Brazil pledges over 2
bln U.S. dollars for
Rio's development
Brazilian President Luiz
Inacio Lula da Silva
pledged a total of 2.03
billion U.S. dollars
Monday to boost the
development of Rio de
Janeiro.
Brazil's Chief of Staff
Dilma Rousseff on Monday
announced the
investment, made under
the Program for the
Acceleration of Growth
(PAC), designed by the
federal government to
promote social and
economic development in
the country.
Among other projects,
the investments will
target the clean-up of
the Guanabara and
Sepetiba bays and the
Paraiba do Sul River, as
well as the urbanization
of favelas (slums) in
the northern and
southern areas of the
capital.
Rousseff said the
projects are "crucial"
for the improvement of
income distribution in
the country, as they are
aimed at extending the
infrastructure already
available to the
wealthiest regions of
the state to the most
impoverished ones.
Of the total investment
of 2.03 billion dollars,
which will benefit 2
million families, 1.7
billion will come from
the federal government,
she added.
The state government
will provide 212 million
dollars for the
projects, while the
government of the 15
municipalities involved
will be in charge of the
remaining 124.6 million
dollars.
Lula said on Monday that
his government is
committed to fighting
organized crime, which
uses communities like
Rio's favelas as
headquarters.
He stressed that the
only way to defeat crime
is to construct
infrastructure in the
poorest places in
Brazil.
Last week, 19 people
were killed in
confrontations between
police and drug dealers
in Rio's Complexo do
Alemao, one of the
favelas targeted by the
PAC. The program
earmarks a
1.4-billion-dollar
investment in improving
living conditions in
those communities.
"If the State does not
play its role, crime and
the traffic of drugs
will," said the
president. |
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