1. THE CRISIS AFFECTING THE DEVELOPMENT OF BAHIA
Fernando Alcoforado *
Bahia is facing in current time with external and internal threats. External threats are
related to the crisis in the world economy and can affect exports from Bahia to foreign
markets and may lead the economy to the economic depression of Bahia. Internal
threats are related to the structural and management problems that negatively impact on
the development of Bahia.
Currently, the State of Bahia presents numerous economic problems that translate into a
decline in exports, decline in GDP growth, insufficient domestic savings,
deindustrialization of Bahia, regional inequalities and worsening social and
environmental problems, in addition to the huge deficiencies in its economic and social
infrastructure. These problems are in addition to managerial incompetence in
government management configured in the recent fiscal and financial crisis.
Overcoming the problems affecting the development of Bahia depends crucially on the
solution of three types of crisis in the field of public sector management: 1) Crisis of
planning, 2) Crisis of development strategy, and 3) Fiscal crisis of public finances. The
crisis of planning of State of Bahia is characterized by a lack of systemic and strategic
approach to have the optimization of the development process based on a systemic and
strategic plan for regional development. Unfortunately, the Bahia state government does
not have a regional development plan covering the entire State of Bahia.
The crisis of development strategy results from the fact that the government of the State
of Bahia has no effective development strategy and be as inefficient and ineffective
organization. In turn, the recent fiscal crisis of public finances resulted from managerial
incompetence of the government of Bahia, who did nothing to reduce government
spending since the outbreak of the 2008 world crisis facing the prospect of declines in
state revenue. The Bahia state government did not reduce spending costs and no
effective control of cash flow.
To address the economic problems resulting from the global crisis of 2008 and tackle
the structural problems of Bahia is essential to overcoming the management crisis of the
government of Bahia. To achieve this goal, it is essential to fill the various positions of
public administration with competent teams, implement an effective system of planning
and control of public finances, sharply reduce the cost of funding of public
administration in Bahia eliminating unnecessary departments and agencies and
commissioned positions to minimum necessary and renegotiate the repayment of debt
with the federal government (main creditor) to provide funds for investment in
infrastructure of transport, education, health and housing of Bahia State.
This is the condition for the government of Bahia may develop systemic and strategic
development plans for the state as a whole and for each region, strengthen and integrate
their poles of growth and development to be connected to each other by roads
(highways, railways and waterways) and enjoy the endogenous development potential
of each municipality and each region.
*
Alcoforado, Fernando, engineer and doctor of Territorial Planning and Regional Development from the
University of Barcelona, a university professor and consultant in strategic planning, business planning,
regional planning and planning of energy systems, is the author of Globalização (Editora Nobel, São
Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova (Des)ordem Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo,
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2. 1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2000), Os condicionantes do
desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado. Universidade de Barcelona,
http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e Desenvolvimento (Editora Nobel,
São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX e Objetivos Estratégicos na Era
Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of the Economic and Social
Development-The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Muller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG,
Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe Planetária (P&A Gráfica e Editora,
Salvador, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e combate ao aquecimento global
(Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011) and Os Fatores Condicionantes do
Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012), among others.
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