Infrastructure Remains a Concern in Brazil Ahead of Mega-Events

Ahead of the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics, infrastructure concerns are rapidly increasing in Brazil.

President-elect Dilma Rousseff has pledged to rebuild and revitalize airports, roads, ports, railways and power plants as part of efforts to improve infrastructure. Her administration may create an agency or secretariat for aerospace issues, Valor Economico newspaper reported Nov. 23.

Such a plan “makes sense,” Rosangela Ribeiro, an analyst at brokerage SLW Corretora said in a phone interview from Sao Paulo. “We have a big infrastructure problem, and this jeopardizes the flights. I think it can have a positive result.”

Rio Must Act to Avoid Airport `Disaster' Before World Cup, Governor Says
Bloomberg
December 17, 2010

Brazil's World Cup Delays

Delays are plaguing Brazil's 12 World Cup host cities, including Rio which is also preparing for the 2016 Olympics. The delays have raised doubts in some people's minds that the country will be able to pull off these major events.

Practically all the works which were to have been carried out starting in May in the 12 venues across Brazil for the football tournament have run into delays, and the December 2012 deadline for completion is looking iffy.

Yet that's the date needed because Brazil is also hosting FIFA's Confederation Cup in 2013.

In June this year, just half the 12 Brazilian cities hosting games have started work to get stadiums and infrastructure into shape, triggering a warning from FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke to get cracking.

Brazil's World Cup preps dogged by doubts, delays
AFP
December 2, 2010

Despite Violence, Games Officials Promise Safety in Brazil

Games officials in Brazil are trying to clam nerves about safety issues during the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro amid violent attacks in one of the city's most notorious slums.

Brazilian authorities have claimed that recent attacks by drugs gangs are a desperate response at police efforts to take control of their turf in more than a dozen slum areas.

The local organising committee of the Rio Olympics also promised a trouble-free games.

"The Rio 2016 committee has full confidence in the security plans which have been elaborated jointly with the three levels of government (municipal, state and federal) and presented to the International Olympic Committee (IOC)," it said.

Soccer-Brazil says Rio violence will not affect World Cup
Reuters
November 26, 2010

Favela Cleanup Program Spurs Violence in Rio

Violence has erupted in Rio de Janeiro as the state expands on a program to try to clean up the city's crime-riddled favelas. The impact is intended to refresh the city's image ahead of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics.

Rio authorities say the violence is in reaction to a two-year-old policing project, known as the "pacification" program, to root out organized drug-fueled crime by occupying favelas (or shanty towns). The program involves setting up heavy policing units to reclaim slums from gangs, and authorities say it has "pacified" 13 favelas since its inception.

To supporters it has been a one-of-a-kind success. For skeptics it is smoke and mirrors. The answer generally depends on where you live.

Rash of Rio violence rattles even hardened residents in Brazil's World Cup host city
The Christian Science Monitor
November 24, 2010

Brazil Tries to Calm Concerns About Crime Ahead of World Cup

Amid recent violence, officials in Brazil are insisting that the 2014 World Cup will be a safe event.

Justice Minister Luiz Paulo Barreto made the comments as Rio de Janeiro tries to contain a surge in violence, with gang members blocking roads and setting cars on fire in the city expected to host the World Cup final four years from now.

Barreto downplayed the recent concerns, saying security will reach its maximum level during the World Cup.

"We will be at an advanced level, with the police properly prepared," he said in the opening of a three-day meeting with government officials, local authorities and FIFA executives in the nation's capital. "The competition will take place in an environment of a lot of peace and tranquility."

Brazil insists 2014 World Cup will be peaceful
USA Today
November 23, 2010

Airports a Potential Embarrassment for Brazil

The Brazilian Sports Minister is warning that the country's airport infrastructure will be an embarrassment for the country during the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro if not improved.

Orlando Silva warned that not enough progress was being made in improving airports in the vast country which depends almost exclusively on air transport for long-distance travel.

"Today, I have a very strong concern about our airports," Silva told reporters during the Soccerex conference.

