Brasília - As the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva government completes two years in office and prepares to begin 2005, the head of the Secretariat of Government Communication and Strategic Management, minister Luiz Gushiken, says that the priority will be the social area and hunger combat. According to Gushiken, after two years of "house cleaning," president Lula is ready to concentrate federal action on the country's social problems. "We inherited a delicate economic situation with the country almost bankrupt. We have spent the past two years putting things in order and now we are ready to deal with Brazil's social ills because we see them as the country's most important problem," said the minister.

Gushiken declared that the Executive branch's main goal is to achieve economic growth with equitable income distribution and social inclusion through such programs as Zero Hunger. "There is good reason to be optimistic about the future. We are moving into 2005 with a strengthened desire to get things done," he said.

The minister added that in 2005 the administration would focus on the concept of social governance, which would mean a more dynamic relationship between social movements and the government.

Gushiken pointed out that 2005 would also be a time to concentrate on infrastructure. "We have a serious bottleneck in the area of infrastructure. But we are doing much more than was done in the past to deal with the problem," said the minister, adding that the government was working on the repair of the country's highway system and ports.

Agência Brasil
Reporters: Gabriela Guerreiro and Spensy Pimentel
Translator: Allen Bennett
12/20/2004