BRAZIL: Minister of Transport Renan Filho has appointed Leonardo Cezar Ribeiro to head the newly-established Secretariat for Rail Transport within the Ministry of Transport. Announced as part of the Lula government’s transport policy earlier this year, the Secretariat for Rail Transport has been given the task of expanding the role of railways in Brazil.
Ribeiro, a legislative analyst in Brazil’s Senate, said he was ‘enthusiastic about the new mission … I believe it is possible to increase the participation of the rail sector in the transport matrix.’ He added that co-operation would be needed with all the sectors involved.
Among Ribeiro’s qualifications for the job is his involvement in the legislation passed in 2021 that set out a fresh legal framework for railways in Brazil, in particular allowing the private sector to design, build and operate rail routes that have been approved by federal government.
Ribeiro is an economics graduate from Brasilia University. He was a visiting researcher at Victoria University, in Melbourne, Australia, and holds a postgraduate degree in public budgeting from the Instituto Serzedello Corrêa, the Superior School of the Federal Court of Accounts.
