Rio de Janeiro’s City Hall confirms US$2.8 billion investment plan by 2024

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Municipal Secretary of Finance and Planning of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Pedro Paulo Carvalho, confirmed on Thursday (15) an investment plan for the capital of Rio de Janeiro of R$14 billion (US$2.8), running through 2024. The information was published by “O Globo” newspaper.

In an interview to the newspaper “Bom Dia Rio”, of TV Globo, the secretary said that the city government’s idea is to meet 93 goals in the investment plan, focusing on Education and Health, and other areas.

The secretary also said that the plan is feasible due to the balance of the city’s accounts: without citing specific figures, he commented that, in the city’s 2021 budget, there was a surplus in the city’s accounts in the first six months.

The city administration, today, is making up the 13th-month salary of 2020, unpaid by the prior administration, for government employees earning between R$4,000.01 and R$4,700.

When asked which sector would be a priority in the investment plan, he first mentioned education. Carvalho advised that, in the previous administration of Eduardo Paes (PSD), in 2016 the city had 35% of the public children network with seven and a half hours of classes, not four and a half hours, in 1,500 schools of the municipal system.

The idea in the plan, according to the secretary, is to provide 640,000 children with a “full day” at school.

Another priority point mentioned was health. The secretary informed that the city hall intends to resume and strengthen primary care in health units and provide Family Health Program attendance in 100% of the poorest areas of the city, which are huge by any standards.

Carvalho mentioned other goals of the plan. In the public security area, he advised the intention of strengthening the Public Ministry to fight militia activities in the city. In the economic area, he said that City Hall intends, in a strategic way, to boost sectors that can increase employment in Rio.

Also, talking about the plan in housing, the secretary informed that the city hall has the goal of providing housing units and relocate families in risk areas where rains can offer the risk of landslides. He also said that the administration would continue to combat irregular housing expansion in the city, as it has done since the beginning of Paes’ administration this year.

The secretary, however, was questioned about current problems in the city, in the areas of suppliers and transportation. He advised that the city hall, at the moment, maintains a payment plan with 2,800 suppliers that were not paid in the previous administration, by creating an compensating package for these debts.

In addition, he informed that in the case of BRT, a bus rapid transit system set up by Paes in his previous administration, but which has operational difficulties today, the city government has promoted intervention. The idea is to invest almost R$100 million in the project to increase the number of buses in the system. A project called Safe BRT is also planned, with municipal guards protecting the system’s physical structures.