Between 26 and 30 September, Forum representatives Mr. Rupak Chattopadhyay, President and CEO, Mr. Hans Altherr, Forum Swiss Board Member, and Diana Chebenova, Head of Partnerships undertook a visit to Brasilia, Brazil with the purpose of engaging with different Forum partner institutions in the country. The visit was coordinated by the Undersecretariat for Federative Affairs (SAF) of the Brazilian Presidency, Forum’s main partner within the Brazilian government, under the guidance of its Brazilian Board member Ms. Ana Carolina Lorena.
On 27 September, Mr. Rupak Chattopadhyay gave a keynote speech at the International Conference on Urban Policy held at the Institute of Applied Economic Research (IPEA), a government think tank linked to the Ministry of Planning. Mr. Chattopadhyay also met with Mr. Julio Nogueira, Deputy Executive Secretary of the Government Secretariat of the Brazilian Presidency and Mr. Leonardo Americo, Head of Federative Affairs with the purpose of discussing the priorities of the Brazilian government in the area of federative relations.
On 28 September, Forum representatives met with the President of IPEA Mr. Ernesto Lozardo and with Mr. Alexandre Ywata, Director of Study of Regional, Urban, and Environmental Policies to discuss IPEA’s research priorities. Also, a meeting was organized with the representatives of the Advisory Legislative Board of the Brazilian Senate headed by Mr. Danilo Augusto Barboza de Aguilar.
On September 29, the Forum launched its Regional Office at the Institute of Applied Economic Research. The office, that will coordinate Forum’s activities in Brazil and in the region, is managed by Mr. Constantino Cronemberger, Coordinator of the IPEA’s Interdepartmental Group of Federative Studies. A workshop was also held at IPEA where Mr. Altherr presented on Swiss Fiscal Federalism Architecture and Mr. Bruno Fabricio Ferreira Rocha from the Ministry of Finance spoke about the current challenges of Brazilian fiscal federalism. Consequently, different working groups of the Interdepartmental Group of Federative Studies presented on their lines of research with the aim of identifying common areas of interest with the work of the Forum. This workshop also served for the launch of the 8th edition of the English translation of the book “Brazilian Federalism: Issues for Discussion”. This initiative was carried out through a partnership between IPEA and the SAF.
On September 30, a workshop was held at the National School of Public Finance Administration (ESAF), linked to the Ministry of Finance. The workshop was inaugurated by Mr. Manuel Augusto Silva, Director General of ESAF and presentations on the ESAF’s National Program of Finance Education were delivered by Mr. Ricardo Gomes, Adjunct Director General and Ms. Fabiana Baptistucci, Coordinator of Programs. After the presentations by Ms. Chebenova on the Forum and its work in Brazil in the area of fiscal federalism and by Mr. Altherr on fiscal federalism in Switzerland, the participant engaged in a lively discussion. Among workshop attendees there were also Mr. Fatima Guerreiro, the Coordinator of the Fiscal Forum of the Brazilian States, Mr. Pietrangelo De Biase and Mr. Vinicius Mendonca Neiva of the National Revenue and representatives of the Ministry of Finance. The participants agreed on the usefulness of sharing international best practices on how to deal with fiscal consolidation, tax wars and reform of tax systems.
