03/18/2015 14h35

President of Investe SP participates in debate about the business environment in the construction industry

Panel is part of the schedule of ConstruBusiness, a congress promoted by Fiesp that brings together public and private institutions to discuss public policies for the sector

Investe São Paulo
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    During the panel, Juan Quirós stressed the importance of state support to overcome challenges such as delays in construction works and bureaucracy

  • Download Vanessa Portes/ISP

    Paulo Skaf, President of Fiesp, and Gilberto Kassab, State Minister of Cities opened the congress

  • Download Vanessa Portes/ISP

    Skaf highlighted the importance of partnerships between industry and government and proposed connections with the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU) and the Ministry of Cities

  • Download Vanessa Portes/ISP

    The event is held every year by Fiesp

On March 9, the president of Investe São Paulo, Juan Quirós, participated in the 11th edition of ConstruBusiness – Brazilian Construction Congress. The event, promoted by the Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo (FIESP), aims to establish a dialogue between the private sector and the government to discuss public policies for the construction supply chain.

Paulo Skaf, President of Fiesp, and Gilberto Kassab, State Minister of Cities, opened the congress. During his presentation, Skaf highlighted the importance of partnerships between industry and government and proposed connections with the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU) and the Ministry of Cities. “We need to work on an agenda of proposals for the development of Brazil. We are not looking at the interests of the companies. We are seeking the country’s interest,” he said.

Quirós was one of the participants of the panel “Institutional Development and Business Environment”, which included the participation of minister Aroldo Cedraz, president of TCU, Marcos Otávio Prates, director of the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade (MDIC) and Floriano de Azevedo Marques Neto, president of the Ibero-American Association of Regulatory Studies (Asier). The debate, which was moderated by Ricardo Boechat, journalist of Rede Bandeirantes, addressed the challenges that the construction industry has been facing over the past few years, such as delays in the construction works, lack of governance and transparency, bureaucracy and legal uncertainty.

According to the president of Investe SP, the state should strive to reduce expenses and join efforts with the private sector to face these challenges. “Companies need to be able to continue working to create jobs and income and thereby help to overcome the economic crisis in the construction industry and in the whole country,” he said.

The president of TCU stressed the need for cutting red tape. “In order to reduce the problems involving delays in the construction works, we must advance in terms of transparency, improving working methods and the computerization of processes,” he said.

The director of MDIC discussed the importance of the predictability of projects and the fight against improvisation. “We need to improve the governance of public and private institutions and invest more in the project of the works, dedicating even more time in this phase,” he said.

Quirós also advocated more attention to the construction project. “We have the corporate culture of investing little in the project and more in the implementation. The essence should be the project. At Investe SP, for example, by defining it, we look for the city that has the vocation to welcome the venture. This facilitates the implementation and reduces the barriers to its completion,” he said.

For the president of Asier, the problem is not bureaucracy itself. “What is critical is the view that bureaucracy should be used as an end and not a means. We notice this when accidents and problems occur and the answer is almost always the creation of more regulation. That is not the solution. We need a more organized bureaucracy that provides a predictability to the action of the state,” he explained.

Construbusiness is held every year.