CTG Brasil’s pilot program of income generation

CTG Brasil, in partnership with Instituto Meio, a private non-profit institution, launches in March a pilot program to encourage the generation of work and income in the communities surrounding its HPPs. As part of the company"s commitment to the socioeconomic development of these regions and communities, the investment of R$ 1 million will be directed to actions of entrepreneurship and the acceleration of productive groups in the regions of the Jurumirim HPP, on the Paranapanema River, and Garibaldi HPP, on the Canoas River, until 2022.

Entitled “Plants of Business” (“Usina de Negócios” in Portuguese), the program will assist micro and small entrepreneurs through training, and productive groups, such as small farmers, cooperatives, associations, among others, that will have mentoring, acceleration and incubation, including specialized consultancy and financial resources for selected groups.

In the region of Jurumirim HPP, the initiative will enable online training for up to 500 micro and small entrepreneurs, mainly from the cities of Avaré, Piraju and Itaí in the state of São Paulo, with a focus on management, finance and marketing. In the region of Garibaldi HPP, participants in productive groups located primarily in Abdon Batista, Anita Garibaldi and Cerro Negro in the state of Santa Catarina will receive face-to-face or distant mentoring to prepare a business plan that will help to increase productivity and income, initial capital or referral to microcredit, with monitoring of results indicators. There are also plans to map and select these groups for acceleration, incubation and support to gain autonomy. Projects to support chains involving family farming and local tourism will be prioritized.

The first stage of the program took place in 2020, with the mapping of productive vocations and potential groups of local producers, based on a diagnosis. Representativeness of the local operation, impacts of the company"s operation on the community and socioeconomic information were the main criteria used in the choice of regions for the allocation of CTG Brasil"s financial resources. The aim is to expand the initiative to other CTG Brasil units in the coming years.