Assistência Técnica ao Projecto de Apoio ao Diálogos Sectoriais UE-Brasil EuropeAid/126232/C/SER/BR
To: Ministry of Planning Delegation of the EC
Short-term consultancy as technical expert to the International Symposium "Management of Regional Policies in Perspective"
JANDIR FERRERA DE LIMA
Management of Regional Policies in Perspective 1. Introduction This text analyses the ideas, proposals and cases presented and discussed during the International Symposium "Management of Regional Policies in Perspective", which happened during the II Regional Development Exhibition promoted by the Ministry for National Integration in Florian贸polis, Brazil, between March 10 and 13, 2010. The Symposium is part of the technical cooperation works between Brazil and the European Union to support and exchange ideas in the field of Regional Policy; specially on elaboration and implementation of the Brazilian Regional Development National Policy (RDNP). The actions of the Ministry for National Integration (MNI) are inspired by the actions of the European Commission/Regional Policy General Directorate RPGD, on some relevant and essential conceptual issues, such as: the territorial reference to sub-regions and definition of indicators for performance in the cutting area to classification and actuation on territories. The aim of the International Symposium "Management of Regional Policies in Perspective" was to strengthen the dialogue and cooperation between Brazil and the European Union on the exchange of experiences regarding the Brazilian Regional Development National Policy (RDNP) and the European Regional Development Policy. The Symposium conferences had as line of analysis the discussions of the Brazilian Regional Territorial Policy and the experience of the European Regional Policy. In this way, the symposium was divided into three parts: In the first part, the focus was related to the regional development as a inclusion vector and territorial broadening, the public policies as territorial base, its advantages and challenges.
In the second part,
the advantages and challenges of the public policies with territorial bases and regional policies beyond 2010 were discussed. In the third part, the theme was the role of infrastructure on regional development and local productive arrangements as concrete experiences of action on territory on distinct scales. The analysis presented on the text follows the thematics sequence which were shown on the symposium. Consequently, a short conclusion has been
reached with recommendations obtained from the perception of ideas, information, data and contents which was presented during the conference. 2. Regional
Development
as
Inclusion
Vector
and
"Territorial"
Broadening The economical crisis which has been afflicting is part of the cyclic character of capitalism, but also is part of a bigger transition in the production methods and lifestyle initiated centuries ago. Now, the transition is connected to the great technological advances, which partially improve life in the society, but on the other hand has economically segregated part of its population, mostly in the Third World. Parallel to the technological advances, the expansion of the markets, diversification of products the strengthening of world commerce and growing rate of the world economy, specially on the Developing Countries (Brazil, Russia, China and India), have given buying power to a significant part of population which was previously only relegated to surviving. Thus, the technological advance and its unfolding, which have strengthened the globalization of the economy, has brought the inclusion of people to a level of consumption pattern which was previously restricted only to developed countries, but on the other hand has excluded communities and workers. The excluded ones could not integrate to the market demands, the strengthening of international economic relations and changes in the contemporary lifestyle. The advance of the world economy clashes with cultural barriers and unbalanced lifestyle of the different communities, without considering the professional disqualification to productive activities which have increasingly focussed on the knowledge. Thus, the growing of wealth on global scale has also brought the growth of regional inequalities. Beyond the economic inequalities, the economic progress experienced during the last century has shown the necessity of a deep change in the opinion of energy matters, it has also shown the necessity of new forms of governmental intervention and the necessity of granting the planet biodiversity and cultural and economic diversity regarding local societies, in order to permit a sustainable development. This fact obliges to rethink the model of globalization and international economic relations to a model of resources optimization which is
more inclusive and less selective. This demands the strengthening of the goods commerce which aggregate on their production site and bring strength to local and regional economies. Regarding the change of opinion on energy matters, a number of option have opened up to the Developing Countries and other Third World countries, especially to Brazil, which has massive potential in its biomass to supply inputs and create a world market to renewable energies. Furthermore the expansion of the Global Market and insertion of new communities in the consumer society have also strengthened Brazil's strategic role as supplier of food and other international commodities. Table 01 illustrates the Brazilian situation on the world ranking of food production. Table 01: Brazil - Food Production World Ranking and Participation on the World Trade - 2006 Products
Brazil – World Ranking Production Export Sugar 1º 1º Coffee 1º 1º Orange Juice 1º 1º Alcohol 2º 1º Tobacco 2º 1º Soy Complex 2º 1º Bovine Meat 2º 1º Chicken Meat 2º 1º Corn 3º 3º Swine Meat 3º 3º Source: Brazilian National Confederation of Agriculture
Participation in World Trade 41% 28% 82% 27% 37% 27% 39% 06% 11%
Brazilian participation on food world trade, shown on table 01, has broadened
and
consolidated
due
to
the
agricultural
frontier
mobility,
incorporation of technologies and techniques in farming and cattle raising which are adequate to its tropical climate. However, the maintenance of the Brazilian productive potential on primary sector needs State Policies capable of strengthening agriculture and the exploration of its vegetable natural resources on various levels, to protect families' small production, mostly the one from traditional communities, by increasing it competitiveness, assuring the national cohesion, insertion of excluded regions into the national and world dynamism, and, more important, protection to the diversity and biodiversity of the territories
that constitute the nation. Therefore, in the context of global economical changes and valuing once again regions with intervention spaces, the National Policy for Regional Development (NPRD) has to be more than just a policy, and become a compromise from the Government with the national development. A State Policy transcends the present time and inserts itself as a pact with the future generations. At the moment when this compromise takes charge over the improvement to the social, economic and environmental indicators, the State Policy states its sustainable character with the preservation of the natural resources and regional diversities. If the NPRD has a short-term compromise with the economic and social improvement of less developed regions, it also has a prospective long-term character, as its actions should not generate perversive unbalances or prevent the advance of future generations, but granting the conditions to communities to take charge of their future, for its insertion in history and in the dynamic economy. Furthermore, in the Brazilian case, due to the country's territorial extension, its ethnic and cultural diversity, cruelty of the social exclusion and little valuing of regional potentials, NPRD also takes the responsibility of the well- being and empowering of regional identities. Hence, the alternatives for economic development projects that are proposed to communities should be innovative and reflect the regional development as an element of social inclusion on all levels. This way, Brazil can learn from the European Union experience on incorporation of new territories, as its development process during the last decades has incorporated territories on the boundaries of the national economic growth process Spatial specificities of the Brazilian national production can be noticed on Figure 01 from their regional typology. Figure 01: Brazilian Economy Regional Typology - 2005.
