Brasília, March 16, 2004 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - Tomorrow (17), in Fortaleza, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will launch the Grow Northeast Program, which includes various credit lines that will be offered by the Bank of the Northeast (BNB) for investments in the region. The BNB's director of Development Administration, Pedro Eugênio Cabral, affirmed that a total of R$ 3 billion in resources will be available in 2004. According to Cabral, with the Grow Northeast Program, over a million jobs are expected to be generated in the region.

The program will finance various sectors of the economy, such as beekeeping, handcrafts, commerce and services, culture, floriculture, fish-breeding, and tourism, among others. Interest rates are lower, around 6% per year, and payment periods are longer, up to 12 years, with a four-year grace period.

According to the BNB director, these funds are part of what "was amassed in the past three years, when the BNB lent much less than it collected" through the Northeast Development Fund (FNE), which is eligible to receive 1.8% of what is owed in the Income Tax and the Industrial Products Tax, for investments in the productive sector.

"In order to get an idea, in 2001 the BNB had R$ 3 billion and lent only R$ 250 million. The rest was applied in Treasury bonds and other government titles," Cabral informed.

According to Cabral, this policy began to change in 2003 with the study of new rules by the Ministry of National Integration to unblock the bureaucracy and faciltate access for those who require credit.

"The new rules have been in effect since January, but we feel we need to emphasize this new policy, especially because there still persists the old idea that the doors of the BNB are closed to the common people. Thus the name Grow Northeast," the director explained. (DAS)