Rio de Janeiro – The inflow of new investors in the exploration of oil in Campos Basin, the Petrobras investment, the construction of the Angra 3 nuclear power plant and of Açu Port, expanded to 126.3 billion reals (US$ 69.5 billion) the investment scheduled in the state of Rio de Janeiro over the next three years.
The figure is included in the Rio Decision document, which refers to the period from 2010 to 2012, disclosed yesterday (5th) by the Federation of Industries of the State of Rio de Janeiro (Firjan). In the prior edition of the study, the investment forecasted in the previous edition of the study, for the 2008/2010 period, totalled 107 billion reals (US$ 59 billion).
Petrobras alone should be responsible for the 77.1 billion reals (US$ 42.4 billion) over the next three years. Firjan president Eduardo Eugenio Gouvêa Vieira pointed out, however, that even excluding the energy sector state-owned company, investment should total 50 billion reals (US$ 27.5 billion) in the period.
Of the total, 28.6 billion reals (US$ 15.7 billion) should be invested in the infrastructure area, with special attention to energy (8.6 billion) and logistics (US$ 5.8 billion). For the transformation industry the total forecasted is US$ 11.2 billion. The Rio de Janeiro Petrochemical Complex (Comperj), which is being built in the city of Itaboraí, is leading the ranking of main investment announced, reaching a total of US$ 8 billion.
The Infrastructure and New Investment director at Firjan, Cristiano Prado, stated that "there is a process of interiorisation of investment in progress", of which 79.4 billion should benefit several regions in the state. The study identified four axes to be the engines of the economy of Rio de Janeiro in coming years.
The first is the south axis, which involves Angra 3 mill, in the city of Angra dos Reis. In the Sepetiba axis, the highlights are investment in the port and ironworks area, as well as the metropolitan arc. In the eastern axis, the priority is the construction of Comperj which forecasts, starting in 2015, the generation of 168,000 direct and indirect jobs and also income. In the North axis, Açu Port and pre-salt oil are the great highlights.
The president at Firjan stated that the opportunities do not end with mapped investment, as the state of Rio de Janeiro presents investment opportunities in the pre-salt layer, in the high-speed train to connect Rio de Janeiro to São Paulo and in the construction of the ports of Sepetiba and Petrobras, Gerdau and the National Ironworks Company, among other projects.
He added that Rio de Janeiro currently answers to 13% of the Brazilian Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In the long run, he believes that the state may grow to 20% of GDP.
*Translated by Mark Ament
