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RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct. 22 (Xinhua) -- Brazilian Development Bank President Maria Silvia Bastos Marques on Friday urged the implementation of the reforms proposed by President Michel Temer's government, some of which are quite controversial.
"These reforms are essential. The Brazilians need to understand that we will never have the country we want if we do not carry out these reforms urgently. There are no resources to sustain what we have now, and there is an inequality in the distribution of resources," Maria said.
The main reform is a constitutional amendment bill that will limit government expenses for the next 20 years.
According to the bill, governmental expenses could only increase yearly at a percentage equivalent to the previous year's inflation rate. The expenses include investments in key sectors like public education, health care, basic sanitation and housing.
The bill was severely criticized for limiting investments in social welfare. In addition, the 20-year period was regarded as excessive because it will limit government expenditure once the country overcomes recession.
The now opposition Workers' Party warned that, if such limit were in place in the past decade, Brazil would not have experienced the significant rise in public education and health care investment, which helped the country lift millions of people from extreme poverty, and the minimum wage would not have risen as much as it has in the past decade.
Temer also wants to implement an equally controversial social security reform, which received criticism for reportedly being unfavorable to workers at all, increasing the requirements for retirement and affecting workers who are close to retirement age already.
