Quality of life in the metropolitan area – Challenges to be faced by São Paulo to become a global leader

The state started a new cycle of development focused in the high-tech industry and in improvements in urban transport but will have to face other bottlenecks such as improvement of the performance of education and management of the crisis of water supply

The last X-ray of investments in the state of São Paulo, carried out by the Fundação Sistema Estadual de Análise de Dados (Seade – Foundation State System of Data Analysis) show a race of public and private investments to overcome the main obstacle to finish a long cycle of development: the infrastructure of transport and mobility.

From the 501 investments surveyed by the Pesquisa de Investimentos Anunciados no Estado de São Paulo (Piesp – Research of Advertised Investments in the State of São Paulo) in 2013, two thirds of a total of US$ 27.7 billion were directed to the area of infrastructure, with strong emphasis in transport and urban mobility in the areas of subway, trains and buses. On the other hand, this figure is less than half of the record achieved in 2012 (US$ 59.8 billion).  The total of announced investments is equivalent to that recorded in 2009, year of recovery from the effects of the world financial crisis.  But it is below the record achieved in 2012, when the investments reached the top. The period between 2010 and 2012 had the highest values of the historical series and reflected specially the strong investments in the area of infrastructure.

Information about the period of investment shows that US$ 17.1 billion (61.8 percent of the total) will be spent till 2016 and US$ 9.7 billion (35.0 percent) will be spent between 2017 and 2021. Long-term investment flows (ten years or more) totalized only US$ 868.8 million (3.1 percent).

The Pesquisa de Investimentos Anunciados no Estado de São Paulo (Piesp), carried out by the Fundação Sistema Estadual de Análise de Dados (Seade) is an important document that analyses the investments carried out in the state. It is also a unique instrument to measure the trends of productive increase, as well as of the business opportunities in the State of São Paulo. Focusing the distribution of investments in the different areas of the economy and in the different regions of the state, the survey counts the advertising published by the press. This information is checked by the Seade Foundation with the respective companies, in a way to ensure coherence and reliability to its accounting. The last analysis, published in 2014, works with data of 2013 but is current in relation to the trends of priority investments.

The volume directed to infrastructure reached 65.6 percent or US$ 18.2 billion of the total, leaded by the investments in earth transport of passengers, to improve the urban mobility (subway, trains and buses). Industry occupies the second place with 19.6 percent or US$ 5.4 billion.  The area of services received 13.6 percent (US$ 3.8 billion) and the area of commerce received 1.2 percent (US$ 327.0 million).

It is interesting that more than 50 percent of the investments noticed in 2013 were directed to the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo (RMSP), followed by the  macro-metropolis composed by Campinas (US$ 3.7 billion) and neighborhood, to Paraíba River Valley and Northern Seashore (US$ 3.2 billion), to Baixada Santista (US$ 2.0 billion) and to Sorocaba (US$ 789.4 million), signalizing the priority of investments not only in infrastructure but also in the productive area and showing that this region is an area of economic priority that has a lack of transport.