Rio, September 12, 2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - The integration of energy systems in South America will require investments on the order of R$ 23.9 billion, between 2004 and 2007. This affirmation was made on Thursday (11) by the president of the Furnas Electricity Central, José Pedro Rodrigues de Oliveira. He assured that there is a clear orientation on the part of President Lula's Administration in the sense that now is the time for partnerships, not privatizations and State take-overs.

"There is a clear guideline from the Administration that the period of privatizations is over, just as the period of State take-overs has already ended. Now is the time for partnerships."

Following this orientation, passed along by the Minister of Mines, and complying with a request made by the Ministry of Foreign Relations (Itamaraty), Furnas did a feasibility study that indicated 14 possibilities of partnerships with the private sector. The first of these, according to Oliveira, is the resumption of construction on the Angical Fish Power Plant, which is the subject of discussions with the Portuguese firm, EDP.

Rodrigues said that the private sector has been proposing partnerships, and he cited the Pan American company, which presented a project to import energy from Bolivia. The Pan American company would build a thermal plant in Bolivia, and Furnas would install the transmission lines to transport the energy produced there. The project involves R$ 6 billion in resources, but nothing has been decided as yet.

The president of Furnas gave an address at the "South American Cooperation" seminar, attended by South American specialists in Rio de Janeiro. (DAS)