Recursos Naturais Agronegócio Baixa Intensidade Agroindústrias
/
Tecnológica
/
Média Intensidade Tecnológica alavancada pela mineração
/
Administração Pública / Serviços – base econômica frágil Área com tipologias
diversidade
de
Alta Intensidade Tecnológica em produções urbanas (Transformação – Serviços)
Source: Ministry of Transport - NPLT
According to the typology shown in Figure 01, Brazil South-East and South regions, which are wealthier inside the Brazilian context, are the most specialized in productive activities. This requires high-levels of technological intensity, compared to other Brazilian regional economies. The peripheral regions at the centre-south of Brazil still have their economies based significantly on the primary sector and transfers from the public sector. This profile divides the Brazilian territory into regions with high quantity of natural resources, but without expressive transformation, and, regions with high technological content and transformation that contain expanding consumer centres. When comparing the location of differentiated mesoregions with the profile of local economies, one can note that the major regions targeted on the NPRD are those of low technological intensity or highly depended from transfers from the public sector. The profile of these economies also reflects itself on the profile of the consumer market, which does not advance during the
strengthening of the internal market and requires high levels of investments on physical infrastructure and work force qualification. In order for a developing policy to be inclusive, it should not concentrate only on productive structures changes, but think and create permanent mechanisms to generate employment and income, allied to qualification of the human and social capital. The changes on productive structure demand investments on Research and Development (R&D), competitiveness of communities and environmental sustainability. Yet the social changes demand that the State, thought planning and social intervention be capable of: - Amplifying the process of turning social protection universal, assuring social well-being and empowering of human capital. - Amplifying the profile of the solidarity economy inside the market economy. The solidarity economy implies to send the profit and investments to issues decided collectively. This way, the regional policy managers should be capable of working for interests of the local communities, empowering the participative democracy. - Stimulating the "through base" or "from within" development. The regional policy should intervene over the regions, but is due to the local society to take charge of its destiny and to carry on the development process. The regional development policy should be a platform to the regional political forces to engage in dialogue and to set priorities and goals ahead of the policy itself. This implies empowering the role of the local society and its capacity to articulate, in order to present itself in an organized manner towards the national initiatives. This fact demands a development policy with a profile of builder of synergies and complements amongst various development projects on different levels, improving the distribution of wealth, maintenance and conservation of natural resources and empowering the convergence of regional economies with the national economy. The example of the possibility of turning this into reality comes from the European Union. The European Union Regional Development Policy shows that a more balanced distribution of wealth and the act of decreasing regional disparities on large continental spaces is a attainable goal. One of the elements which demonstrates such possibility is the difference on regional disparities' profile related to the Gross National Product (GNP), shown on Table 02. The GNP
represents the aggregated value of all goods and services generated from the mobilization of production factors which belongs to the country inhabitants, independently of the region where these factors are located. Table 02: Regional Disparities of Brazil and European Union - % participation of the Regions' Population and Gross National Product -2006 Regions % Population % GNP
Brazil European Union More wealthy More wealthy More wealthy Less wealthy 25 10 25 10 40.4 3.8 37 3.9
Source: European Commission. Notes: * Data US$ PPS.
Despite the fact that Brazil and the European Union have similar territorial extension, the European regional economy is much less concentrated in terms of regions' participation on Gross National Product than the Brazilian Economy. To make this happen the European Union strategy is based on concentration of resources on the less wealthy regions and concentration of efforts on competitiveness.
