John Morales - OPINION
Foz do Iguaçu is an atypical city, different from all the others. It has natural beauty, such as the National Park and the Iguaçu Falls; and the beauty that was built by man, such as Itaipu Binacional. It borders two countries, Argentina and Paraguay, and this gives our city a great opportunity for wealth, giving it a potential that no other city has.
Historically, the main focus of governments and political agents has been tourism. However, in our view, this should not be the only focus. It is time to change this reality and include logistics.
We have long had the largest dry port in Latin America in terms of cargo movement and now in terms of size. There are approximately 200 trucks per year transporting products that enter and leave our borders. What we see is that the entities involved in logistics and foreign trade, and even tourism, have little participation in government decisions. They are not heard.
Demands come from the top down. Let us remember the closure of the Charrua roundabout on BR-277. They simply closed it without consulting the logistics agents. They built an overpass on Avenida Paraná precisely to meet these demands. However, once again the logistics agents were not consulted. They built an overpass on Avenida Costa e Silva with BR-277 and the entities were not consulted either.
The Perimetral Leste was created in Foz. And at no time were the logistics personnel consulted. It is being built with a single lane. And we know that there is a possibility of congestion and heavy traffic. Queues will occur because there will be demand for trucks in the region. So we realize that the transporters are not being listened to.
Foz has a huge potential for growth, and right now, in 2024, it could not be any different. Something that can still happen is the combination of logistics and tourism in Foz. We have job creators, entrepreneurs, people who have a different vision of the city and have a lot to contribute. They want and need to sit at the table with the government. This is the great way for the transformation to begin to happen.
Structural projects are defined by political agents without consulting the sectors involved, and are often not a priority. We need to bring all stakeholders together to begin designing an ideal city, based on a study and with an entrepreneurial vision to achieve even greater results for Foz.
Every year, young people get their diplomas and many seek opportunities in other locations, precisely in search of opportunities that can be generated here, expanding and transforming the economic matrix. Our vision is to adopt measures to transform these goods that cross our city. May we lead this process through healthy intervention and dialogue with businesspeople and government officials.
This way, we can look for possibilities such as expanding the Foz Industrial Park so that the products that pass through here can be transformed. We would gain in terms of job creation, interested entrepreneurs and increased tax collection.
We see that with tourism and logistics going hand in hand, the dialogue with the next manager can be more forceful. The manager alone will not be able to meet the demands of the economic challenges. So, there is a long way to go between these two powers. We have to transform from a city of transit for products to a city that is potentialized for industry, cargo release and expansion of the logistics hub. And in relation to tourism, it must truly be a tourist city, and not a city of tourist attractions.
All of this will happen through dialogue so that we can build this idea, put it on paper and join forces to achieve the fantastic result that our people are waiting for. Enough of exporting labor. We have talent and people who want to contribute. The opportunity is there, two powers that need to be aligned with political agents so that we can put our priorities into practice.
“The dialogue is open in the City Council”
The proposal for dialogue is very important. Today, as president of the Legislative Branch, I have this line of dialogue and I use it a lot. This dialogue began in the Chamber with civil servants and members who have a history within the Legislative Assembly. They often suggested changes to the managers, but until then they were only concerned with political issues and not with management issues. We had specific conversations with the civil servants and this brought fantastic results in just under a year and a half of management.
Today, we have a reality such as the Itinerant Session, leaving the House of Laws and going to the neighborhoods; we implemented digital signature, where processes are agile and more efficient; we reduced paper and office supplies with the reduction of more than 70 thousand impressions in the last five months alone;
We saved on rent by reducing the adjoining space where we had a file storage facility – we returned the location that generated expenses of approximately R$500/year and had been used by the Legislature for the last 15 years; we are also implementing teleworking, which has drastically reduced the number of medical certificates and production almost doubles when the employee is at home; we provided training, courses and opportunities for employees.
All of this is possible through dialogue. The vast majority of these actions were the ideas of the civil servants; other ideas of the current administration were well accepted by them and this represents a huge gain. To conclude with a flourish, we have two situations: The open TV of the Chamber is a reality. We have the authorization from ANATEL. Now all that is missing is the structuring. And also the beginning of the Executive Project of the New Headquarters of the Chamber. These are triggers that we will leave for the next legislature, and the next president will certainly find the house in order.
João Morales is 44 years old and is the current president of the City Council of Foz do Iguaçu. Elected in 2020, he took office in January 2021 and has been the leader of the legislature since January 2023. He has a degree in Administration, is a businessman in the Foreign Trade sector and also has training as a Systemic Integral Coach.
He wrote a lot and said almost nothing.
Blah blah blah