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Brazil & Southern Cone - July 2011 (ISSN 1741-4431)

POLITICS: Falling off the rails?

An indicator often used as a measure of a country’s level of development is its percentage of paved roads. If that is the case then Brazil, which considers itself on the cusp of international superstardom, has a long way to go. As of 2010, only 13% of its national road network was paved, according to the National Transport Confederation (CNT). Notwithstanding Brazil’s massive size, that compares fairly badly to regional neighbours. The CNT estimates that Brazil needs to invest up to US$110bn to upgrade and modernise its roads and the government is continuing with multibillion dollar plans to overhaul the country’s creaking infrastructure in the next half decade. The results, to date, are disappointing. After six months in office, the new Dilma Rousseff administration itself is also getting stuck in potholes, amid festering corruption scandals linked to these billion dollar outlays and problems with the multi-party ruling coalition.

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