[Soulflytribe]

SAO PAULO, Nov. 22 (UPI) -- The Brazilian government raised $9.1 billion by privatizing the country's two major airports Friday, officials said.

A consortium led by the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht and Singapore airport operator Changi paid $8.3 billion for the rights to operate Rio de Janeiro's Galeao airport for 25 years, while a consortium lead by Brazilian highways operator CCR and Swiss airport operator Swiss Flughafen paid $795 million to run Confins International Airport near Santa Barbara, The New York Times reported Thursday.

As part of their contracts, the two groups must invest billions in improvement. They assume control of the airports in March, just ahead of the June 2014 World Cup, officials said.

The two airports combined are responsible for 14 percent of air passenger traffic in Brazil.

The Times said officials indicated the money raised will help reduce the budget deficit for this year.

President Dilma Rousseff haled the auction results, calling them "better than expected."

Great news!

[Social_Critic]

Nice experiment. Does the government intend more neoliberal policies like this?

[Soulflytribe]

Does the government intend more neoliberal policies like this?

Actually, yes! They want to privatize ports, railways and highways too. The socialist government has even launched a site to attract foreign investors: http://www.logisticsbrazil.gov.br/

In this map below you can see what they intend to sell in the coming months:

Green dots: 11 ports for sale
Orange dots: 9 highways for sale
Pink dots: 13 railways for sale
Blue dots: 2 airports (The ones I've mentioned in the OP)

[Far-Right Sage]

Good, then they have nothing to look forward to but more unrest in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia, and throughout the country. Brazil will learn the hard way it seems, as did Argentina and other Latin American states, that short-sighted and inflammatory neoliberal policy prescriptions don't pay.

[benpenguin]

Well they will soon see a flood of Chinese, and in a few decades, rich and locally established Chinese families. There will be unrest, as FRS said, but looking at similair models like Philippines / Thailand I'd say they did alright.

The key is not keeping the Chinese out, but for the locals to stay competitive.

[Rei Murasame]

Actually, yes! They want to privatize ports, railways and highways too.

Compradors inviting other compradors to become compradors. Brazil is an 'interesting place', as Tainari would've put it.

"I put some compradors between your other compradors, so you can be a comprador while dealing with compradors."

[Quantum]

I find this ironic because the airports are being sold to a state-owned enterprise whilst proclaiming the privatisation a success. How stupid or corrupt do you have to be to sell your assets to another government and allow their influence to increase in your country? If this venture becomes a success, it will prove the sucess of Singapore's state capitalism against neoliberalism.

[Soulflytribe]

Compradors inviting other compradors to become compradors.

I know you don't believe that, I read your lucid and prudent posts about the importance of market reforms in Vietnam and how they end up saving the Vietnamese government in the long run. You know that such reforms can improve any economy anywhere in the world. Besides, you also know that all the major economies in the world have privatized most of their state owned public utilities.

Examples:

- Japan privatized 100% of their railway system in 1987;
http://www.crosscurrents.hawaii.edu/content.aspx?lang=eng&site=japan&theme=work&subtheme=UNION&unit=JWORK048

- The Port of Kobe was privatized in 2011;
http://www.kptc.co.jp/e_greeting.html

- The US privatizes highways all the time;
http://www.chicagoskyway.org/

- China has started privatizing its airports in 1986.
http://www.eai.nus.edu.sg/BB527.pdf

I could go on and on...

But you prefer to call me and S_C "compradors", implying that we are traitors. Well, I guess you are not being honest in your opinion about the thread's topic and just looking for a pretext to insult the people you tend to disagree with, just like you did in your thread/poll about Party A and Party B.

I find this ironic because the airports are being sold to a state-owned enterprise whilst proclaiming the privatisation a success. How stupid or corrupt do you have to be to sell your assets to another government and allow their influence to increase in your country? If this venture becomes a success, it will prove the sucess of Singapore's state capitalism against neoliberalism.

Where did you find the shareholding structure of Changi Group? I could not find it on their site. http://www.changiairportgroup.com/cag/
Anyway, I don't believe that Changi Group is a state company, but even if it is, I guess that Xiaoping's quote works both ways:

"It doesn't matter whether a cat is white or black, as long as it catches mice."

Changi group knows how to manage airports and I'm quite happy about having them managing the airport of my city. Through trial and error mankind learned that private companies manage things better than state companies. Ask the Chinese! Ask the Japanese (Tepco, you may say! Exceptions exist, I know)! Ask Americans! And since the socialist Brazilian Government wants Brazil as the fifth economy in the world by 2020, they are applying the same methods as the other big guys (China, Japan and the US) have been applying. It's that simple.

[Rei Murasame]

I know you don't believe that, I read your lucid and prudent posts about the importance of market reforms in Vietnam and how they end up saving the Vietnamese government in the long run. You know that such reforms can improve any economy anywhere in the world.

You'll notice that I was talking about a specific sector and did not mention anywhere at all that selling off highways, airports, electricity, or water, to foreign companies, would ever be a good idea.

But this is probably why it is remiss of me to even say these things, since if I make one statement, you just come back and misapply it as though there is no difference between one sector and the next.

Besides, you also know that all the major economies in the world have privatized most of their state owned public utilities.

An action which I actually oppose.

[Far-Right Sage]

I find this ironic because the airports are being sold to a state-owned enterprise whilst proclaiming the privatisation a success. How stupid or corrupt do you have to be to sell your assets to another government and allow their influence to increase in your country? If this venture becomes a success, it will prove the sucess of Singapore's state capitalism against neoliberalism.

This is true. I actually missed this detail. Once again, Singapore comes out smelling quite sweet. I suppose it is not difficult to get the best of the incompetents in the Rousseff administration and rabid Brazilian neoliberals whispering empty promises in their ear.

[Social_Critic]

Rouseff seems to be quite pragmatic. She understands the key to her party's future is to deliver on promises. And this requires a growing economic pie she can slice so reduce inequality. So like Ollanta Humala in Peru she's focusing on what works. They made mistakes, for example the World Cup stadium mess, and the corruption sure look bad. But it's clear that Brazil is emerging as a much more vigorous nation than say Argentina and Ecuador.

And if we look even more to the "faux left", such as Venecuba, we see utter failure and a very repressive regime.

So I think Brazil is a great example of how Latin America can grow properly while dealing with their lousy cultural and historical baggage.