The President of the Republic Michel Temer attended the opening of the Rio Oil & Gas 2016 Conference and stated that turning Petrobras around is a determinant in improving investments in the country, as well as generating more jobs.

Michel Temer mentioned the draft bill that will do away with the oil company’s obligation of taking part in every investment project. Until then, the company has to take part in any programme whether they have resources for it or not. Temer explained that four points need to be addressed so that the project is fully passed by the Congress.

“The [project’s] merit has been approved, which once more shows Congressional support to our projects. And projects I repeat, that aim at generating jobs through dialogue”, he stated. The Chamber of Deputies will start analysing the bill today again.

Temer said that Brazil has ‘great social instability resulting from unemployment’ and warned that a lot of the unemployment is concentrated in the oil sector. “One of the answers [to the crisis] is diversifying Petrobras’s activities”, he observed.

“When we want to unburden Petrobras, we want to bring in private initiative sectors that may take part in these projects, and may generate jobs”, he stated.

Dialogue with the Legislative branch

Michel Temer reinforced that the victories in important voting processes at the National Congress will help the country down the path leading to the return of economic growth and job generation. For Temer, dialogue is one of his government’s trends.

“Our government is based on dialogue. In a democracy you have to talk to each other. And it’s precisely this dialogue that we’re engaged in”, he stated.

PEC 241

The Constitutional Proposed Amendment (PEC, in the Portuguese acronym) 241, which provides for a cap in the increase of public spending, passed at the Chamber of Deputies with 366 votes, more than the necessary 308. “All we had to do was talk to the Congress. When we publicised the idea that it is the executive that governs with the legislative, the deputies soon noticed and said: we want to help put this country back on track”, he reported.

Optimism

Temer also remembered that other draft bills are about to be voted on and that the Congress has shown to be ready to steer Brazil out of the crisis, as well as incentivise the creation of jobs. “I say this in order to increase optimistic related expectations in our country ever more. The idea is that we shall prosper through our combined efforts”, he stated.