During the seminar, Brazil: Are you Ready for the World Cup and the Olympics? at the 12th Forum de Comandatuba [Comandatuba Forum], Aldo Rebelo, Minister of Sports, said that these two major events will be followed by three billion people, and therefore it requires investments in urban transport, ports, airports, security and technology.
Rebelo emphasized that airports will double their capacity for takeoffs and landings, and that operational problems will be worked out by 2014.
In Pernambuco, nearly 30 thousand students are getting extra hours each week of supplementary language instruction in English or Spanish. “These students will be working to greet foreign visitors during the Cup,” says Eduardo Campos, Governor of the state.
Geraldo Julio, Mayor of Pernambuco, believes that “the Cup is going to help the city to gain world recognition as a place that is friendly to business.”
Although Goiânia was not chosen as a host-city, Governor Marconi Perillo is excited about the possibility of hosting the Brazilian national team at the Confederations Cup. “We are working on mobility and hotel service, and we want to prepare tourist destinations such as Caldas Novas”.
In Bahia, an agreement between the state and the capital city, which are governed by different parties, managed to put an end to the saga of the subway which has been dragging on for 12 years.
In Salvador, Mayor ACM (Antonio Carlos Magalhães) Neto gave assurances that he is going to expand bus lanes so that transportation moves faster.
“We have to give priority to public transportation and not to individual drivers,” he said. He noted that there will also be modernization of the waterfront to have Carnaval during the World Cup.
Rebelo said there is an ambitious project in the works that will involve getting one million volunteers for the Cup. “Companies that can donate one hour of their employees’ work on weekends and for games would be helping, because people should get to know our Brazilian kindness and our smile.” For athletes with special needs, the good News is the construction of the world’s biggest Paralympic Center, an investment of US$ 40 million.
Viviane Senna, President of the Ayrton Senna Institute (IAS – Instituto Ayrton Senna), said that although Brazil is the country that has most expanded school enrollment, it took 100 years to do so.
She highlighted the example of Altamira (Pará state), ranked first in the state on the Index of Primary School Development (IDEB – Índice de Desenvolvimento da Escola Básica), a place it won following work done by the IAS.
During the Comandatuba Forum alone, businessmen donated nearly US$ 1 million for the institution to invest in educational projects.
