Miguel Hadad is Interviewed for Winners Magazine

How do you currently evaluate the city of Jundiaí?

Jundiaí has come very far. The position achieved by our city allows us a vision of how the Jundiaí of the future can be: A city that is closer to nature, without overpopulation, where we can have access to the services available locally and also globally, and capable of offering, through the strength of its economy, more and more and better opportunities for everyone. Working with a vision, with long term goals, is one of the features of Jundiaí’s local administrations. It’s because in the past, mayors worked thinking on the Jundiaí of tomorrow that today we have a different standing from most Brazilian municipalities, and it as such, thinking today on the Jundiaí of tomorrow that we shall proceed on this path. And is there still a lot to improve and invest?

Of course there is. Specially to continue investing in management and public services quality. That was the reason why Jundiaí became known for its quality of life and development. UN’s HDI shows that Jundiaí is the city with the better human development performance in the last decades, between São Paulo’s cities of its size. In 1980, Jundiaí placed 51st, and currently, it occupies the 4th place. According to the Federação das Indústrias do Rio de Janeiro (Federation of Industries of Rio de Janeiro), in a national survey, we are the best in Brazil when it comes to local development between the cities with more than 300 thousand inhabitants. This survey made by FIRJAN is based on three items of local development: Employment and income, education and healthcare. Another very important item, of which our city is also the best in Brazil, in this same populational group, is sanitation. This survey was made by a non-governmental organization, TrataBrasil and by the FGV - Fundação Getúlio Vargas, based on the data from the Ministério da Cidades (Ministry of Cities). And we are close to achieving the same level of excellence on other items of equal relevance, in which Brazil has presented results that can be considered, at the very least, tragic, such as Education – according to PNAD, the samples research of the IBGE, in the 21st century, one of every five Brazilians is functional illiterate – and removal of slums, which is another great challenge for the country.

Another important sector is traffic and public transportation. One must understand that this is a national issue. The Federal Government, instead of incentivizing private transportation, should do the opposite, promoting the improvement of public transportation in Brazilian cities. The Plano de Expansão do Transporte Metropolitano de São Paulo (Plan for the Expansion of Metropolitan Transportation in São Paulo), as an example, has yet to receive any federal aid. As such, today, in Brazil, city halls face an uneven battle: Making room for the circulation of an exponentially growing number of vehicles. The solution for this sector is and has always been one: Improving public transport. This should be one of the main goals of the new elected leaders. Here in Jundiaí, we are investing on this, with the deployment of expressways, of Ganha Tempo and the deployment of GPS, which shall allow control of the fleet, in real time, so as to follow the schedule of buses on their stops. But the definitive solution to this issue, as I said, can only be achieved with the establishment of a public transportation politics, by the Federal Government, that allows the creation of a Metropolitan Authority of Transportation, capable of operating regionally, and, also, with the implantation of systems such as Metrô Leve, which we are preparing to do here in Jundiaí – the Project is being developed in partnership with CPTM – and it would operate in coordination with the local bus systems. We also need to build designated bicycle lanes, so as to make bicycles an actual transportation option and, finally, to densify the city in a way that people can live closer to their place of employment, and have access, locally, to leisure, education and other services.

In healthcare, we have the UBS in all regions of the city –altogether, third six unities − and shall have still, next year, the AME-Ambulatório Médico de Especialidades (Medical

Specialty Clinic), which is a kind of Healthcare Timesaver, where consultations with experts and diagnosticians are made, with capacity to perform nineteen thousand consultations per month. Besides, after some back and forth, we have everything set to initiate the construction of the Hospital Regional on the building of the former Casa de Saúde.

The investments yet to be made and that are being made are many, in very sector. I couldn’t detail all of them, now. The City Hall, in the definition of its investments, follows a plan oriented for the making of the Jundiaí of the future, to make it a city even more pleasant and nice to live in.

What can the Jundiaienses expect from your 2011 administration? Which areas shall have priority?

I believe I already mentioned, previously, some of what will be accomplished. We’ll, of course, keep investing on the Escola Nota 10 program, which goal is to insure that every child in Jundiaí, older than eight can actually read and write, what is essential for a quality educational career. In 2009, the IDEB – Índice de Desenvolvimento da Educação Básica (Index of Basic Education Development) – concerning schools of the municipal educational system was 5.8. That was an important leap on quality, as the prospect was reaching the 5.8 index only on 2011. The result is very pleasing.

