Minha Casa Minha Vida Brazil comes to the Southern city of Curitiba

Nov 23
07:52

2012

Paul Dexter

Paul Dexter

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The city of Curitiba is the largest in the Southern Region of Brazil and is becoming very popular with foreign investors, more so since the popular Minha Casa Minha Vida affordable housing programme arrived in the area.

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Curitiba is also the capital of the state of Parana. Together with more than twenty other smaller towns,Minha Casa Minha Vida Brazil comes to the Southern city of Curitiba Articles the city is included in (and obviously dominates) the overall Metropolitan Area of 3.2 million people. The area is located on a plateau nearly 1000 metres above sea level and is about 100km inland from the port of Paranagua with which it has excellent communication links.

Curitiba first developed in the 18th century. It started off as an important centre for the cattle trade which was based in the surrounding countryside. From the middle of the following century the area grew further and diversified to produce other important items too. These included timber at first, followed later by the cultivation of coffee and mate (pronounced "mah-tay", a kind of tea very popular in southern Brazil and Argentina, then and now). More recent agricultural products have included the staple crops of wheat, corn(maize) and soyabeans. In the early days, European immigrants were (unsurprisingly) mainly Portuguese and that has always continued to some extent. However, in and after the 1850's, waves of Germans, Italians. Ukrainians and Polish arrived too. Nowadays only relatively small numbers of non-South Americans arrive to settle and work, mostly from the Middle East.

Generally though, the major overhaul of the local built-up area in the nineteen fifties and sixties led to Curitiba's most rapid growth. This was when the area's population mushroomed from less than half a million to well over one million. This was largely fuelled by ‘domestic immigration' when many thousands of Brazilians from elsewhere in the country came to the district in search of jobs, homes and a generally better life. In fact this particular urban area is widely regarded as not just a good place to live and work but one of the best in the country. A survey by Readers Digest found it to be actually the best 'Big City in Brazil'.

Regarding the local economy today, it's true to say that Curitiba has been carefully planned over the last few decades. The four main areas for industry and employment in the urban area are also the main ones for investment, both long term investment and of course short term investment too. To this one can add ethical investment as well in the form of the Minha Casa Minha Vida programme, This popular affordable hosuing programme is bringing in wave after wave of people keen to invest in Brazil and social housing. The city is flourishing and taken as a whole, Curitiba has now the fourth largest GDP of any city in Brazil.

The four main industry networks are IT, Vehicle Manufacturing, Tourism and of course Infrastructure Development. Careful planning and balancing of all the elements of the complex local economy and environment has earned the city and its surrounding zone the reputation of a good place to be, with one element often servicing another. An example is the local Volvo automotive factory which provides buses for the metropolitan transport network. Obviously, local jobs develop from both sides of this relationship. The local climate is usually moderate but extremely variable and local people often complain about it just as much as English people do about theirs!