The former federal health minister hoping to be the nationally ruling Workers Party candidate for governor of Sao Paulo state said here Wednesday that Brazil's wealthiest and most populous region must embrace public-private partnerships if it is to recover its position as the country's "dynamic hub."

Alexandre Padilha was the featured speaker at the latest installment of the EFE Breakfast discussion series, sponsored by Spanish tech giant Indra.

Public-private partnerships can be beneficial in areas such as public safety, technology and transport, he said.

He said that crime is a main concern of business leaders and criticized the current Sao Paulo state government for not reaching agreements with the private sector that would help alleviate the problem.

In the U.S. cities of New York and Chicago, for example, there is "constant interaction" between authorities' surveillance cameras and those operated by banks and shopping centers, Padilha said.

"The private sector's images are used by the (New York City) police for crime prevention. How many images from bank branches (in Sao Paulo) are requested only after the crime (has been committed)?" he asked.

Public-private partnerships also are needed in the transport sector, according to the gubernatorial hopeful, who noted that the Sao Paulo Metro, which began operating in 1974, contains just 75 kilometers (45 miles) of routes.

That is less than half of the total of the Mexico City and Seoul metro systems, which were built in the same era.

In his speech, Padilha discussed the challenges he wants to tackle if the Workers Party, or PT, wins the October 5 regional elections.

"Sao Paulo's weight in the country's economy has been reduced. The state is like it was in the (19)40s, accounting for 32 percent of the nation's gross domestic product, when it had been at nearly 60 percent in the '70s," he said.

The physician and politician said that "if Sao Paulo were a country it would be in the G-20 as the world's 18th-biggest economy. It's the state that attracts the most investment, primarily from Spain in recent years, and is Brazil's top producer of ethanol, sugar and oranges" and the leader in the fish-farming sector.

"(Sao Paulo) is the giant we want to awaken and that must recover its place as the country's dynamic hub," Padilha said.

The vice president of Banco Santander Brasil, Marcos Madureira; the president of Agencia Efe, Spain's international news agency, Jose Antonio Vera; and the PT's leader in Sao Paulo state, Emidio Souza, also participated in the forum along with Padilha, who is bidding to challenge incumbent Gov. Geraldo Alckmin of the centrist Brazilian Social Democracy Party. EFE