The 12 cities that will host the World Cup 2014 games in Brazil have severe problems of infrastructure, according to the diagnosis of the Brazilian Association of Infrastructure and Basic Industries (Abdib). According to the entity’s Executive Vice-President, Ralph Lima Terra, that attended the Public Hearing at the Committee on Finances and Taxation, on Thursday (13), to discuss the subject, those cities are not ready to host the five hundred thousand tourists expected for the World Cup.

By taking Fifa’s requirements as a reference, Abdib analyzed nine items: urban mobility, airports, sea ports, hotel, power, telecommunication, hospitals, sanitation and security.

One of the identified problems by Abdib is that 73% of the passengers use only 15 airports. Concerning the urban mobility, the problem is not exclusive to the public transport: Fifa requires a taxi for every 300 inhabitants, an amount that is not reached by the majority of the games hosting cities. When the subject concerns security, according to Abdib, there is a lack of investments and also training. However, Godoy remarked that many infrastructure jobs are in process; the matter now is to know whether their conclusion will be made by 2014.

Follow-up
Deputies of the Committee on Finances are concerned. The Committee’s president, Deputy Silvio Torres of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party of São Paulo (PSDB-SP), evaluates that the Congress will have a major part during these jobs’ follow-up.

"We will promote other Public hearings. We will aim to follow up very closely and somehow contribute through the use of pressure, in a way that the jobs may be accomplished with punctuality, but also within the deadlines we assumed ", he said.

Investments
BNDES representative in the hearing, Luiz Antônio Gonçalves, assured that the bank has the capacity to finance the necessary investments in infrastructure. He did not quote values, but remembered that the investments in infrastructure in Brazil increased from R$ 55 billion on 2003 to R$ 106 billion on 2008. However, Abdib evaluates that this amount corresponds to 66% of the ideal.

Abdib’s study is the result of a technical cooperation notice signed by the entity with the Federal Government and CBF. The final result will be presented on September in the 12 hosting cities and other six cities that were candidates to host the games, but were not chosen.

Reporting - Geórgia Moraes /Rádio Câmara
Edition - Wilson Silveira
Translation - Grupo Solucion-SP Language/Maria Carolina M. Ogata