A jump into the future

New plant of Jeep opens a portal of development for the Zona da Mata of Pernambuco

By Mariuza Rodrigues

Inaugurated in April, the modern plant of Jeep located in Goiana—in the Zona da Mata of Pernambuco—is a piece of future in the northeastern hinterland. Resulting from the Fiat-Chrysler union, the plant was designed—among other features—as a sort of mall-plant, a transparent production unit with large panels of glass and internal temperature of 27ºC. Its administration layout may give the impression of being in a modern IT company such as Facebook or Google. The unit from Goiana is the most modern of the group, with production capacity of 250,000 vehicles per year for Latin American Market, and closes a total investment of approximately R$ 7 billion.

Like all the Northeastern Region, Pernambuco is being highlighted in the national scenario with an outstanding development levered by a boom of public investments that attracted private investments. The state reaps the fruits of the consolidation of the Port of Suape as a port route to foreign countries and of the construction of Abreu e Lima Refining Plant, that levered the local area of engineering and construction. All these facts may be hazy by the scandal of Lava Jato/Petrolão, which ended to stop plant works. But we have to look farther and check the real impact that occurred and will occur in the economy of the state.

The economist Tânia Bacelar, of Consultoria Econômica e Planejamento (Ceplan), says that the start of the automotive complex and the investments that will follow will cause a huge impact in increasing the GDP not only of Goiana but also of the state of Pernambuco as a whole.

The Fecomércio System issued an unpublished study about the perspectives for Goiana and other 13 municipalities located in a radius of 60 km from the plant: it estimated that the region will receive a total investment of R$ 17 billion and will become one of the main impellers of the economy of Pernambuco.

The study takes into account the initial estimated demand of the unit: approximately eight thousand workers. The conclusion of the study, however, is that the main difficulties to make the municipalities and their companies take profit from the benefits of this industrial boom are the low offer of qualified labor, the informality of the shops and the restrictions in qualifying a suppliers’ chain, in addition to the delay of the investments needed to improve the local road and railway structure, a complementary source of activity related to the industrial complex located in the Zona da Mata of Pernambuco.

It is a unanimous point of view, however, that the base of all deficiencies is the low quality of basic and professional teaching in the region. This is the main challenge to be faced by the governments, by private initiative and by the families established in the place.

Dream Plant

The region where more than 500 arms of robots are currently moving was occupied during almost five centuries by sugar cane plantations. Challenging a logic that the hinterland of Pernambuco was not a place to install a car manufacturing plant, the erection of Jeep’s plant was carried out in just two years.