Brazil Smart Cities Opportunities in Salvador, Bahia

As part of an upcoming Connected Smart Cities event in São Paulo, Brazil in September 2021, the U.S. Commercial Service is marketing opportunities for U.S. smart city solution providers in various cities throughout Brazil.  

According to the “Ranking Connected Smart Cities 2020” developed by São Paulo-based consultancy Urban Systems, the city of Salvador, Bahia (population 3 million) ranked as the 27th “smartest” city, moving up 12 positions from 2019.  The study ranks cities using 70 indicators including urban mobility, environment, technology & innovation, entrepreneurship, education, health, security, and energy.  

Located in Northeast Brazil, Salvador has excelled in upgrading urban mobility throughout the city, helping improve its Connected Smart Cities ranking. Salvador continues to expand its subway system and has constructed more than 280 km (~174 mi) of bicycle path lanes. The city was also praised for its high level of government transparency – receiving a grade of 8.7 on the “Brazil Transparente” scale, the official methodology used by the Brazilian government to measure municipal and state public transparency. Salvador also increased expenditures in strategic areas such as health, education, and security. 

Salvador is also developing a favorable climate for technology clusters and entrepreneurship in creative industries. The city is home to the growing Bahia State Technological Park, fostering research, entrepreneurship and innovation activities. To attract start-ups and other businesses, 40% of broadband internet connections in the city are now above  34 megabytes per second, currently the fastest connection band available in the country. 

City officials are looking to make improvements in other strategic areas, including education and the environment. Salvador’s primary education achievement rates are lower in comparison to similarly-sized cities in Brazil and as many as 5.6% of public school teachers lack a higher education degree. Sanitation needs improvement as well, as 9% of the city’s population does not have access to piped water and more than 50% of distributed water is lost in the distribution system. Sewage services reach only 80% of the population of Salvador.  

In 2020, Salvador’s city government launched a Master Plan for Smart City Technology, the first Brazilian state capital to develop such a plan.  The master plan includes a list of projects, including the development of a real-time data processing system to improve the urban management system; the adoption of a multiservice data communication network; an IP phone network (VoIP), and other inclusive technologies to increase high-speed internet connectivity and offer more internet access spots to the population; and the development of an adequate structure to operate an intelligent video monitoring system in the city. 

For more information contact Office.SaoPaulo@trade.gov