Streamlining Government - Lessons from São Paulo
One of the reasons I had wanted to look at Brazil and how they handle FDI, is because they share some interesting characteristics of the American bureaucracy. Brazil is also a union of states with federal, state and local systems of government. They have multiple systems of government all focused on attracting FDI. When I described the situation in the Greater Philadelphia region - the federal government, 3 states, multiple counties, and nonprofit/quasi governmental organizations working to attract FDI - one reaction from a Brazilian official was "[w]ow, you could have been describing São Paulo."
São Paulo is a state and a city. Within this state there are 3 large cities all situated fairly close to one another - São Paulo (city), Santos and Campinas. SP has 39 counties, Santos has 14 counties, and Campinas has 19 counties. Collectively they represent more than 50% of the state's GDP and 20% of the country's.
Over the years, the Greater Philadelphia region has had a number of attempts at coordinating its diverse efforts at attracting FDI, with mixed degrees of success, so I was curious how São Paulo handled these challenges in light of those many governments all vying for the same FDI dollars. The answer was that they too haven't figured it out - yet - but they are about to launch the Mega Metropolis Project (MMP).
The MMP is an attempt to bring leaders from each of these governments, as well as representatives of the private sector, in a public private partnership that will operate as a committee to oversee certain projects that will benefit the region in attracting FDI or in bringing other regional benefits. It's early to tell whether or to what extent this project will work, but it may form a model for concentrating the efforts of the greater Philadelphia region on attracting FDI. An offer was also made to start a Philadelphia/Sao Paulo forum to discuss cooperation among layers of government to manage and focus projects for the betterment of the entire area. Hopefully the Macro Metropolis Project will be a huge success and one The Greater Philadelphia region can emulate.
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