To concentrate efforts and define which regions should be
prioritised, managers of the European regional policy rely on harmonization of information and an efficient statistical system which allows comparisons without distortion. This helps on the regionalization of the continent and the transferring of resources based on a strategy of priorities which includes the strong and weak points of each region, and their multilevels of governance. This implies establishing the planning on all levels (national, regional, local) and an adaptation of actions in function of the regional specificities. The Brazilian and European Union Regional Development Policy specificities are demonstrated on Frame 01. Frame 01: Comparative of Brazilian and European Union Regional Development Policy. Specificities Period of Time Focus
Space of action
Brazil Short-term (02 phases) Dynamic of economy from regional specificities. Differentiated action on each region Stagnated or low dynamism
European Union Long and short-term (maturing) Territorial cohesion, empowering of regions, human capital Less wealthy regions,
Action Strategy
Competitiveness Strategy
Assessment Challenges
Assets
Joint challenges
regions Specialized policy, optimization of public resources in regional skills. Phase II will promote universalization, decentralization and federative cooperation. Construction of the social capital, formation of new governmental leaderships, diversified local economic bases and stimulus to local productive arrangements.
territoriality Endogenous potential, competitiveness, participative democracy on partnerships in different levels, empowering of the social capital. Research and development, quality of human capital, management and governmental leadership, stimulus to the local productive arrangements. Building of indicators and statistical database Future of the European integration and maintenance of the zones where the Euro is the currency, rural development and urban management.
Assessment structure to be solidified Construction of a prospective and pro-active agenda, elaboration of an assessment structure, low convergence and federal policies with social inclusion, consolidation as State policy, creation of a National Found. To launch the bases of regional Dialogue amongst the partners planning, empowering of poor or independently of their stagnated regions, formation of specificities and cultures, the group for border integration, programs for monitoring of empowering of regional regional intervention, economies, recreation of the empowering of the population macro-regional institutional base and regions and promote and creation of mechanisms and advance on territorial cohesion programs to support the and on continental identity. peripheral regions. Capacity to efficiently allocate resources, flexibility on accessing resources, capacity of monitoring and follow-up the public policies.
Despite the differences and similarities of the Brazilian and European Union regional policies, the efficiency of the European regional development policy is linked to conditions, such as: environmental priorities; conditions to invest;
companies
competitiveness
conditions
(without
hampering
the
commerce); equal opportunities and free competition amongst the regions. The objective of these conditions is to turn Europe into a more dynamic economy, more competitive, with less regional inequalities, integrated and with strategic focus. This implies making the local populations to take charge of the strategy and turn their regions more attractive to investments. The action of attracting investments is not only based on natural resources, but also on human and social capital, valuing and respecting the skills present on the territory. In other
words, the base of the public policy is the territory as a socially developed space. 3. Public Policies with Territorial Base: Advances and Challenges One of the great differentials between the actions of the European Union and the Brazilian National Policy for Regional Development is the prospective vision of the territory and the desired future for regions that is focussed on its actions. However, the priorities of actions of the regional policy of the European Union and Brazil are different due to the nature of their regional problems. While during the last years Europe has built a structure of well-being which values human and social capital, which has diminished the contingency of poverty, in Brazil the social problems are more severe and permeate into all State actions. Due to the lack of participative democracy and the macroeconomic unbalances experienced from 1964, the Brazilian social problems were so aggravated that on certain regions surviving is the most important action of the human capital, and stands before professional qualification.
Furthermore, the temporary
characteristic of political mandates and the lack of long-term policies make that the Brazilian results have to be obtained immediately, whereas regional development policies demand a longer timeline than the politics mandate. While Europe regional policy has a long-term strategic vision based on the citizens needs, NPRD has come up as an short-term action, which means, it is being designed yet. Whereas the European policy focusses on territorial cohesion, NPDR worries with economic dynamics. Hence, NPDR is focussed on prioritized areas which were defined on an initial diagnose that analysed economic and geographic variables. NPDR action happens over stagnated or low-dynamism regions, in which the level of economic growth was well below of a group of regions considered dynamic. Its strategy is based on the optimization of public resources, empowering of democracy and recognising the specificities, social conditions and daily realities. The regional intervention prioritizes the endogenous potential of the Brazilian regions, integration and articulation of the government on all levels and action on multiple territorial levels. To attain its goals and the focus of its actions, NPDR has established as competitive strategy the construction of social capital, the organization of a new
leadership and the stimulus to a diversified and empowered local economic base. In spite of these goals, the search for economic results as a form of advance is presented as the main implication of the NPDR actions. However, to know for sure if the method used by NPDR has brought effective economic and social results is difficult, as its managers need a system of information about all the major aspects of the territorial dynamics,and, if the economic basis of these regions has capability to compete on national and international level. Empowering, innovative content, participative democracy, respect to regional identities, stimulus to entrepreneurial culture and consolidation of planning and management are elements which strengthen the society, have long-term influence on progress and represent an advance on the Brazilian Government proposals to peripheral regions. However, the management structure and NPDR application has not demonstrated how these expected results are or will be reached. This is true as there is an absence of a pro-active agenda to face the presented challenges to NPDR's empowering, such as: - The disintegration and discontinuity of the public policies, something that is common in Brazil; the low transversality and convergence of federal policies, showed by the several intervention actions of different ministries in priorities areas from NPRD and the difficulty to put together integrated projects with a joint budget. - The financing of regional development, which priority is to create a specific fund, the National Fund of Regional Development; - The overcoming of corporatism and regional interests or policies against advances proposed by the regional development policies; the difficulty on settling professionals, not only in the peripheral regions, but also in the NPRD management. The challenges that integrate the implantation and continuity of the NPRD go beyond the economic and social progress of the priority regions, as it requires specific actions in relation to the management structure. The mechanisms of follow-up and control of the results from the intervention of NPDR, as well as the guidance and management of investments and the results are not clear yet. A policy of investment and empowering of regions, when they present themselves not well guided and without studies of economical, environmental and social impact can produce adverse effects. Instead of
stimulating the joint progress of mesoregions, it can empower enclaves, therefore, causing detriment to the surrounding territories. Therefore, together with an intervention of the actions of the regional development policies, the governance structure and follow-up of the regional developmental process must be constant. In the case of the European Union, the priorities go from the territorial cohesion to the social and regional empowering. This requires actions directed to the sustainable and harmonic development of economic growth, the conservation of natural resources and the social achievements of the population. In case of social achievements of the population, while in Brazil the participative democracy is a parallel objective to the empowering of the civic consciousness, Europe is more developed on the promotion of general interest services, on the development of opportunities and on a governance structure which values the citizen's opinion and cooperative actions. The result of the regional European policy in shown clearly on its progress, and on debates around the economic growth, which already incorporate themes such as: climate changes, demographic changes, mainly in relation to the effects of migration; the increased involvement of local and regional economic agents to discuss themes from the future of their cities to more focused actions about environmental conservation and the construction of a collective future; the reinforcement of the territorial cooperation, and, mostly, the construction of indicators and an evaluation process and follow-up of the results of regional policies, their form of intervention and the return of investments to the society. To achieve these progresses, the focus of the regional European policy, goes beyond the strengthening of the economic basis of the regions through innovation and competitiveness, it was also constructed through changes in governance. More than the mobilization of the financial funds, it has mobilized the capacity of economical agents not only on management, but also on funds coordination.
