* Brazil upgrading airports before World Cup, Olympics
* Winners from Brazil, South Africa, France, Argentina
* Concessions a reversal from previous government policy
* Investments key to clear other infrastructure bottlenecks
By Leonardo Goy and Carolina Marcondes
SAO PAULO, Feb 6 (Reuters) – Brazil took a significant
step on Monday toward upgrading its notoriously bad
infrastructure, by awarding $14 billion in private contracts for
improvements at three key airports to accommodate soaring
passenger traffic and prepare for the 2014 World Cup.
The concessions, awarded to large Brazilian contractors in
association with international airport operators, are viewed as
a small but hopeful sign that the government of President Dilma
Rousseff is beginning to take a more market-based approach to
logjams that for decades have hindered investments in Brazil’s
aging and overburdened infrastructure.
Under the arrangement, the consortiums paid a combined 24.5
billion reais ($14.21 billion) – much more than expected – for
the right to build and operate new terminals at two airports in
São Paulo state and the main airport in Brasília, the capital.
They will operate the terminals in conjunction with
Infraero, the state agency that currently runs the airports.
Brazilian officials have touted the arrangement as a hybrid that
will allow for greater participation of private capital without
formally being a privatization – which would be heresy to many
activists in Rousseff’s left-leaning Workers’ Party.
Continued…