We are also going to proceed with the program for the eradication of subpar housing, which permeates the main risk areas. In Jundiaí, the first eradicated Center was Dom Gabriel, in 1982. The continuity of the work allowed that, as of this moment, fourteen subpar communities were eliminated, between them; the Jardim FEPASA, Vila Esperança, Vila Maringá, Jardim Shangai and Muvuca do Sorocabana, the major slums in the city. The current administration has initiated the eradication of the Hospital Psiquiátrico, Baixada do Paraná, Vila Ana, Vila Lacerda and Parque Centenário centers, part of Vila Rui Barbosa, and will deliver 840 new houses, plus the counter densification of Jardim Novo Horizonte, with 581 residences. It was also in this administration that the eradication of Jardim São Camilo started, in which 900 houses will be build, and on the second stage of Vila Ana, 108 residences. With the proceedings in the mentioned locations, there are still six centers to attend to, which eradication is on stage of project development -- Vila Guanabara, Jardim Sorocabana, Santa Gertrudes, Tamoio, Vila Rui Barbosa and Nambi, totaling 757 residences. Now, with the intensifying of the family removal process, determined by the mayor and depending on climate changes, Jundiaí takes leaps into becoming the first city of its size without slums.

That happens because, more than anything, we look for efficiency in the administration. In the case of subpar housing, we acquired the areas and elaborated the designs previously. That facilitates and expedites the attainment of resources and when they become available; we are always one of the firsts to attain them.

We’ll keep working strongly to improve even more this administration. That is fundamental so that we can achieve more and better, with the resources we count with and to maintain what the economists call the “vicious economical circle”, the sustainable growth that pushes local development. That is even more important when we know that in Jundiaí about sixty per cent of the resources of the municipal budget -- and this is one of the motives for our differentiated standing between Brazilian cities -- are directed toward the social areas.

Besides the concern with making the public money yield more, we have the concern of not increasing the tax revenue for the taxpayer. We are modernizing the tax legislation and implementing the Nota Fiscal de Serviços Eletrônica (Electronic Service Receipt) and inaugurated on January 28, 2011 the Balcão do Empreendedor (Entrepreneur Counter) on the Web, in order to lessen bureaucracy and make businessmen lives easier, stimulating the city’s business environment, making it even more competitive and attractive. And to refine our vision for the future, we are investing on the development of a major Geoprocessing Project, which is an advanced planning tool, which will allow us to have a detailed skyview of every corner of the city, of every service and public equipment available, among other data.

How do you evaluate the growth disclosed by the IBGE about the CENSO 2010?

The analysis of the results of the Censo 2010 from the IBEG show that Jundiaí had the smaller populational growth in the government region, with variation of an average 1.4% per year, in the last decade. Meanwhile, our economy has been increasing around 7.5% in actual terms (discounting the inflation) per year, in recent years, which has guaranteed the sustainable development of the city and a good local distribution of the income generated here. Another important data, this one negative, is the diminishing of beds in the SUS, nationwide. This is the other national tragedy. Formerly, the federal government beared most of the system costs, and the city halls, with a smaller piece. This equation is now reversed. Currently, we are charged with attending the demands of healthcare regionally without the due counterpart by the Federal Government. That made so, that in Jundiaí, in order to keep the quality of the services – we are one of the few cities in Brazil, of its size, that has two municipal hospitals and we also installed a UBS network that covers all regions of the city – the item Healthcare is the one which receives most of the local resources. Let’s hope that the Country can solve this issue, that the Federal Government tries to act more efficiently and can direct more resources for healthcare in the municipalities.

The strategic localization of Jundiaí, the quality of life of its residents and the infrastructure offered here are some of the items responsible for attracting more and more companies for the municipality. What benefits can be linked directly to these factors?

Of course we are, geographically, very well positioned and we have great access to the most important market in the Country. We have to see this, however, as opportunities that, to be taken, need the counterpart of the municipal administration. If the municipality does not invest on infrastructure, efficiency in the administration and other items under their responsibility have no way to benefit from these advantages. If it were so, every city with a similar geographical positioning would be at the same level of development as Jundiaí. One must aggregate, as has been done, value to this positioning. From that, we can offer a set of advantages to the installation of companies that allows us to stay out of the tax war, without needing to offer tax breaks. In other words: Without giving up resources that are essential to making public investments, that are directed, mainly, in Jundiaí, to the social area, as previously said, and are instruments to the real and sustainable diminishing of social differences, offering to everyone the possibility of a better life.

Does Jundiaí have reasons to celebrate this anniversary?

Jundiaí stands out mainly when compared to other cities that fifty years ago had the same potential and, when going through the growth period, couldn’t create mechanisms to assure a better quality of life. Our performance, as the bodies in charge of measuring the development and quality of life index will attest, as I previously mentioned, is of a successful city. We are, as I always say, a Brazilian city, with the issues of Brazilian cities, but few have been able to find solutions to their issues as Jundiaí has. And as the ones actually responsible for these achievements are the people of Jundiaí, that have made the right decisions relating to the paths followed by us, on the anniversary of the city, we should congratulate the jundiaienses for what has been achieved.