Brazil to launch Program to Accelerate Growth 2

Brazil will launch the second phase of the Program to Accelerate Growth (PAC) in March, said Brazilian Minister of Institutional Relations Alexandre Padilha on Monday.

The first phase of this ambitious plan launched in January 2007 included various infrastructure investments. PAC 2 aim to ensure the plan’s continuity from 2011 on.

Padilha said President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has called this year’s first ministerial meeting next Thursday to discuss the new measures.

For the second phase of PAC, Lula wanted priority to be given to improving sanitation and solid waste treatment in metropolitan areas.

Other objectives include the integration of budgets for science and technology with Internet globalization and democratization.

According to official estimates, investments of the first four years of PAC will reach about 360,000 million U.S. dollars by the end of this year.

PAC 2 will be implemented by a new government that emerges from general elections in October this year.

Padilha said that Lula wanted to avoid his team being dissolved as a result of the October elections, as it could harm the progress of economic growth and social policies.

“The fact that Brazil has gone through the international crisis shows no reason to demobilize the team operating in this area,” he said.