Brazil: Investment opportunities in the State of Paranà
The authorities of Paranà recently organized an event in Brasilia to present investment opportunities in the State of southern Brazil, during which Governor Ratinho reiterated Paranà’s willingness to open up to national and international investors.
Agriculture is the leading sector, but also the automotive industry has a strong presence; with regard to state-of-the-art infrastructure, the governor spoke of the port of Paranaguà (second port in Brazil for freight traffic) and of the ambitious Bi-Oceanic railway corridor, a railroad which which will connect the port of Paranaguà to the Chilean city of Antofagasta; this would allow the goods transiting through the Paranaguà port to have access to the Pacific Ocean and the Asian market.
Development Secretary Eduardo Bekin reiterated that this is a particularly good time for investments in all sectors, from car production to beer.
The other representatives of the State Government presented the main privatization projects. The president of Copel, an energy production, transmission and distribution company, announced that two important privatization projects have been planned: the first concerns Copel Telecom, a leading fiber optics company (35,000 km of optical fiber laid in 399 municipalities) . The second project concerns Compagas, a gas distribution company. Both projects are being examined by technical committees and will then need to be approved by the State legislative assembly.
In the infrastructure sector, the main concession projects involve the concession of 4,600 km of motorways by 2021, while port and airport concessions will be awarded by the end of 2019. As regards investments in tourism, four natural parks of Paranà will be assigned to private companies: Parque de Vila Velha, Parque de Guartelà, Parque do Cerrado and Parque do Monge.
Finally, the Paranà Development Agency presented the PMAI program, a municipal program for attracting investments, whose objectives are to guarantee investor safety and improve the technical management of businesses in the municipalities of the State.
