The Federative Republic of Brazil is the fifth-largest country by area and population of the world. It is located in South-America, connected to nearly all other countries of the continent, has a coastline of about 7.500 kilometers and its Amazon River basin is covering a vast tropical forest, home to diverse wildlife, a variety of ecological systems, and extensive natural resources spanning numerous protected habitats. Before the arrival of the first European in 1500, several tribal nations existed. The Portuguese Pedro Álvares Cabral  intended to find India, but finally landed in Brazil and claimed it for the Portuguese Empire. In 1822, Brazil became independent from Portugal. It first became a constitutional monarchy and was later – after a military coup d’état – turned into a Presidential Republic. Nowadays, Brazil is part of global organisations such as the United Nations, G20 and BRICS.

In recent years, the Brazilian economy became one of the largest in Latin America, due to political scandals and turmoils it suffered during the last two years significantly. The country´s economy started mainly with agricultural products and food production, which still contributes more than 5 percent to the GDP. Nowadays, the service sector adds nearly two-thirds to the GDP, with the industrial sector being second largest. The latter mainly  includes production of textiles, shoes, chemicals, cement, lumber, iron ore, tin, steel, aircraft, motor vehicles and parts, other machinery and equipment. The service sector is comprised of banking, insurance, IT, telecommunications and many others. As one of the largest energy consumers in Latin America, Brazil is transforming its energy production from imports and traditional forms of energy to renewable energy such as hydro, solar and wind.

Two of the most obvious programmes in Brazil, the Soccer World Championship in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016 were performed successfully. Those events also boosted development projects in Rio de Janeiro including infrastructure, telecommunications and urban development. However, a decade of megaprojects came to an end with the closing ceremony of the Paralympics. Due to the decreasing economy, the government urges private companies to invest more in projects for roads, railways, airports and the productivity of industry. Another sector for projects is energy. Besides projects and programmes in the deep-sea exploration of oil and gas, there is a multitude of projects being performed to boost solar wind and hydro-electric energy.

After a decade of economic upswing, the country seems to be in a depression, and needs a big change and political reforms to catch up with the rest of the world. In the meanwhile project managers try to help their country out of the situation, a challenging task for the profession. Main project activities are launched and sponsored by the Government. That´s definitely something that requires a change and the involvement of international and private investors. The great sports events demonstrated that Brazil can cope with difficult tasks. However, that needs to be set into practice also on a smaller scale. In addition, the cultural flavor and habits influence the way, projects are performed. For example, the fourth line of the metro in Rio opened the day before the opening of the Olympic Games. Meeting with project managers in Rio, they explained me that “in Brazil we plan after the project…”. Also the relationship aspect is more important than plans, budgets and other relevant topics. It means building relationships with the Government officials and other stakeholders is the most important aspect and often imposes risks on the project.

IPMA is represented by IPMA Brazil [www.ipmabrasil.org], an organisation founded in 2002 and based in Rio de Janeiro. It is well connected to major universities and business schools in the country. It offers the IPMA 4-Level-Certification System in the country, which is increasingly utilized. The Young Crew is performing many activities, attracting the young professionals to the profession. IPMA Brazil formed an alliance with IBEC, the Brazilian Institute of Cost Engineers to cooperate in conferences and experience exchange. Subsequently, this year´s 10^th World Congress of ICEC International Cost Engineering Council, was co-hosted by IBEC and IPMA Brasil in Rio de Janeiro. The synergies between project management and cost engineering were seen as paramount.