This governance becomes increasingly decentralized, involving
the society, the urban authorities and experts from different levels on resource management. This governance structure has influenced the priorities of regional policies which prioritize the human capital, with more dignified jobs, social inclusion, research and innovation, environment. The large gain of this
governance arose from the method used to implement the European policies, or in other words, on the approach of partnerships and the consensus of opportunities, problems, threats and challenges of the regions. The value of this approach is the building of dialogue between partners, the public consultations with the population and the monitoring and implementation of regional intervention programs. 4. Regional Policies: looking beyond 2010 The creation of NPDR is inserted on the Brazilian government agenda for actions towards the regional development, which has its start-up at the time of the re-democratization and constitution of 1988. However, the main topic debated about public policies in Brazil up to the end of the 90s was the macroeconomic unbalance. The priority was about the inflation which was out of control and how to become less dependant of foreign capital. The macroeconomic reforms, the prices stability which was reached and assured after 1994, the municipalization of many public services, the empowering of an organized civil society, liberty of expression, empowering of social movements, decentralization of public funds and the competition amongst states for new investments have brought to Brazil the discussion about strengthening regional economies and the necessity of a regional development policy. However, on regional context, specificities of the regional economies typology, the continuity of migratory fluxes, the inequality in offer of goods and services, the competition amongst states and the differentiated dynamism of the stronger states has made the participation of regions on national wealth to become very asymmetric. Table 03 shows data about the participation of Brazilian regions on Gross national Product. Only the data of Table 03 is enough to demonstrate the need to think over the Brazilian regional economic development. From the beginning of the 20th century the Brazilian economy started a process of economic concentration that was only diminished during the 70s. By the end of the 80s the new economic recentralization took place, and at the end of the 20th Century the south and South-east regions were producing 74.8% of all Brazilian wealth.
Table 03: Percentage (%) of participation of Brazilian regions on Gross National Product - on market prices - 2000, 2005 and 2007. % participation on GNP
Regions
% Population
2000
2005
2007
2007
North
4.4
5.0
5.0
08
Northeast
12.4
13.1
13.1
28
Southeast
58.3
56.5
56.4
42
South
16.5
16.6
16.6
15
Centreeast
8.4
8.9
8.9
07
Brazil
100
100
100
100
Source: Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), in partnership with the State Agency of Statistics, State Government Departments and Superintendency of the Manaus Duty-Free Zone – SUFRAMA
Between 2003-2011, the Ministry of National Integration (MNI) has established as goals: •
To
re-structure
the
instruments
and
mechanisms
of
regional
development, to elaborate the NPRD and a Territorial Organization to act on inequalities and territorial diversities; •
Re-define
and
create
the
macroregional
institutional
base
(Superintendences for Development); •
To create bases to a programmed sub-regional action;
•
To emanate actuation criteria to other Governmental policies;
•
To create the Chamber of National Integration and Development Policies; and From these actions, the most important were the NPRD and re-creation of
the macroregional institutional basis, directed by the the superintendences and regional development agencies, as resource-transfer mechanism and support. More than a support agency, the superintendences and regional agencies have
an important role on financing projects and to actions of the public managers on support to regions. Despite its limited action, it has provided a healthy experience to give information and knowledge about regional reality. In the future, these agencies will be an important instrument of territorial organization, which is a goal not yet reached on the Brazilian regional development agenda. The NPRD results were the creation of financing mechanisms, establishing a territorialization of action, reorganization of the institutional base, modernization of instruments and mechanisms of management. However, there is little information at the present time about practical results of the regional support policies and the impact of the NPRD goals on regions economic dynamics on empowering local communities. The proposals to Phase II (2011-2015) will have as focus the differentiated action of the regional policy according to the profile of each region, that is, to expand NPDR action to look after each region in a differentiate way according to its profile. This implies in create efficient assessment criteria to determine which the territories eligible are and what the priorities of communities to the future are. From the electability of regions and priorities it will be possible to stablish the adequate governance models, subvention, financing or even intervention towards the regions. On phase II are proposed three levels of NPRD management. •
Strategic Level: National Council for Integration of Regional and Territorial Policies (defines the State strategy – their members are managers from Government and the society)
•
Tactic Level: Board of Management of Regional Policies, which is assigned to appraise and approve the Work Plan multi-annual, annual programs and coordinate actions on territorial base;
•
Operational Level: Territorial and Regional Political Management State Committee, who manage and execute policies.
