BRASÍLIA: Brazil’s passionate Ports Minister Helder Barbalho announced that the recently delayed second tranche of port privatizations valued at more than 2.8 billion reais ($763.3 million) would go forward on June 5 at the Sao Paulo bourse.
In his opening speech at the Intermodal South America conference he said Brazil would be able to overcome the political and economic challenges facing the port sector to secure investment through a “big effort.” The minister has stayed on in his post after his political party, the PMDB, quit the government to start impeachment proceedings related to the Car Wash scandal against President Dilma Rousseff.
The port community, which had wrung its hands over Barbalho’s relative inexperience when he was appointed last year, is warming to the minister, who is said to be reveling in the challenges of the job.
“I refuse to be catatonic when facing the huge, first challenges. There has been a lot of talk about the difficulties we are experiencing right now, but we will face them and overcome them,” Barbalho said in his speech. “The logistics sector plays an important role for Brazil to grow and develop. For the country to be competitive, you need fast and efficient logistics.”
