ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the effects of the structural policies carried out in Brazil on the sectors which were chosen to be the main priorities in the allocation of investment resources: the “basic industries,” the energy sector, and transport and communication infrastructure. The statistics on production, imports and exports consistently demonstrate that the capital goods sector in Brazil has undergone a very significant import substitution process and an extraordinary increase in its exports throughout the 1970s and up to 1981. The investments in the oil industry and in hydroelectricity resulted in a major change in the structure of consumption of energy in Brazil, and have contributed significantly to import substitution and to improving the international competitiveness of Brazil’s industrial sector. Investment in railways was undoubtedly one of the main failures of the Second National Development Plan investment programme and explains the lack of success in reducing the relative use of road transportation.
