The lead story on the homepage of Brazil’s Planning and Budget Ministry proclaimed today: “Negotiations for the Railway Project That Will Connect Ilhéus (Bahia, Brazil) to the Port of Chancay (Peru) Make Progress during Brazil’s Mission to China; the 3,000-kilometer project represents a ‘revolution', says Minister Simone Tebet during President Lula’s official visit to Beijing.” The report was written by Agencia Brasil, the government news agency.
Tebet, Brazil’s Minister of Planning and Budget, reported that China is most interested in the construction of the “Bioceanic Railway,” as the proposed, first-ever transcontinental rail project is known in South America. The route under discussion is to connect Ilhéus, a city on Brazil’s Atlantic coast in the northeastern state of Bahia, with the Pacific port of Chancay in Peru, passing through key regions of Brazilian agribusiness, including Matopiba, the border area between the states of Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí and Bahia. The route has yet to be fully mapped out, but the intention is to connect Brazil’s West-East Integration Railroad (FIOL), which is already under construction, to its Center-West Integration Railroad (FICO), and then build out the rail line into Peru. A team of Chinese rail engineers was in Brazil in April, visiting sites along the proposed route.
“This represents a revolution. When this project materializes, we will transform Brazil’s entire economic landscape. We are bringing development to a region that is currently considered the richest due to the quality of its soil and agribusiness, but which lacks infrastructure,” Tebet explained to Agencia Brasil. “The railway project will make Brazil much more competitive. It’s a radical change. It will directly impact regions in the North, Center-West, the interior of the Southeast and the Northeast.”
