Temer highlights transformations in Brazil during breakfast with foreign journalists

With positive results in the areas of healthcare, education, economy and employment, President Michel Temer took stock of the major advancements in the country during a breakfast with foreign correspondents in the Planalto Palace on Thursday (6 December). For Temer, he is delivering to his successor as of 2019 a Brazil that is quite different from the country he found two and a half years ago.

Measures such as the public spending ceiling, labour reform, upper secondary education reform and the valuation of Brazilian State-Owned Enterprises have been fundamental to the development of the country. According to the president, dialogue and partnership with the National Congress have made the achievements possible.

Healthcare, education and work

In education, the president pointed out that upper secondary education reform was something desired in the country since 1997, but only made possible in his administration. In healthcare, in addition to the increased budget, the sector also managed to save more than R$ 800 million, which allowed for the purchase of new ambulances and important equipment. “The thesis that we had introduced something that would destroy healthcare and education was disproved,” he stressed.

In the labour area, there was the modernisation of labour laws, which, according to Temer, was built jointly with the Ministry of Labour, trade unions and industry and services associations. The new law added flexibility to labour relations and gave more legal force to agreements between employers and employees. “There was no trauma in relation to the modernisation of labour, which made labour relations more flexible exactly and precisely to increase the possibility of employment in our country,” he said. 

SOEs and social programmes 

Temer recalled the recovery of State-Owned Enterprises such as Furnas, Banco do Brasil, postal company Correios and Petrobras, which recorded almost R$ 7 billion in profits in the first quarter of this year and regained credibility: “This is a fourth kind of reform, the recovery of SOEs”, he pointed out. A new measure approved by Congress requiring that only technicians be appointed to head State-Owned Enterprises was also made possible in his administration. 

The investments made for the growth of Bolsa Família (a cash transfer programme) and Minha Casa Minha Vida (an affordable housing programme) were also highlighted. “Bolsa Familia is a programme that has more of an assistance nature, than, exactly, an inclusive nature”, Temer pondered while mentioning Progredir ("To Progress"), a programme created in his administration that aims to have young children of Bolsa Família beneficiary families hired as apprentices. More than 200,000 young men and women have been hired under the programme.