SIEMENS

What's that yellow armband you're wearing?

Pezão: That's a saint's band I got in Salvador de Bahia. You make three wishes when you put it on, then you leave it on your wrist until it falls off. After that, your wishes are fulfilled, one after another.

May I guess? Your wishes are for less poverty in Rio, a fast urban railway system to all parts of the city, and clean water for all?

Pezão: One mustn't say what one has wished for — otherwise the wishes don't come true. But seriously, those are three good wishes. Infrastructure is the biggest issue for Rio de Janeiro. That applies to the slums, the favelas, and also to the more wealthy parts of town. Over the past 50 years, Rio has missed so many chances to make a positive impact on its development through sustained investment. So we mustn't fail to take this last chance. The soccer World Cup in 2014 and the Olympic Games in 2016 are a present and at the same time an obligation for us.

These events will give rise to conflicting goals. On the one hand, it's important to expand the infrastructure as quickly as possible for large numbers of visitors. But sustainable solutions often require higher advance investment and long construction periods.

Pezão: Sure. A bus route can be created faster, but an urban railway can move more people and cope with more population growth in the future. The resolution to such seemingly conflicting goals is simple. We have to do both. We have a long way to catch up — particularly in the field of public transport — and the upcoming events will make the situation worse; we can't afford to make any mistakes in this area. The International Military Games will be held in Rio in 2011, then the Confederations Cup in 2013, the World Cup in 2014 and finally the Olympic Games in 2016. For Rio, this represents a big opportunity to play a key role in Brazil's development once again in six or seven years. We will be at the focus of attention.

Basic infrastructure is lacking in many respects. Has the time really come for Brazil to seek resource-efficient solutions that will pay off only over a long period of time?

Pezão: If energy is saved, less energy needs to be produced. That's why I have a clear answer to that question. Of course we have to seek energy-efficient solutions from the start. I'm also very keen on alternative energy sources — as all other Brazilians probably are. After all, we mainly use hydroelectric power to generate electricity. But in the future, we will also use more solar energy and wind energy. There's good potential for the latter in the north of the federal state of Rio.

Many cariocas see the future of the city in so-called creative industries, that is, in IT, media, design etc. What are you doing to promote this development?

Pezão: The first part of the answer is easy: more education. But how can it be realized? Poor people in the favelas often have too little access to education, or the distance to school is just too far for children to go. Ultimately, we have to bridge the gap between rich and poor, also in terms of education. There are several very practical ways to get there. When I was still a councilor in Piraí, we handed out laptops to all school students. The first of them were handed out at the school in our district that had the worst assessments in the Brazilian education index. That school doubled its score in the index within two years. One of the reasons was certainly that children suddenly wanted to go to school on weekends as well, because they could only charge their laptops there. And they simply didn't want to do without their laptops any more. They didn't even want to go on vacation.