State of Sao Paulo insists in privatization of the Port of Santos
Tuesday, December 27th 2022 - 09:45 UTC
Governor-elect of São Paulo state, Tarcísio de Freitas, is hoping to have a direct conversation with president-elect Lula da Silva and the future Minister of Ports, Márcio França, to try to convince the new federal administration to move forward with the auction of the Port of Santos, the largest and busiest in Latin America.
Shortly after being appointed minister by Lula, Márcio França stated that the port of Santos would no longer be granted to the private sector. He said that the decision had already been made and that the new government would keep the current structure of the port authority.
The Santos privatization plan was set to conclude in the coming months and become the second-largest concession agreement granted by the Bolsonaro administration after Eletrobras. The Federal Court of Auditors has analyzed the proposal.
This will likely be one of the first commitments Tarcísio intends to fulfill at the beginning of his term, to try to move forward with the process of privatizing the port, the entry and exit route for 29% of all commercial transactions in Brazil.
“The auction will not be held. The port authority will continue to be run by the government. We will grant concessions for areas within the port, such as private terminals. We respect what has already been done. Now, some situations have not been ratified and will be scrutinized by the new government’s technical experts,” the future minister stated. “We don’t have problems with having private concessions, but we need some controls. We need to go over this again. We requested that everything be postponed so the president could express his thoughts.”
Within the São Paulo government, the hope is to reverse França’s position with dialogue. According to interlocutors, Tarcísio de Freitas, who was once Minister of Infrastructure, believes that, by going deeper into the matter, the Workers Party (PT) government will rest convinced that, as with roads and airports, the privatization of the Port of Santos management is the way to secure the investments needed for the expansion of a structure that has currently hit its limits.
More:
https://en.mercopress.com/2022/12/27/state-of-sao-paulo-insists-in-privatization-of-the-port-of-santos
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Tarcísio de Freitas, Jair Bolsonaro
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