Currently, the State of Bahia is characterized by the existence of gigantic social in regional development imbalances that are demanding deep structural changes that contribute to: 1) the economic decentralization of the State of Bahia; 2) overcoming the secular economic backwardness of the semiarid; and, 3) a drastic reduction of poverty of its population. All these actions will be successful only if carried out a thorough reform of the administrative machinery of the government with the administrative decentralization of the state of Bahia through the creation of regional structures that enable the integration of actions by federal, state and local governments to promote the development of each Bahia region.

1. STRUCTURAL AND MANAGEMENT CHANGES REQUIRED FOR THE
STATE OF BAHIA
Fernando Alcoforado *
Currently, the State of Bahia is characterized by the existence of gigantic social in
regional development imbalances that are demanding deep structural changes that
contribute to: 1) the economic decentralization of the State of Bahia; 2) overcoming the
secular economic backwardness of the semiarid; and, 3) a drastic reduction of poverty
of its population.
The Metropolitan Region of Salvador, capital of the State of Bahia, Brazi, which
concentrate currently 70% of the Bahia manufacturing and is responsible for 35-40% of
the state GDP, has huge capacity to attract investment because has immense
comparative advantage in relation to other regions of Bahia. The economic
decentralization of the state of Bahia can be made possible with the administrative
decentralization of the state government through the creation of regional structures that
coordinate the actions of federal, state and local governments in their various regions.
In each region of the state of Bahia would be adopted the model of endogenous
development that emphasizes the need for the regional society lead and manage their
own regional development, conditioning the mobilization of productive factors
available in its area and their endogenous potential with the support of government the
State of Bahia and the effective participation of the private sector and organized civil
society. The contribution of endogenous development model is to identify in each
region its economic potential and which factors of production are now crucial to the
development process. The model of endogenous development strengthens the social
self-organization and encourages the practice of collaborative solutions to common
problems.
The economic backwardness of the semiarid region of the State of Bahia is secular. The
economic diagnosis of the semiarid region of Bahia indicates that this region is
characterized by having a low-productivity agriculture, a fledgling industry and
activities related to trade and services underdeveloped compared to the most dynamic
regions of Bahia, especially the RMS (Metropolitan Region of Salvador), the West and
Far South. the overcoming of secular economic backwardness of semiarid region should
be a priority of the state government. A major problem of the semiarid region is the
water deficit requiring the government of the State of Bahia to your solution planning
and implementation of interconnection of basins, groundwater extraction, construction
of dams and water distribution systems.
The State of Bahia is Brazil's federative unit with the largest number of poor in the
country. The action of the state government of Bahia in tackling poverty should be
focusing on the effort to contribute to the expansion of the productive sectors in each
region of Bahia, as well as in pursuit of public investments in infrastructure, energy,
transportation, communications, education, health, housing and sanitation which results
in raising the level of employment and income in all regions of Bahia. It is a great
mistake to fight against poverty by income transfer program as “Bolsa Família”.
All these actions will be successful only if carried out a thorough reform of the
administrative machinery of the government with the administrative decentralization of
the state of Bahia through the creation of regional structures that enable the integration
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2. of actions by federal, state and local governments to promote the development of each
Bahia region.
* Fernando Alcoforado , member of the Bahia Academy of Education, engineer and doctor of Territorial
Planning and Regional Development from the University of Barcelona, a university professor and
consultant in strategic planning, business planning, regional planning and planning of energy systems, is
the author of Globalização (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova
(Des)ordem Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São
Paulo, 2000), Os condicionantes do desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado.
Universidade de Barcelona, http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e
Desenvolvimento (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX
e Objetivos Estratégicos na Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of
the Economic and Social Development-The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Muller
Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG, Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe
Planetária (P&A Gráfica e Editora, Salvador, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e
combate ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011)
and Os Fatores Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012),
among others.
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