At the opening of the Agenda Brasil event — organized by Valor, O Globo and CBN radio — Rodrigo Maia, president of the National Federation of Financial Institutions (FIN), said that it is the role of institutions and the private sector to look ahead, envisioning the Brazil of the future rather than focusing only on day-to-day problems. “My sector and others should be concerned with designing regulatory frameworks that provide more predictability and legal certainty for the private sector, and administrative reform is part of that,” he noted.
Mr. Maia said it is misguided to see the reform only as a spending-cut exercise, since there is little left to cut. “Public payroll expenses have been falling in recent years; that is not the problem,” he said, noting that public spending is rising in other areas, such as social security. He warned that Brazil cannot continue to have the current volume of litigation and court-ordered debts. “Legal uncertainty cannot serve the interests of the few who take advantage of the state,” he criticized.
Mr. Maia also announced that on September 15, James A. Robinson—winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Economics for his studies on how institutions are formed and shape nations’ prosperity—will deliver a lecture in São Paulo at an event hosted by the Institute for Development and Research (IDP).
— Foto: Daniel Fagundes/Valor