Brazil Smart Cities Opportunities
The city of Manaus, Amazonas has a population of 2.2 million. The Manaus city government presented new opportunities for private sector engagement through its updated Smart Cities Plan. The plan includes a list of projects that could benefit from U.S. technology solutions, such as a program to revitalize the historic downtown by implementing smart solutions for basic infrastructure, green building, digital and innovation hub, ports integration, sustainability, inclusion, and mobility. U.S. companies should take note of Manaus’ recent transformation into a technology and entrepreneurial hub in Northern Brazil.
According to the “Ranking Connected Smart Cities 2020” developed by São Paulo-based consultancy Urban Systems, Manaus, Amazonas ranked as the 68th “smartest” city, registering its first appearance in the top 100 list. The study ranks cities using 70 indicators including urban mobility, environment, technology & innovation, entrepreneurship, education, health, security, and energy.
Located on the banks of the Amazon river in Northern Brazil region, Manaus has excelled in developing a favorable climate for technology clusters and entrepreneurship in other creative industries. The number of tech companies in Manaus increased 3.2% in 2020, after a 3.4% increment in the previous year, while most other Brazilian cities registered declines in the same indicator.
The economic outlook for Manaus stands out from other Brazilian cities, as the city has registered an increase in household income, number of companies, and overall business diversity. Unlike many other cities in Brazil, Manaus is not reliant upon public administration to maintain formal jobs and the city registered an increase in non-tax revenues of 40% in 2019 to 47% of total municipal revenues in 2020, showing that the city can sustain its economic activity independent of tax transfers.
The city was also praised for its high level of government transparency – receiving a grade of 8.5 on the “Brazil Transparente” scale, the official methodology used by the Brazilian government to measure municipal and state public transparency. Moreover, while most Brazilian cities decreased per capita investment in a number of sectors, Manaus increased expenditures in strategic areas such as urbanism, education, and security.
City officials are looking to make improvements in other strategic areas, including education, health, and the environment. Manaus’ sanitation needs improvement as 8% of the city’s population does not have access to piped water and more than 70% of distributed water is lost in the distribution system. Also highlighting the need for investment in sanitationis that sewage services reach only 40% of the population of the city.
Amazonia’s Development Agency (SUDAM) also identified 44 projects for the Amazonas state to promote sustainable and inclusive development and will use solutions in machine learning, lifestyle intelligence, and augmented reality.
U.S. solutions providers interested in learning more about Manaus’ needs for smart-city technologies should contact the Smart Cities team members Denise Barbosa and Thales Demarchi at the U.S. Commercial Service in Sao Paulo. Denise.Barbosa@trade.gov, Thales.Demarchi@trade.gov