On the matter of eligibility, the NPRD after 20011 foresees three territorialities to its actions:
- On the first territoriality are included the territories of convergence, considering dynamism patterns and stagnation and low-growth tax patterns as well - On the second territoriality are included the territories with a solidified pattern of competitiveness, that is, which dynamism gets strong along the time, generating or assuring high incomes. - And, on the third territoriality, are included the territories in transition, that is, the ones which are evolving from a pattern of low dynamism to high dynamism. Differently form the Brazilian NPRD which is a policy born during a recent democratic period, the European regional policy has as priority for the next years the territorial cooperation and cohesion, urban support and management and rural development. On cooperation and cohesion, its focus will be to create opportunities where people are living, reducing the impact of differences and assuring people's accessibility. This way, the regional developing process has to assure the innovation and competitiveness, but has to create the opportunities to social inclusion as well. On one side it protects the social wellbeing of the population and on the other side reduces the impacts of the polarization of wealthier regions over regions less benefited by geography and investments. The perspectives of the regional development on European Union and Brazil will depend on the capacity to allocate resources, flexibility of access to resources, transparency and access to information and capacity of monitoring and evaluation of public policies. 5. Infrastructure and regional development One of the big issues on the Brazilian political stage are infrastructural works. Differently form Europe which has solidified a transport infrastructure that integrates the countries which are part of the Union, Brazil has solidified mostly export ways, and, consequently, ways of development. It can be noted that the Brazilian infrastructure was not directed to the territorial cohesion, and this has strengthen the regional polarization and formed large enclaves of development.
For example, when we observe the Brazilian food production, its participation in the world market and compare it with the spatiality of Brazilian economy, it is noticed that an efficient transport matrix is the vector of occupancy of the agriculture boundaries and the inclusion of the peripheral regions in the commercial routes.
As Brazil still has a moving agriculture
boundary, the strengthening of the regional economies goes through the expansions of modals and the stimulus of activities, which can be driving added value to the natural resources. In this case, the physical infrastructure has an important role on the creation of favourable conditions to the development of economical activities and with that, amplifies the capital accumulation. For this reason, one of the guidance of the transport sector is initially to meet the demands which were generated by the growth of the economy, which implies in the reduction of inefficiencies in relation to costs and hazards, stimulate the intermodality and strengthen the integration with South American countries. The challenges for investments and the Brazilian infrastructure planning are: - Increase the geographical coverage of infrastructure, which contrasts with the proposal of integration from the territories as axis of occupation, of development and presence of State in the remote areas of the country; - Empowering the national development through the development of rural areas and the strengthening of the city networks, which is strategic on the consolidation of the Brazilian area as well; - Guarantee the competitiveness of economical activities, as the infrastructure for transport becomes an inducer and catalyst of the regional economical development. To meet these challenges, the Brazilian infrastructure must be treated according to four logical foundations: The first one is to establish a new level of public investments for the transport matrix, reducing the strong dependence on one modality only. Figure 02 are shown the goals for 2025.
On
Figure 02: Brazilian Transport System - Goals to 2025
Source: Ministry of Transport - NPLT
According to Figure 02, at the moment 58% of the Brazilian transportation is made along its highways. The consequences of strong focus on the highways network is the environmental liability, bearing in mind that the rate of CO2 emissions to the atmosphere, the financial costs in relation to the carrying capacity and the quality of highways; and, one of the highest accident rates amongst all the transport modes. The goal to 2025 is to reduce the dependency on usage of highways to 35%, which translates to a sensible increasing on participation of other ways for transportation of production, goods, assets and people. The plan is to balance the transport system amongst railways, highways and rivers, mostly using rivers. The second is to rescue the conceptual plan of territoriality.
The
decrease in action from the Brazilian State throughout the 90s, has affected considerably the planning capacity on transportation, not only related to the lack of financial resources to maintenance and conservation of modals.
However,
the changes on economic policies and the return of the State on the promotion of development, regulating the services concessions and community heritage require that the planning activities should resume guaranteeing investments and the discrepancy between regions. For this to happen, the planning structure must be capable of evaluating the existing system, identify their bottlenecks and propose viable alternatives to the upcoming years. However, the planning activity will get lost if the next federal budget will not compromise with maintenance of investments.
