The Minister of Planning and Budget, Simone Tebet, said this Friday (30th), in São Paulo, shortly before participating in the meeting of the governors of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) of the eight countries of the Amazon Basin, where they would discuss actions coordinates for the region, that the focus of the negotiations is the protection of the Amazon forest, the environment and the concern with climate change. She pointed out that, although the IDB acts by financing the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on several fronts, such as infrastructure, sanitation, economy, bioeconomy, the focus at the moment is to have a specific resource policy for that region in an integrated and sustainable way. “Since resources are few, efficient programs that interconnect the region, but with a focus on environmental preservation, the awareness that you can’t keep the forest standing if you don’t provide a source of livelihood for men and women women who live there. Faced with this process, we are here to ask the IDB what we can count on in this matter of sustainable development, and we know that in Brazil the agro needs to be looked at with care”, he observed. The president of the IDB, Ilan Goldfajn, pointed out that it is impossible to have a financing program for the Amazon without thinking about the whole, since what has been learned shows that it is necessary to think about people and the economy in an associated way, offering alternatives such as family farming, for example, being carried out in a sustainable way. “There are IDB resources and initiatives that go in that direction. What we are trying to do today is talk to our governors and ask what else we can do and which way they want us to move forward. But the idea of having a program that thinks in people, in the city, in the countryside, in agriculture, in the economy, it is fundamental. It is a program that has to be sustainable in all dimensions”, he highlighted. Regarding the demand for counterparts from the countries in relation to the reduction of deforestation to obtain financing from the IDB, for example, Goldfajn said that the perception is that the countries currently have a new spirit and initiative in relation to the subject. “All of them are already moving in that direction, independent of the IDB. The idea of the summit to come together, comes from the countries, comes from the initiative of the presidents [dos países]then this counterpart [de redução do desmatamento] it will not be the IDB that will demand it. In fact, the IDB will help the initiative that the countries are already following”, said Goldfajn. Goldfajn also said that it is necessary to understand that there is a new reality in terms of the desire of the countries to contribute as well and the IDB does not want to place obligatory counterparts. “No one wants to oblige, we simply want to contribute to this new initiative that is coming from the countries”, he said. With regard to Brazil, Tebet recalled that she is the coordinator of the External Financing Commission (Cofiex), which is the committee that analyzes whether the financing must be authorized or not, and by determination of President Lula, the projects are scored, because the portfolio is smaller than the demands and normally the projects come, in their majority, from the states and municipalities, covering several areas. “One of the points higher levels, and without this it is difficult for a project to be approved, is what the question of sustainability aims at. Otherwise, it is unlikely that it will pass the Cofiex, which is basically formed by the Ministry of Planning and Budget, [Ministério] of Finance and a representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs”.
Agência Brasil
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