Sao Paulo unveils ambitious plan to lure foreign investment
BRAZIL: Sao Paulo State Governor Geraldo Alckmin on Monday outlined
an ambitious plan to attract foreign investment with the aim of creating
1.5 million new jobs by 2014.
Titled "Sao Paulo in the World," the blueprint, unveiled in the
presence of Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota, aims to promote
the state's sustainable development, develop international partnerships
and raise thecity's international profile.
Sao Paulo is Latin America's financial, economic and industrial
engine and ranks among the world's top 20 economies.
Officials are banking on state GDP growth of around 4.5 percent over
the 2012-2015 period.
"The adoption of this plan means that all 26 state secretariats will
go operate with an arm abroad," the governor said. "Each Sao Paulo
conquest is a Brazilian conquest." Patriota meanwhile stressed that "the
state of Sao Paulo is an integral and inseparable part of Brazil's
internal relations, part of a national development program." The plan
sets international targets in the economic, social, sport, tourism,
environment, justice, transport, and infrastructure areas among others.
In the educational field, the goal is to promote the teaching of
foreign languages, including English, Spanish, French, German, Italian,
Japanese and Mandarin Chinese though the expansion of networks of
Language Studies Centers reaching 100,000 students by 2014.
The state is also keen to foster cooperation and exchange programs in
the technical, technological, cultural and commercial fields with
foreign actors, including sovereign states, subnational entities and
international organizations.
This cosmopolitan state is home to 41 million people, equivalent to
the population of Argentina, and covers an area of 248,000 square
kilometers (95,753 square miles), the size of Ecuador or the
Philippines. AFP
|