It is important to reinforce that the planning
structure should be coupled with a vision of economical development to short,
medium and long-term, which considers the regional peculiarities. This, on the other hand, should be capable of considering the global context, without stopping being in tune with the major empowering policies to the regions, such as the NPRD. The third is the empowering of the management capacity not only on investments but also on the transport network. The transport planning for regional development should be based on an institutional management, compromised with the territory, the environmental sustainability, national security and regional economic advance The fourth is to increase partnerships with the private initiative. In Brazil this has started with the concession of highways and railways to private companies, or with partnerships in large project investments. Regarding these large projects, the concern was always the national scale, or in other words, the big challenges in Brazilian development, relating to energy, telecommunications and transport. The major projects were never systematized or planned to support a specific regional development Because of that, there is always a dispute between the federal states to receive major works on their electrical or transport infrastructure. Because of that, the dynamics of the wealthy regions and their energy demands have a significant influence on investments capacities of the federal budget on poor regions. It is important to highlight the aspect of the South American integration on foreseen investments to the transport matrix on Brazilian rural areas, illustrated on Figure 03. Figure 03: Bioceanics and Cabotage links from Brazil to South America
Source: Ministry of Transport
Figure 03 shows links of the Brazilian regions with the countries bordering Brazil through the bioceanic corridor, integrating the Mercosul countries and opening possibilities for the outflow of Brazilian products through the Pacific Ocean. The purpose of the bioceanic corridor strengthens the Centre-south Brazilian economy and consolidates the agriculture boundary in the Occidental Amazonian area. However, the consolidation of this infrastructure will still depend on the acceleration and guarantee of resources for investments, on the growing pace of the Brazilian economy, on the commercial relationships and integration with countries from South America, as well as a regulatory milestone of the use of this infrastructure as an exportation corridor and of population mobility. 6. Local Productive Arrangements: Existing Experiences of Action in the Territory in Different Scales.
The third millennium brings us new challenges and opportunities, especially in relation to the evaluation of the employed regional development policies. The conditions for social-economic development are not the same, the needs to restrict the environmental damage are more clear every day, and the possibilities of opening new markets is associated to the compromise of the companies with the social, environmental and the quality of the products on an increasing pace.
This requires that companies maintain a scheme of constant
innovation, using “clean” technologies and good management practices. However, in certain areas, the economical progress requires the cooperation and exchange of experiences between companies and entrepreneurs. In these cases it is possible to align complexity, the cultural linkage, relationship manners and the regional specificities in favour of innovation and on the strengthening of regional economies. The region in this case becomes an “innovative medium”, an interactive learning space and a cooperation space for their entrepreneurs. The dynamics of the regional economy goes through a local advance, or in other words, regional economical development is a process of reactivation of the economy, of empowerment, and strengthening of local society, based on the optimum utilization of the endogenous resources.
The result is a growing
economy, the creation of jobs and the improvement in well-being.
In this
context, the Local Productive Arrangements (LPA) appear as an instrument and a strategy of competitiveness from local and regional economies. The LPAs are configurations marked by the interaction of several different connected agents through the same economical activity in the same territory. The biggest differential is on the existing “interactions” between these agents, which needs confidence and involve cultural contexts and acquaintanceship, which goes beyond the contractual and formal relationships from the market. In the Brazilian regional policies, the LPAs are some of the prioritized areas for the regional development programs (Figure 04). The supported LPAs have shown the diversity of the Brazilian economy, as it covers agro-ecological seeds, pisciculture, apiculture, beef cattle culture, jewellery, mineral production, tourism, etc. Figure 04: Local Productive Arrangements of Distinguished Mesoregions – 2003/2008.
Source: Minister of National integration – Secretary of Regional Programs.
The formation of the LPAs requires more than a simple regional capability, as the structure of the LPAs requires the organization of the local society for the formation of social capital, creating an institutional link of management, negotiation and experience exchange. It also requires the aggregation of values in the productive chain, the articulation and organization of the society, so it becomes an instrument of competitiveness due to its comparative advantages. On other hand, the formation of the LPAs also becomes an decentralization instrument to the political decisions and empowering of participative democracy. However, for the LPAs to succeed it is essential the effort on the promotion local economical efficiency in search of development, and the increase of competitiveness in a productive chain, which should be appropriated to the market conditions. Each region must find an area of competitiveness according to their own conditions and potentialities, as well as in sectors which shows higher locational capacities and advantages.
In the Brazilian context, one example of LPAs, with the support from developmental sector policies from the Brazilian government, not only the Ministry of National Integration but also the Ministry of Science and Technology, is the experience of mineral extraction, mainly from semi-precious stones, rocks and ceramics, activities which are extended over great part of the national territory (Figure 05). Figure 05: Localization of Local Productive Arrangements of Mineral Base 2009
Cerâmica Vermelha -AP
Gemas e jóias - Pará Cerâmica Vermelha - TO
Opala de Pedro II - PI Calcário Cariri e Cerâmica vermelha – CE
Cerâmica Vermelha - AC
Pegmatitos – RN-PB Quartzitos e Cerâmica -RN Gesso - PE
Gemas e Jóias, Quartzito e Cerâmica – GO Ardósia – MG
Cerâmica vermelha – SE Bege Bahia - BA Gemas e jóias - MG
Quartzito – MG
Rocha ornamental - ES
Pedra Sabão – MG
Cerâmica vermelha – RJ Rocha ornamental e Gemas e Jóias - RJ
Calcário, Cal e Talco - PR
Cerâmica de Revestimento -SP
Gemas e jóias - RS Gemas e jóias - PR
Cerâmica de Revestimento - SC
Source: Ministry of Science and Technology - MST
The micro and small mining industries represent 73% of the active industries in Brazil, and employs between 25% to 40% of the work force of the mining activity. The generation of jobs in these activities is mainly from low qualified labour force, who has difficulty to be inserted in other productive areas, because of their low levels of scholarship.