Brazil's airports a potential embarrassment: minister
Reuters
November 23, 2010

Brazilian Officials See Opportunities in World Cup Preparations

Officials in Brazil are hoping to cash in on their investments for the 2014 World Cup, and to create a broad legacy from the event.

The city of Rio and the federal government's national economic growth acceleration plan (PAC) envisages investment of 4bn Brazilian reais ($2.33bn; £1.46) for the city.

The investment will be concentrated in three areas: logistics (including roads, railways, ports, waterways, and airports), energy (including generation and transmission of electric power, petroleum, natural gas and renewable energy) and various other social and urban projects.

Brazil looks to score sporting and economic legacy
BBC
November 22, 2010

No Return Possible on Brazil's Stadium Investments

Economists are saying it will be impossible to generate a return on Brazil's $2.8 billion investment in stadia for the 2014 World Cup.

Brazilian states are awarding contracts that may be worth as much as $18 million a year to groups that run Amsterdam Arena and Lisbon’s Estadio da Luz to oversee facilities planned for the 2014 tournament. New York-based IMG Worldwide Inc. is looking at sites, chief executive officer Ted Forstmann said in an interview.

Arenas are being constructed in the financial hub of Sao Paulo through to poorer areas such as the Amazon state capital, Manaus. A financial return on the new buildings is “impossible” because most soccer stadiums are used too infrequently, according to Paul Fletcher, a former commercial director of London’s Wembley Stadium.

Brazil Seeks `Impossible' Return on $2.8 Billion World Cup Site Spending
Bloomberg
November 22, 2010

Brazil's Airports Blasted as Unready for Crowds

Brazil's airport infrastructure has been blasted by an official at a major airline association as being unready to host crowds associated with the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics.

The language used by Giovanni Bisignani, CEO of the International Air Transport Association, to describe Brazil's overwhelmed airports at an industry conference Thursday was some of the harshest criticism yet leveled at the nation on the topic.

"Brazil is Latin America's largest and fastest growing economy but air transport infrastructure is a growing disaster," he told industry leaders at a meeting of the Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association in Panama. The organization represents 230 airlines around the world.

Air transport group critical of Brazil's airports
November 19, 2010

South Africa's Lessons for Brazil in Overinvestment and Poor ROI

The economic impact of the World Cup has been mainly a loss for South Africa, according to this piece in the Financial Times -- a reality that the author says Brazil needs to face sooner rather than later.

South Africa had been saying the tournament would increase tourism, create jobs, build useful infrastructure, etc. But she realised: “It wasn’t going to be giving us the benefits that we had told the country the World Cup was going to give us.” True, Johannesburg’s creaky transport links would improve a bit, but “it wasn’t as much as we had thought”. And so, over a year before kickoff, Gauteng quietly binned hopes of economic bonanza. Somehow the officials forgot to tell the South African people, but then running a province keeps you busy. In the event, predictably, the tournament went well over budget, and attracted few big-spending visitors. I recently got an e-mail from an official at one South African university, which had reserved 92,000 “bed-nights” for football visitors. Shortly before the tournament began, he says, Fifa’s booking agency returned 91,000 nights unused. “We are still trying to sell off the additional linen we had to purchase,” the official complains. If sports economists are right, the Cup won’t boost future tourism and foreign investment in South Africa either.

South Africa’s football lesson
Financial Times
October 30, 2010

Stadium Work Could Spread to Brazil for South African Companies

Some of the South African companies that helped build and renovate that country's stadia for the 2010 World Cup are bidding to do similar work in Brazil ahead of the 2014 World Cup.

Several have pitched for construction and renovation of some of the 12 stadiums in Brazil for the 2014 World Cup. The South American country last hosted the tournament in 1950.

While the South African government allocated more than R8.4-billion ($1.9 billion USD) for building and renovating 10 stadiums, Brazil will be spending a reported R18.6-billion ($2.6 billion USD) on its 12 stadiums.

