Investment on the Rise in Goiania thanks to Minha Casa Minha Vida

The city of Goiania is quite unusual in Brazil. Like the national capital Brasilia, it was deliberately planned and constructed as a purpose-built city to act as an administrative centre. Goiania is the capital of Goias, an important mid-western state in the country's interior. With 1.3 million people (over two million people in its wider metropolitan area) it is now the second biggest city in the whole central western region.

The designs for the new city were drafted by Atílio Correia Lima. He originally planned for a large proportion of parks and open areas and that feature has survived to this day. In fact Goiania has the greatest amount of green space per resident of any city on earth, with the sole exception of Edmonton in Canada. After many years of fruitless discussion, the new city finally started to get off the ground (in every sense!) in the mid 1930's. The original design was for a mini metropolis of about fifty thousand people, laid out in the form of a wheel with main avenues being 'spokes', connected by concentric circles of other streets.

Many of the original major buildings were of the 'Art Deco' style and a number of them are still in use. There are also many other notable buildings from later decades and altogether about twenty buildings and monuments are nationally recognised for their heritage value to the nation. There are many different industries in the city. However, the single most important of them relates to supplying the needs of the agriculture of the wider region. These include relevant tools and equipment of course but also fertilisers, pesticides and naturally enough, the actual markets for the farming produce too. Another important occupation locally is the vehicle sales and service sector. All over the city there is evidence of repair and service of cars, trucks and PSV's on a wide scale. Some have jokily speculated that this automotive presence is not unconnected with the many excellent public and private hospitals and clinics in the city!

A third major branch of the local economy is the public sector. Goiania is the state capital so government is its business and of course the Federal Government has a presence in the city too. Together, these administrative institutions provide a great deal of employment (and consequently income) to the city and its people. Goiania is situated nearly 1000 Km from Rio de Janiero, 1,300Km from Sao Paolo and 250Km from Brasilia. The geography of the place includes a continental 'wet and dry' type climate. The average temperature of the place is very nearly 22 degrees, although much cooler in the winter and of course warmer in the summer. The highest temperature ever recorded was nearly 40 degrees (in 2007) and the lowest only one degree (in 2000) but such extremes in either direction are very rare.

The only notable civic emergency was in 1987. A radiation source was pilfered from an abandoned hospital and several people died from radiation poisoning (plus a number of others who became ill but survived). Several blocks of that part of the city had to be demolished because they were contaminated. Fortunately the outbreak was effectively contained by prompt action and later the area was judged safe by the International Atomic Energy Commission.

The city is very popular with foreign investors and the surrounding countryside has recently seen a number of minha casa minha vida investmenttype developments began construction which brings not only foreign investment but local jobs to the area. All in all the city of Goiania has a bright and prosperous future.