However, despite its dense labour
force, the mineral extraction of semi-precious stones is marked by strong externalities, such as: informal work relationships, lack of environmental sustainability, low productivity, lack of quality control, low technological intensity, not only on the extraction but also on the treatment of minerals.
The actions for the strengthening of the LPAs presented on Figure 05 are guided by the following actions and guidelines: - Regularization of micro and small companies, to guarantee their legal protection and build capacity to reach the international market. - Promotion of local and regional development. In this case, the regularization has contributed to strengthen public finances, as the regulation of these companies has created taxes and municipal tax collection, in addition to the regularization of work relations and cover of social security in mining activities, alongside the formation and training of human resources, which has contributed to social inclusion. - Insertion, transfer and innovation and technological development dissemination and industrial modernization, empowered through partnerships with the Ministry of Science and Technology, Universities and financial and developmental institutions.
The legalization of activities and investments in
human capital has contributed to the inclusion of companies in a cooperation and support network led by different governmental and non- governmental institutions. This has provided access to new technologies. The results were the added value of mineral resources through process and product innovation and the sustainability of environmental activities. - Technical & scientific dissemination and exchange - Promoting access to information -
Service
network
and
technological
outreaching,
through
the
formalization of partnerships with Universities and research centres. The results reached between 2003-2009 have provided a product with better quality, the empowering of competitiveness to companies through the qualification of human resources, the incorporation of new technologies and the implementation of new technical management.
Maybe the main gains were in
the improvement of work conditions, the preservation of natural resources, with the technical and technological implementation with lower environmental impact and health risks.
However, with the strengthening of micro, small and medium
companies organized by the LPAs, not only on the mineral base but also on other activities, is in the meaning and guarantee of continuity of a systematic public policy and integration with governments which respect the diversities that exist in the country.
Another strategic example is the regional and territorial development based on the support and empowering of the LPAs in the region of Veneto (Italy). In this region the economical development is strongly based on urbanindustry activities, with significant presence of small and medium companies, a strong territorial industrial specialization, a complementation of activities and a significant preoccupation with the socio-economic dimension.
The economical
growth generated by the expansion of business investments was marked by creation of new jobs opportunities and respect to the well-being of population. The geographical economic from the Italian LPAs is based on the innovation, mainly from traditional activities; on the formation of cooperative networks; on the transnationalization and creation of global companies. In other words, the dimension is based on the productive organization of companies in LPAs, but they should not maintain themselves stable and unchangeable for a long period of time. Their progress implies in an optimization of growing and increasing in level, not only in size but also on territorial space of action. In the case of LPAs established in Veneto, one regulatory milestone defined in 2003 has secured their progress, because it gave discipline and organization to the industrial districts and defined the guidelines for the local industrial policies for innovation.
Amongst the regulatory milestone advances,
the key one was the stimulus to cooperation and dialogue between companies, as only projects which involve the majority of companies and represent investments in strategic points to strengthen the competitiveness, the innovation, and are environmentally appropriate, can request credit and support from government funds. Another detail is that the LPAs are re-evaluated every three years, occasion which their guidelines are reviewed. Nowadays, there are 34 LPAs registered and distributed in 10 district regions in Veneto, involving ten thousand companies and creating three hundred thousand jobs in total. Amongst the projects presented to the regional development funds by the local LPAs, the great majority were to investments in innovation, technical laboratories, organization and participation in expositions and events, reinforcement of brands and infrastructure.
The concern now
transcends the basic production process, but it inserts on an aesthetical and artistic dimension of the product, which is critical for the internationalization process.
The result of this developmental policy based on the LPAs shows even more positive results when the region of Veneto is compared to the other parts of Italy. In Veneto, the unemployment rate is around 3.5% of the economically active population, while the rate in Italy is around 6.7%, and in the European Union is around 7%.
Their economy registers 462,567 businesses, being
66,898 related with manufacturing, which generates 28.8% of the total additional value of the region and is equivalent to 12.8% of the added value in Italy. The service industry generates 64.6% of the additional regional value and is equivalent to 8.4% of the Italian additional value. A comparison between the Italian experience and the Brazilian shows that local policies centred on LPAs must excel for support to creativity and innovation. Sometimes, this does not only means an incorporation of new technologies, but investment on design and product appearance. Furthermore, the companies' investment and monitoring process organized in LPAs must focus on two levels:
The local, with the stimulus to cooperation, human
resource training, establishing the legal framework and the creation of specified financial lines for the LPAs.
There is also the transnational level, which
requires long-term planning and growing.