Brazil eyes our stadium builders
Times
October 24, 2010

Incoming Brazilian President Will Have Hands Full of Sport

As Brazil's presidential election heads into a runoff election, the new head of state will be faced with a number of challenges -- mainly related to the country's hosting of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics.

Great uncertainties hang over the ambitious plans submitted to FIFA and the International Olympic Committee.

The 2016 Olympic Games will be the first held in South America, and Rio de Janeiro, the host city, will need around $17 billion in public and private funds to stage it, according to official and independent estimates.

Forty percent of that sum will have to be invested in transport, to resolve Rio's chaotic road system and languishing rail network, and to boost the bus fleet and metro system.
Security is also a priority to tame endemic violence. Urban reorganization will have to take place. The number of hotel rooms need to be doubled.

Olympics, World Cup: challenges for Brazil's new president
Agence France Presse
September 28, 2010

Rio Stadium Work Begins, But Still Behind Schedule

Six months behind schedule and in danger of being removed from the list of World Cup host stadia, Rio de Janeiro's Maracana stadium has finally entered its renovation stage.

The work, budgeted at 705.6 million reais ($398 million) started with the removal of the seats in the lower ring of the stands in the stadium, the likely venue for the final.

Renovations will see the stadium's capacity reduced by more than half to 45,000 for the next 50 days and then closed.

The work is scheduled to be completed by Dec. 31, 2012, in time to stage the Confederations Cup in Rio the following year.

Maracana work for 2014 World Cup gets underway late
Reuters
August 25, 2010

The Preparation Challenge for Brazil

As Brazil prepares to host the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics, much sport-related work is underway. But beyond the fields and venues, the country has major infrastructure, transportation and safety issues to address.

About 60 percent of the sports venues are already completed because Brazil hosted the 2007 Pan American Games and -- with an eye toward capturing the big prize -- built those facilities to Olympics specs.

But billions of dollars of sports-driven projects from port renovation and airport overhauls to the construction of major highways, transit systems, stadiums and an Olympic Village complete with a beach are planned. Besides accommodating the influx of fans, athletes and officials, the goal is to leave a lasting legacy for Brazilians.

Brazil getting extreme makeover in preparation for Olympics
The Miami Herald

Brazil's Long-Term Benefits

A new study out has examined the investments Brazil is making in infrastructure ahead of the 2014 World Cup and how those investments can turn into long term benefits for the country.

This summer, Ernst & Young and the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV) set out to provide answers to such questions. In late June, the two organizations released a sixth installment of their Sustainable Brazil series, entitled “Social and Economic Impacts of the 2014 World Cup”.

The study includes analysis of the socioeconomic impacts of the World Cup and how to make the World Cup “greener,” and it aims to identify ways in which Brazil can ensure that “the event lasts not only a few days, but many years, leaving a positive legacy for society as a whole.” It’s an issue that TheCityFix has explored before, when we considered the legacy of the Olympics. The recent Brazil study predicts that the country’s economy will “snowball,” growing by more than five times the R$22.46 billion (US$12.8 billion) spent by Brazil to ensure adequate infrastructure and organization.

This means that in total, from 2010 to 2014, an additional R$142.39 billion (US$81.39 billion) will flow in Brazil, creating 3.63 million jobs per year, and R$63 billion (US$36 billion) in additional income for the population.

Brazil’s Green World Cup
The City Fix
August 18, 2010

Brazilian Airport Updates Behind Schedule

Work has been slow to complete on Brazil's airports, which officials have pledged to update ahead of the 2014 World Cup.

Local authorities and tournament organizers have acknowledged that the airports' lack of capacity is one of the main concerns in Brazil's preparations and that significant improvements are needed to accommodate the expected 600,000 World Cup visitors.

A recent report by a government watchdog known as the Brazilian Audit Court warned that renovations in some airports may not be completed by 2014.

Brazil yet to start work on most World Cup airports
GMANews
August 13, 2010

Infrastructure Brazil's Limiting Factor for Foreign Investment

Infrastructure tops the list of concerns for business people considering investing in Brazil, according to a new report. Transportation is an especially sore spot for the country as it prepares to host the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics.

