Logistics and transport
the works that move the harvest, bring prices down and create jobs
Proposes investing R$ 900 billion over four years in highways, waterways, ports, airports and railways, relying on private capital, PPPs, concessions and a new infrastructure financing fund.
What the program says
Brazil loses a fortune on the way between those who produce and those who consume. Our infrastructure strategy relies on private initiative: the State guarantees legal certainty, stable and predictable tariff rules and respect for the logic of private economic decisions, without interventions that distort market incentives, and it is on this basis that private investment takes on construction and operation. We will modernize regulatory frameworks and adopt a new financing model for all infrastructure, with a fund backed by the securitization of federal assets and real estate, intensive use of PPPs (public-private partnerships) and concessions, and BNDES (the national development bank) financing exclusively for works on Brazilian territory. With fiscal consolidation and the fall in the interest rate, currently at its highest level in 19 years, investment will reach a new level. We will invest R$ 900 billion over four years in highways, waterways, ports, airports and railways. We will create the Smart Logistics Corridors for national integration, focused on reducing the cost of logistics, currently 15.5% of GDP, far above the 8.8% of the United States, developing the outflow corridors from the Center-West to the ports. In rail transport, we will unblock the Ferrogrão railway; adopt the freight train that will link Mato Grosso, western Paraná and Santa Catarina; implement the “Trem do Nordeste” (“Northeast Train”), a passenger network linking the region’s capitals, to bring cities closer, boost tourism and integrate the Northeast; and complete the Transnordestina and expand its scope so that Paraíba and Rio Grande do Norte are included. We will work to unblock, always with environmental responsibility, the river infrastructure projects that move the country’s output, such as the Tapajós Waterway, with planning and prior dialogue with local communities, complying with the law and always taking into account the greater interest of society. [p. 50, 51]
In plain language
- The program proposes that private initiative build and operate infrastructure. The State would be responsible for guaranteeing legal certainty and stable, predictable tariff rules, without interventions that distort market incentives.
- It provides for modernizing regulatory frameworks and adopting a new financing model: a fund backed by the securitization of federal assets and real estate, intensive use of PPPs and concessions, and BNDES financing only for works in Brazil.
- It proposes investing R$ 900 billion over four years in highways, waterways, ports, airports and railways, and creating the Smart Logistics Corridors, linking the Center-West to the ports. The text cites the cost of logistics at 15.5% of GDP, against 8.8% in the United States.
- On railways, it cites unblocking the Ferrogrão, a freight train between Mato Grosso, western Paraná and Santa Catarina, the Trem do Nordeste, for passengers between the region’s capitals, and completing the Transnordestina, extending it to Paraíba and Rio Grande do Norte.
- On rivers, it provides for unblocking projects such as the Tapajós Waterway, with environmental responsibility, planning and prior dialogue with local communities.
What is not in the program
- It does not detail how the R$ 900 billion would be divided among sectors, works or funding sources.
- It does not give the size of the fund backed by federal assets and real estate or which assets would be securitized.
- It presents no completion deadlines for the Ferrogrão, the Trem do Nordeste, the Transnordestina or the Tapajós Waterway.
- It does not define which regulatory frameworks would be modernized or which routes would form the Smart Logistics Corridors.
- It does not set a numerical target for reducing logistics costs.