The federal government launched this Friday (11) the new edition of the Growth Acceleration Program (PAC), a brand of PT administrations. The new PAC foresees R$ 1.7 trillion in public, private and state investments in four years. It will have nine axes: Sustainable and Resilient Cities: R$ 610 billion; Energy Transition and Security: BRL 540 billion; Efficient and Sustainable Transport: BRL 349 billion; Defense: BRL 53 billion; Education: BRL 45 billion; Health: BRL 31 billion; Water for All: R$30 billion; Digital Inclusion and Connectivity: BRL 28 billion; Social and Inclusive Infrastructure: BRL 2 billion.
According to the Minister of the Civil House, Rui Costa (PT), the PAC works should generate four million jobs.
Also according to Costa, the division of PAC investments will take place in the following sense: General Budget of the Union (OGU): R$ 371 billion; state-owned companies: BRL 343 billion; financing: BRL 362 billion; private sector: BRL 612 billion.
The minister pointed out that the new PAC will prioritize private investments. “For all the projects that remain in operation through a concession or PPP (public-private partnership), this will be the option. It is so that public resources remain for other areas”, he said.
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Costa also stated, at the PAC relaunch ceremony at the Theatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro, that the new edition of the program will pay special attention to works for energy and sustainable transition and that increase the country’s productive capacity.
The minister, who will be the coordinator of the PAC, also explained that stopped works will be included in the program so that the country does not become “a cemetery of works”. He also said that projects identified as priorities by governors will also be part of the new PAC.
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“We want to reduce social inequalities, regional inequalities, reduce the cost of production in the country and help train the country’s new generation”, summarized Costa.
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The government will also launch R$136 billion in public notices for the selection of other priority projects for states and municipalities, in addition to those already announced. The idea is to encourage work in the following areas:
. Cities: urbanization of slums, water supply, sanitary sewage, solid waste, mobility and prevention of natural disasters;
. Health: UBSs, polyclinics and maternity hospitals;
. Education: kindergartens, schools and school buses;
. Culture: Culture CEUs and historical heritage projects;
. Sport: community sports spaces;
Historic
The first version of the PAC was announced by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) in January 2007, with the aim of overcoming the country’s infrastructure bottlenecks. First, the program provided for investments of R$ 503.9 billion in infrastructure actions in the areas of transport, energy, sanitation, housing and water resources, between 2007 and 2010.
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A second stage of the program, PAC 2, was announced in 2011 by then-president Dilma Rousseff, with planned investments of R$708 billion in social and urban infrastructure actions.
One of the main challenges of the new PAC will be to avoid the same mistakes as in previous editions, which resulted in discontinuity and stoppage of works. The Federal Audit Court (TCU) points out that, at the end of 2022, the country had more than 8,600 paralyzed works, which represents about 38.5% of the contracts paid with Union resources. According to the TCU, poor planning of projects is the main factor behind the stoppage.
*With information from Agência Brasil
Editing: Geisa Marques
