secure funding in the market,” he said.
“But we can project that in 2024, 2025 and 2026, Brazil will become a large building site,” he reiterated.
Among the projects Minister Tarcísio de Freitas said should occur until then, he highlighted the concessions of the Port of Santos, Santos Dumont Airport in Rio de Janeiro, and Congonhas Airport in São Paulo.