Brasília, March 25, 2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - The Minister of Transport, Anderson Adauto, met yesterday (24) with the governor of Mato Grosso, Blairo Maggi, and his technical staff, to set priorities for highway repairs in the state. According to the Minister, there are unfinished projects with more than 70% of the work completed, which need to be concluded.

Adauto visited segments of federal highways and announced the resumption of projects in the region, recalling that Mato Grosso is a strategic shipping point for crops. The governor cited annual growth of 8% in the agro-business sector, the largest in the country, and underscored the importance of infrastructure to the state. He place his technical staff at the Minister's disposal, affirmed total availability for partnerships, and said that each real applied by the Federal Government can turn into two, with the state government's participation.

The Minister thanked him for the support and affirmed that "due to the large repressed demand in the transportation sector, it will not be possible to recover the whole network in one year. But, within three years, all the federal highways will be recuperated." Adauto reaffirmed the priority of restoring the network and recalled that this year, highways will receive more than R$ 700 million in investments, almost double the average amount, R$ 434 million, invested during each of the four previous years, (DAS)