Eurasia Review.com - December 7, 2013
By Erika Johnson
As Brazil prepares to host the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics, the
South American poster child is under pressure to conduct immense
infrastructural reforms, an ambitious undertaking that will require a
reversal of the economic stagnation that has plagued the nation since
former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva left office in 2011. Growth
in Brazil, the world’s sixth-largest economy which had been seeing
prosperity along with increases in the prices of the nation’s most
important exports, slowed from 7.5 percent in 2010 to 2.9 percent in
2011, and finally to a startling 0.9 percent in 2012, with only 2.5
percent expected this year. [1]
According to an unnamed Brazilian diplomat, the South American
nation’s central government recognizes that it has the potential to
become a highly developed nation, and is now taking the initiative to
reach its potential. However, it will have to overcome significant
obstacles before it can succeed. Brazil continues to confront structural
impediments, including a wholly inadequate transportation network,
unreliable electrical supplies, and a breathtakingly inept government
bureaucracy. Upcoming elections, tax cuts, social unrest, declining
foreign aid, and lukewarm legislation threaten the long-term development
that Brazil desperately needs. The situation becomes even more critical
in the face of the rapidly approaching 2014 and 2016 deadlines for the
sophisticated infrastructural reforms mandated by international sports
competitions. Brazil’s economy is coming to a critical turning point,
and it remains to be seen whether the Rousseff administration
(2011-present) can succeed in removing the “developing nation” label, or
if it will end up forgoing long-term development by catering only to
sports events and foreign interest.
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