SP wants to create agency to attract investors
Valor Econômico - 06/13/2008
The government of São Paulo wants to implement a network of alcohol pipelines to serve the main ethanol production centers of the State. The project, currently under development within the sphere of the Managing Committee of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), should be concluded at the end of the year, according to Vice-Governor Alberto Goldman, who prefers not to talk about dimensions and values at this moment. The study will gather several projects of the sector and give it a broader extent. It is part of the strategy of the State to become stronger in the production of ethanol. Together with the work of the public administration, the government wants to get the private companies to join it and add efforts and resources. "We want to show investors the great possibility we have to produce ethanol and the capacity of the global market to absorb it", said Goldman. The means to promote the State this way, according to the Vice-Governor, is being voted at the House of Representatives of the State, and it is called "Investe São Paulo". It is an agency to encourage investments whose function will be to make the interlocution between the government and the private initiative. At one side the agency becomes aware of the market demand, and at the other, it conducts the government to promote new projects. The government of São Paulo believes that the current potential of the State is little dimensioned to investors, mainly abroad, and, therefore, it intends to have an instrument that allows both to follow the market movements and to promote the opportunities of investments that exist in the State. Another project of the State to encourage investments, the Agency of Promotion of the State of São Paulo (Afesp) - the São Paulo version of the National Bank of Economic and Social Development (BNDES) - is currently under analysis at the Central Bank. The State Government expects to receive an answer until the end of July. Created through a decree in September last year, the agency will start to operate with an initial authorized capital of R$ 1 billion (US$ 613.5 million) and it will focus small- and mid-sized companies. Together with Nossa Caixa, the institution will have resources from State funds, from the State budget, from development agencies and from the BNDES.