Messages from administration
Message from the Board of Directors
The BNDES is an institution with extensive experience in financing investment projects in the most diverse sectors of the economy, currently assuming a strategic role in promoting a fair transition to a green economy. As members of the Bank’s highest governance body, we believe that it can contribute to Brazil being a relevant player in the global transition to a low-carbon economy by financing renewable energy, energy efficiency, sustainable transport, technological innovation and other initiatives that reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
The climate change mitigation and adaptation agenda has become increasingly urgent, and the BNDES strategy needs to reflect this reality. Thus, the Bank has increasingly sought to minimize the socioenvironmental impacts of its activities and investments it finances, but also to be an agent of change in promoting more sustainable business practices and in raising awareness about the importance of reducing emissions, developing the bioeconomy, protecting biodiversity and ecological restoration. The climate commitments document released by the institution in 2022 points in this direction.
In recent years, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, the BNDES has proven to be a fundamental agent for the economic resumption towards sustainable development. In 2022, with disbursements that reached R$ 97.5 billion, the Bank financed and offered innovative solutions for numerous projects and companies. We believe it is possible to expand this performance, focusing on social inclusion and ensuring better living conditions for all Brazilians, combining efforts and resources with the private sector.
In the context of Brazil’s necessary reindustrialization, the BNDES can help stimulate the adoption of green technologies and processes that favor a circular economy, generating skilled jobs and increasing the competitiveness of companies in the international market. Moreover, by reactivating its export support instruments, the Bank can contribute to the country’s conquest of new markets globally.
With its support to micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSME), which has been contributing to expand their access to credit, the Bank will continue to generate employment and income for countless entrepreneurs and workers. Fundamental to the Brazilian economy, MSMEs often have difficulty in obtaining financing from traditional banks, so the credit and guarantee solutions offered by the BNDES act to compensate for this market failure.
In the scope of infrastructure, in which the BNDES has played a historical role since its foundation in 1952, in addition to structuring projects, the Bank needs to resume its role in financing essential sectors, such as sanitation, logistics, urban mobility and energy, helping to remedy the investment deficit. At the same time, there is room for successful experiences in social infrastructure concessions and PPPs, in education, health, and security projects, to be replicated on a larger scale.
Finally, in line with the policies and guidelines issued by the Federal Government in 2023, the decision of the Bank’s new administration to promote gender equity and value diversity internally, making the institution more inclusive and closer to all Brazilians, deserves to be highlighted.
This report, whose integrity we have ensured, provides a broad overview of the BNDES’s performance throughout 2022, and points out what the institution’s strategy should be for the coming years. It therefore represents a commitment to transparency about what has been achieved and what is expected for the future.
Board of Directors
BNDES | BNDESPAR | FINAME
Message from the president
With the certainty that the BNDES is a strategic institution for the country’s growth, we assumed the Presidency of the institution in 2023 committed to ensuring that the Bank will resume its role in expanding investment in the real economy and promoting economic, social, and environmental development. Thus, we believe that it is necessary to intensify the BNDES’s action in favor of a reindustrializing, inclusive, green, digital, innovative and creative agenda – which does not mean competing with the private sector, but combining efforts with the Bank’s historical role as a development inducer.
The BNDES’s recent action to mitigate the economic and social impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, with credit and guarantee solutions (FGI Peac, Peac Maquininhas and funds) that helped micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSME) to survive the crisis and maintain jobs, showed the importance of the institution’s countercyclical performance.
The Bank’s support was also decisive for the health sector, given the severity of the pandemic and the impact of scientific denialism.
This action reveals how strategic it is for Brazil to have a development bank such as the BNDES, which acts to generate employment and income, promote social inclusion and stimulate industry competitiveness and innovation. At the same time, it shows that we can do more, expanding our support to sectors capable of inserting Brazil in international markets and generating more qualified jobs in the country.
Resuming investments in industry, focusing on clean technologies, circular economy and innovation, as well as reactivating the Bank’s support mechanisms to exportation, as do the largest global economies, are key steps in this direction. We need to boost MSME growth and modernization, major generators of jobs and income, through indirect credit and guarantees.
Likewise, the BNDES’s importance in ensuring the fair transition to a low-carbon economy is evident in the green agenda. Whether by financing renewable energies, which include support for the diffusion of wind and solar generation, biofuels and, more recently, green hydrogen, or by stimulating ecological restoration projects, environmental conservation and other nature-based solutions, the Bank is na essential player to ensure a more sustainable future for the planet. Starting in 2023, we want to contribute to Brazil regaining its leading role in combating climate change, participating decisively in the global effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As such, we have already resumed the Amazon Fund activities, a proven successful instrument to combat deforestation and stimulate sustainable production in the region.
Investment in infrastructure, another historical aspect of the BNDES’s operations, also deserves special attention, so that we can remedy the historical investment deficit in the sector. The Bank’s role in structuring concession and PPP projects in recent years should not overshadow our relevant and priority role in financing – which fosters and complements the market in projects essential for population well-being, in transport/logistics, energy, sanitation, urban mobility, among others.
In 2022, disbursements by the BNDES had a nominal increase of about 50%, reaching R$ 97.5 billion, an amount comparable to the Bank’s size in 2008, but still a level equivalent to 1% of GDP, far from the historical levels that we envision to recover in the near future.
We need to increase the BNDES’s contribution to investment, which involves rethinking and diversifying our funding and seeking more attractive and differentiated rates, in addition to the long-term rate (TLP), for specific topics. This is especially true, for example, in support of social development and green economy projects, which in 2022 alone represented disbursements of R$ 33.5 billion and R$ 17.6 billion, respectively.
We want to build the BNDES of the future, and for this we are committed to promoting a plural work environment at the Bank, which considers equity and diversity in respect to gender, race, and ethnicity, valuing the vast cultural spectrum of the country. The BNDES’s staff is the institution’s main asset and should also portray what we hope the country will achieve in terms of inclusion, respect, and plurality of thought.
Let’s work together for a fair and supportive country, a sovereign country that is respected worldwide, that brings opportunities to everyone – from waste collector cooperatives to large innovative companies. We will fight tirelessly for our mission to resume the BNDES’s role in Brazilian economic, social and environmental development and for the purpose of improving the lives of generations.
As a result of collective reflection, this report presents the main results achieved by the Bank in 2022 and points out how we are reformulating our strategy for the coming years, seeking to generate value for Brazilian society in the short, medium and long term. The publication follows the principles of integrated reporting, as required for accountability by the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU), and seeks to present the main economic, social and environmental impacts of the BNDES, based on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) model. I thus assure the integrity of this report and invite readers to learn more about our vision for the future in the following pages.
Aloizio Mercadante
President of the BNDES
