Did Lula and Dilma only favor investments in the Northeast?
No, the country whole grew, but the North, Northeast and Midwest grew more rapidly and intensly. Investments in industry, such as refineries in the Northeast, and in infrastructure (railroads and highways in the Center West and Northeast, for example) were allocated to the states most in need.
To create more investments in the North, the Northeast and the Center West, did Lula and Dilma divert resources from the South and Southeast?
No, this did not happen. Much of the public financialresources for the growth of the three poorest regions of thecountry came from Constitutional Financing for development funds, and especially the North, the Northeast and Center West Funds. These funds were created in the 1988 Constitution in order to reduce regional inequality. Before Lula, resources were underutilized because often the resources were simply not applied, as if the funds did not exist.
Social policies were actually fundamental in generating income and employment in the three regions, but most of the infrastructure projects are capable of ensuring the continuity of the country's economic development is concentrated in the three poorest regions. The transportation system, for example, is going through a huge transformation: the waterways and ports will fill an historical gap in the Amazon and the roads and railways like the Transnordestina will lead the economic wealth of the Northeast to the capital cities of the country.
Will the populations of the North, Northeast and Midwest be able to adapt to the new reality and to continue the economic growth?
Yes, young people in the North, Northeast and Midwest are getting training and enrolling in higher education as neverbefore. Between 2001 and 2012, in Brazil, the number of enrollments in higher education more than doubled. In the North and Northeast, the growth was even higher: 148.3% and 128.5%, respectively. With this growth, the Northeast today is the region with the second highest enrollments in higher education (over 19%), surpassing the South in 2008.
The Government's priority is to provide the conditions for the Northeast can begin to live with drought and not "fight it" - as if that were possible. More than R $ 7 billion was to encourage technologies for agriculture that helps to coexist with semiarid conditions and drought. To alleviate the immediate effects of drought, the Government maintains a monthly stipend of R $ 80.00 for 1.3 million farmers who temporarily have no way to produce.
growth?
Not at all. What happened was exactly the opposite. And the growth of more than 47% of the Municipal Human Development Index (IDHM) in majority of Brazilian municipalities shows that the effects of growth were uniform in the country and inequalities also decreased in these regions. In almost 40% of Northeastern municipalities, for example, the increase in life expectancy was higher than the national average, and in 65% of Brazilian municipalities education improved above the national average.
