Minister of Tourism Marta Suplicy, presented on Monday the Urban Circulation Plan for 2014 FIFA World Cup, allocating R$ 38.5 billion to transportation system in Rio de Janeiro and in 10 other cities.  Last week the study was submitted to president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the President’s Chief of Staff Minister Dilma Rousseff who guaranteed that the project will be implemented.

- Both have agreed that these are investments that must be made and are critical in many ways and not just to the FIFA World Cup - the Minister of Tourism said.

As the leading gateways to Brazil, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo are the most important targets of this plan.  Out of this budget, R$ 5.05 billion will be allocated to Rio. Another  large project budgeted at R$ 15.3 billion is a High Speed Train, the so-called bullet train, to run the 550 kilometers betwen Rio and Sao Paulo, allowing the trip to be completed in just 80 minutes.

- We will make our best efforts to have the train ready on time. But most important is the legacy after the World Cup - the Minister explained.

The other cities targeted by the Plan are Niterói (RJ), Belo Horizonte (MG), Porto Alegre (RS), Fortaleza (CE), Recife and Olinda (PE), Natal (RN), Maceió (AL) and Brasília (DF). All these cities are in the running to host 2014 World Cup matches.

- Planning is our key word and, for Tourism, the 2014 FIFA World Cup represents a huge opportunity of advertising our country abroad - explained Minister Marta, calculating that the event could increase the number of tourists in Brazil from 5 million to 8 million by 2010, and further increasing to 10 million in 2014.