BRICS funding paves way for progress in Brazil city

BRASIL NOVO, Brazil－For students and teachers at the Padre Leo Schneider School in Brazil, going to school will be much easier in a couple of months once the road outside their school is paved with asphalt and built with a drainage system and concrete sidewalks.

"The asphalt (pavement) project has been desired for a long time. Our community is very old," said Marliette Rodrigues, principal of the school, in a recent interview.

Transportation difficulties have not only caused inconvenience for students and teachers, but also affected work at the school.

"We have qualified professionals, but they wouldn't come here because of the mud and steep slopes. With the asphalt road, the community will be bigger and we'll definitely have greater student attendance," Rodrigues said.

The asphalt project is part of the Para Sustainable Municipalities Project, which includes developing urban mobility, sanitation and communication programs in a number of cities alongside the Trans-Amazonian highway in Brazil's Para state. Brasil Novo, where Padre Leo Schneider School is located at, is one of the cities benefiting from the $50 million loan project granted by the New Development Bank, or NDB, also known as the BRICS bank, in March 2018.

'Globalized culture'

When she was informed that the project was funded by the NDB, Rodrigues said "we are living in a century of a globalized culture" and the partnership among BRICS countries is "very important" for Brazil to advance its economy and contribute to the Amazon region.

"We are grateful for this partnership and we look forward to more projects like this that would help us," she said.

About 200 meters away from the school is Aline Feitosa's small bar. For the 30-year-old mother of four, the upcoming new facilities would mean more customers for her and greater convenience for her children's schooling.

" (Pavement of the road) is going to improve my life a lot, as people didn't come to my bar because of the mud in the rainy season and the dust in the drought season. It will be good for my children to walk to school too. We suffered from the lack of a paved road to go to the center of the city for shopping, it was very difficult," Feitosa explained.

Now living opposite the school, Joao Bernardino and his family have been enjoying their lives in the city for decades.

"Living here is wonderful, I have nothing to complain about. With the asphalt road, it will be better because we had difficulties going to the city center as we had to climb the slopes and there were many holes in the street. We will have more opportunities if Brasil Novo develops," he said.

Weder Makes Carneiro, mayor of Brasil Novo, said there are plans to pave some 17 kilometers of road in the city that will be completed by August.

Headquartered in Shanghai, the NDB was established by BRICS nations, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The bank formally opened in July 2015.

Xinhua