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| Sunday, 5 January 2003 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Brazil postpones fighter purchase to buy food, takes aim at illiteracy Brazil's new left wing government on Friday delayed the 760 million dollar purchase of fighter jets until at least 2004, saying it wants to concentrate cash on battling poverty. The decision came out of the first cabinet meeting of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has vowed to tackle the major social inequalities in South America's biggest country. The meeting concentrated on budget priorities for the year and Defense Minister Jose Viegas said: "The start of this new government will be marked by the fight against hunger and so it is necessary to concentrate our resources in this area." He said the government would consider leasing planes or buying second hand jets for the air force, which needs to replace part of its aging fleet. "The 760 million dollars will not be immediately spent because buying planes means finding finance," he added. About one third of the population of 170 million people suffer from food shortages. Lula emphasised during his election campaign last year and his inauguration speech on Wednesday that he would devote himself to "zero hunger". Education Minister Cristovam Buarque meanwhile announced the ambitious goal of stamping out adult illiteracy in Brazil in 40 months. Some 20 million adult Brazilians cannot read and write. "My challenge is to wipe out illetarcy in Brazil and I am going to start with those who do not know how to read and write at the ministry, and also retired people, who have time ... and young people in the military," Buarque said. In his swearing-in address, Buarque also pledged that the Workers Party was committed to offering all children a place in school from the age of four. But Brazil's first elected left wing government is also under pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to maintain tight spending controls as it battles a financial crisis, including mounting inflation, which required a 31 billion dollar IMF credit line last year. New Finance Minister Antonio Palocci said his priorities would be meeting Lula's aims with "fiscal responsibility and economic stability". Despite the blow of losing its planes, new air force chief Brigadier General Luiz Carlos Bueno said the decision had been "very well accepted" by the air force, which had known such cuts were possible. "We are working with and not against the government," he said. He said the air force had 18 Mirage jets which can be used until 2005. Five consortia had answered the last Brazilian governments tender for 12 fighter bombers to replace some of the country's Mirages. Two of the offers involved Brazilian firms, Embraer and Avibras, while Saab of Sweden and BAE of Britain had formed an alliance against Lockheed Martin of the United States and the Russian makers of the Mig fighter. Embraer signed an alliance in 1999 with a group of French companies Aerospatiale-Matra, Dassault Aviation, Snecma and Thomson-CSF. At the cabinet meeting, other ministries also set out their spending priorities and plans to increase social programmes, officials said. Lula is also to plan a trip for some ministers to poverty-stricken regions in the country's northeast so they could see hunger first hand. The new administration will also have to work out their strategy for dealing with congress. Lula does not have a stable majority in congress, and cooperation with legislators to the right of his Workers' Party is critical to his success. The Workers' Party has 219 seats out of 513 in the legislature. He would need 257 votes for ordinary legislation and 308 to make constitutional amendments. |
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