This is an excerpt of a new report from UK-based bank HSBC, Brazil unbound: How investors see Brazil and Brazil sees the World.

In our survey, nearly one half of respondents (49%) point to “low standard or costly infrastructure including telephones, transport networks and utilities” as the main operational obstacle, far more than selected corruption, poor governance (34 percent) or skills shortages (32 percent), the state of transport infrastructure is particularly dire. In spite of some improvement in logistics, freight depends on costly road haulage; there are few railroads; the potential for waterways remains largely unexplored; and ports and airports are congested. This can add one quarter or more to the cost of getting goods to market, say investors.

Investing in infrastructure has been at the heart of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s growth program (the so-called PAC, launched in 2007), but progress has been limited. Fewer than half of the targets for 2010 have been met (with much of the proposed financing going to first-time home owners, rather than into physical infrastructure). High public spending commitments are crowding out the paltry 1 percent of GDP that is proposed for investment in infrastructure, while limited private sector investment in transport will not make up the shortfall.

Brazil: Shaky Infrastructure
Latin Business Chronicle
August 2, 2010

Amazon Bridge Opens Opportunities, Poses Threats

A new bridge being constructed over the Amazon River near the northern Brazilian city of Manaus is seen as an opportunity to expand the region's economic viability and connectivity with the rest of the country, but also a threat to the neighboring rainforest. Manaus is one of the 12 cities hosting the 2014 World Cup.

The bridge - the first on the world's greatest river system - symbolises the surging development at the heart of the world's largest rainforest and will bring much-needed economic opportunities for those living on the far bank. But environmentalists fear that the bridge, combined with new gas pipelines, roads and rising populations, could open up the rainforest to further destruction.

Manaus is the steamy and sprawling industrial capital of the vast Amazonas state, manufacturing the latest flatscreen TVs and mobile phones for the whole of Brazil. It has been an island of wealth for 200 years, but it is now opening up in all directions.

The bridge runs from north to south, to the undeveloped towns of Iranduba, Manacapuru and Novo Airão and towards the untouched jungle. To the west, a 600km gas pipeline will next month begin powering a huge new electricity power station by bringing energy from a pristine part of the forest at Urucu into the city.

First Amazon bridge to open world's greatest rainforest to development
The Guardian via Environment South Africa
July 29, 2010

Brazil 'On Track' In Face of 2014 World Cup Deadlines

Despite some concerns about stadium readiness, officials in Brazil claim that the country's infrastructure and preparations are on track to meet deadlines for the 2014 World Cup.

Brazil, like South Africa, will use the quadrennial soccer championship to remake the physical infrastructure of the country, investing almost $19 billion in projects in the 12 host cities. Silva said $6.5 billion would be spent to upgrade public transportation, with $3.1 billion to be spent on airports. The federal government will pay for 70 percent of the total investment, with provincial and municipal governments covering another 8 percent.

“The World Cup is a national project,” he said. “This makes preparing for the World Cup somewhat complex.”

Brazil on Track for 2014 Despite Early Criticism of Stadium Plan
The New York Times
July 28, 2010

Airport Capacity a Concern in Brazil Ahead of 2014

A new report warns that Brazil's airport capacity is too low to handle the expected 146 million travelers entering the country by 2014. Airport expansion is one of the priorities of the government ahead of the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

For years, infrastructure bottlenecks have been one of Brazil's biggest problems as growing auto sales and airline travel, along with a furious expansion in commodities industries, have put strains on ports, highways and airports.

Brazil is already under fire for being behind on construction of stadiums and other World Cup infrastructure.

A report by the consulting firm McKinsey and Co said at the close of 2009, seven of Brazil's 20 principal airports were struggling with overcrowding in both passenger areas and plane berths that frequently led to delays or canceled flights.

Brazil airport capacity lags as World Cup looms
Reuters via Fox News
July 27, 2010