Bolsonaro plans to create super Economy Ministry after merger

The ministries of Finance, Planning, and Industry and Trade will be merged into a single Ministry of Economy. Also planned is the merger between the Ministries of Environment and Agriculture. The decisions were disclosed today (Oct. 30), after President-Elect Bolsonaro met with assistants in Rio de Janeiro.

Bolsonaro’s go-to man for economy and likely Economy Minister Paulo Guedes, confirmed the overhaul, while Federal Deputy Onyx Lorenzoni, Bolsonaro’s probably choice for chief-of-staff, mentioned the environment-agriculture merger.

Swiftness

The goal, Lorenzoni said, is to reduce Brazil’s 29 ministries to 15 or 16. Guedes added that the combination is crucial to make government decisions more swift.

“There has been a de-industrialization process for over 30 years. We will save Brazilian industry, despite the Brazilian industrialists,” Guedes said. He underscored that the government plans to significantly simplify and reduce the number of taxes.

“It will be a gradual opening. And bringing the Ministry of Industry and Trade closer to that of the Economy is a move aimed at introducing the same economic guidelines for all of this. There’s no point in having the people from the Revenue Service cut taxes little by little if the team from the Ministry of Industry and Trade is doing it quickly. This has to be done in sync, in accordance with the same guidelines,” the economist declared.

Pension reform

The two advisers in the new administration also declared that the president-elect himself will conduct the debate on the overhaul in Brazil’s pension system.

From the economic viewpoint, Guedes argued, the quicker the pension reform is implemented, the better. “We’re late, this reform could have been carried out a long time ago,” he said.