For this, the Veneto experience
shows the needs to create a strategic infrastructure (logistics, legislation, patent, creation of human capital and financial assessment). 7. Conclusions and recommendations In 2011 the National Policy for Regional Development (NPRD) will start its second phase. Thus, as a governmental action to rescue the economy from depressed or developing regions and insert them on the national and international dynamic market the NPRD will need a more in-depth evaluation of the reached results and achievements of its first phase, not only in the scope of regions, but also relating to the legislation process. The evaluation of these actions will create elements and arguments which will make the State Policies even more effective. It is not yet known how the magnitude of investments, partnerships, manager's actions and the support provided by the Minister for National Integration (MNI) have been responsible for the recovery of the dynamics in the
regions covered by the NPRD. This is because in Brazil there are different ministry actions in the outlying regions, in particular the Ministry of Agriculture Development, like the Program of “Territories of Citizenship” from the Ministry of Social Development, like the “Family Grant” and other social programs for income distribution. Maybe this is one of the major lessons learned from the Policy of the European
Union
Regional
Development:
information
transparency,
the
consequences of public policies and the continual evaluation of actions. Mostly over the evaluation capacity of regional interventions in the European Regions, which are capable of creating synergies between economical and social agents and increase competitiveness. Although, the International Symposium of Management of Regional Policies in Perspective discuss the construction of the Brazilian NPRD, in special regarding to the choice of priority and differentiated regions, the interest in amplifying the number of action regions and areas, not much has been discussed and presented about actual methods of evaluation, monitoring investments, from the interventions marked by the NPRD with the regions and, mainly, the elements that will guide the new territories and policies for the second phase of national policies. The proposals for governance and territoriality to the second phase of the NPRD still leaves some questions unanswered:
What is the evaluation
parameter for the territoriality profile? Are the parameters from the first phase of NPRD still valid to classify the distinguished mesoregions according to their dynamism? (1) What is the parameter to evaluate the intra and inter-territorial inequalities? These questions exemplify once again the need of a following-up, controlling and evaluation of the development of these regions on the actions proposed on the NPRD.
This is why the main challenges to the next phase,
other than turning the NPRD into a State Policy, will be create mechanisms and an efficient structure of regional development, which will consolidate the institutional empowering, promote managers capability on the development of regions, management capability on enterprises and evaluation of the results public policies.
In the same way, the role of the cities and their surrounding areas were left aside during the discussions, when the strengthening of the regional economies passes through the appreciation of the rural spaces and the urban spaces as well. On the outlying regions the rural and urban spaces create a continuum which cannot be despised and not even unconsidered in the NPRD actions. In particular because Brazil has large part of its population living in urban areas, especially in medium and large-size cities. Most of the medium cities population (between 100 and 500 thousand inhabitants, in non-urban and non-capitals cities) is on the move, some coming from or with a potential destiny to the agricultural boundary regions. These populations have established economical links with the agricultural boundary regions and are using these medium size country-cities as platforms to occupy the territory, transforming these cities in an important hub for a significant portion of the Brazilian hinterland. In this sense, if we disregard the importance of the urban areas on the dynamics of Brazil's contemporary regions during the discussion of the regional development, it is like disregarding the insertion of markets and the creation of complementary activities and proximity economy, which counts substantially on the generation of linkage effects in the priority regions of NPRD. When we discuss the impact of the regional policies of the European Union and transports on the regional economy, the experts from the European Union and from the Brazilian Ministry of Transport present a series of indicators which can be used as a parameter for the people in charge from the NPRD to create an evaluation structure, and follow-up the investments made by the Minister for National Integration (MNI) in the regions. This follow-up structure and evaluation will offer an information system on the practical results of regional intervention and the capacity of boosting the regional economy and empower the local communities. For an evaluation policy and efficient follow-up, it can be used as reference and parameter the outline suggested by Professor Helena Lastres in her presentation about concrete experiences on territorial actions in different scales, as follows: •
Association between the economical and social development;
•
Effect on the reductions of inequalities instead of reinforcing them;
•
Recognition and mobilization of local potential
•
Integration with the prioritization of national, regional, state and local development into a long-term perspective.
•
Focus on the capacity of achievement and usage of knowledge
•
Support to the creation of productive and innovative capacities and quality employment.
•
Capacity to promote a root, inclusive, consistent and sustainable development
Another important point to be reinforced is the future of the regions after a the regional development policy, or in other words, the purpose of the regional development is that communities are able to articulate and in a long-term capable of creating their own dynamics, not only for the productive activities but also on their social organization capacity and empowerment. The communities should be capable of build their desired future, an opportunity to prosperity.
In
this case the communities “take on their hands” their own development and build their own future.
This requires clarity on the transition actions foreseen by the
NPRD. In the same way that the regional policy has come to promote regional development, it has also to be clear in relation to the format in which it would take out the inductor role, reducing the regional intervention.
Therefore, it is
important that the free-will, the entrepreneurial spirit and the cooperation between the economical and social agents are reinforced, so they can be capable of building economical progress with social inclusion. The NPRD is not clear about the transition mechanisms from an interventionist action to the construction of a self-sufficient community throughout their development. This is perhaps one of the most important lessons transmitted from the regional policy of the European Union, through the trajectory of Azores and the productive adjustments of the Italian clusters: the capacity of empowering the organization and the cooperation of economic and social agents to build the autonomy for the regions development. The Italian experience, in cases like the regions of Emiglia-Romagna and Veneto, has been shown that the development process is done for the society and by the society.
This involves assurance of
local product competitiveness, strengthening of innovation, participatory democracy, respect of cultural values and the environment and, with all these,
the empowering of cultural identity. The autonomy of the Italian and the Azores (Portugal) regions are an example that public policy can stimulate the regional economy, but not replace or subsidize it all the time. Therefore, a long term development policy must be marked by the necessity, the format, the ideal moment of intervention, and also the mechanisms to guarantee the autonomy of local societies and ensure a future created by their own actions.