06/10/2014 18h27

AGEM presents Metropolitan Plan for the Strategic Development of Santos and Region

Release includes presentation of Investe SP on the importance of the approximation of municipalities to the agency

Investe São Paulo

The Metropolitan Agency of Santos and Region (AGEM) presented on Wednesday, May 28, the Metropolitan Plan for the Strategic Development of Santos and Region (PMDE-BS) that will guide the orderly growth of Santos in the areas of mobility and access, housing, sanitation and economic development.

 The event also included a presentation about Investe São Paulo and the work conducted by the agency to instruct municipalities to attract new businesses and support investors.  The presentation was made by the General Manager of Investments, Wilson Soares.

“Providing a good support to investors should also be part of the strategy of any municipality.And it can be done with very simple tools, such as a website in English, a skilled team and, above all, a close relationship with us,” said Soares.

He also spoke about the actions of the Competitiveness Council of São Paulo, created to unite the state government and institutions representing the private sector seeking an improvement in the state economy.

The PMDE consolidates municipal, state and federal policies, including 32 planning orientations, 23 structuring projects, and 77 public and private long-term development programs for Bertioga, Cubatão, Guarujá, Itanhaém, Mongaguá, Peruíbe, Praia Grande, Santos and São Vicente.

The document was created based on 142 meetings held with public and private managers, 105 documents, including plans, studies and projects, regional administration experiences in Brazil and abroad, in addition to projections for population growth and investments by 2030.

About the plan

The PMDE-BS is an innovative plan in terms of regional governance in Brazil, and consolidates the history of São Paulo State Government in this type of planning for a particular territory, formalized in 1996 with the organization of Condesb and the creation of Agem.

 It is the first integrated strategic plan of a metropolitan region in the country, containing targets and performance indicators for the areas chosen in this first stage of the plan:urban mobility, environmental sanitation, housing and economic development.

Innovative techniques for the public administration shall also be submitted with the plan, for example, a monitoring system through the Metropolitan Agency and the Development Council of Santos and Region for monitoring the regional targets adopted in the strategic plan.

The main goal of this plan is to expand the articulation of public actions – at the municipal, state and federal levels, in addition to the private initiative – maximizing results regarding deadlines and the use of public or private resources, accelerating the orderly growth of Santos and Region.As a result, the nine municipalities of the Region, known locally as Baixada Santista (lit. the Lowlands of Santos), will be able to allocate funds in medium and short term plans with long-term goals and strategic planning up to 2030.

Added to this is the development of georeferenced maps, population, economic and land use projections that will guide municipal, state and federal projects, harmonizing the initiatives among the federal entities.

In addition to accelerating the urban development of the region, focusing on issues involving adequate housing, transportation and the circulation of its population and the efficient disposal of its waste, PMDE-BS is intended to foster the generation of jobs and income in Santos and Region by strengthening the existing economic activities and attracting new investments.

One of the strategies is the stimulation of vocations and potentials of each one of the nine municipalities based on already established activities such as port logistics, tourism and its regional routes, real estate and construction for public works, nautical activities and the industrial center of Cubatão.

The document also includes incentives to new economic activities, such as technological innovation, exploration and support to the oil and gas sector, innovative industrial production associated with the integration of components avoiding parallel initiatives in its implementation and stimulating the collaboration in joint development actions.

Another guideline is the support to the implementation of large structuring projects that will act as levers of development and will generate an important multiplier effect on the economy.

The Plan highlights the projects of Santos-Guarujá Underwater Tunnel, Guarujá Civil Metropolitan Airport, the Freight Airport and Industrial Complex of Praia Grande, the concession of Itanhaém Airport, the logistics center for Itanhaém and Praia Grande, the Offshore Base of Petrobras, the Waste Treatment Center as example of structuring projects.

The Plan will include the economic sectors that have the greatest capacity for generating jobs and wealth in the short and medium term.

The PMDE-BS also describes the development strategies required to achieve its goals.These strategies cover guidelines for planning, structuring projects, government programs and specific actions that should be implemented in the course of the Plan.

All results presented in the Plan were discussed and validated with the managers involved in the different administrative areas of the region.The articulation of the several officers on the same goals solidifies the idea of metropolis in Santos – consolidating the insertion of Santos and Region in the Macrometropolis of São Paulo.

Making this Plan possible allowed an overview of the successful initiatives.In São Paulo, a detailed analysis was conducted, with the possibility to implement tax incentive laws from urban communities such as Barueri, Sorocaba, São José dos Campos and Piracicaba.

Examples of metropolitan administration abroad were also studied, in places with population and geographical conditions similar to those in Santos and with a regional governance already established:Boston and Portland, in the United States; Perth and South East Queensland, in Australia; Vancouver, in Canada, and Barcelona, in Spain.