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8 FROM THE TOP » ANTONIO MEGALE, ANFAVEA August 2018 | AutoData A t the moment of conceding this interview to talk about the release of Rota 2030, at Anfavea’s headquarters, at the end of July, in São Paulo, An- tônio Megale, its president, made a point of opening his drawer and placing an AutoData Febru- ary edition on the table. On the cover, bringing the title DerRota 2030 (Defeat 2030, in English, as a pun regarding the name of the program - Rota 2030), referent to the Brazilian’s automotive sector scenario in case the Invar-Auto’s successor was not released – so- mething that, the executive ad- mits, a lot of important peoplewere taking it for granted. “I understood what you meant here: you wrote the cover title in German, Der Rota 2030, or The Rota 2030”, he joked. It felt as a relief for Megale, without losing the sense of humor: the approval of the automotive program, even after almost one year late and very distant fromwhat was initially thought, may definitely be seen as a personal achievement and the main accomplishment in his mandate, which ends next April. And that’s why, we extraordinarily re-edited that cover, nowwith the title Der Sieg 2030 - or The Victory 2030 in German... Check out next the main ex- cerpts from the interview, part of our Rota 2030 special. Interviewed by André Barros, Leandro Alves, Márcio Stéfani and Marcos Rozen Der Sieg 2030 competitiveness. We need to work in tax reform, logistic cost, the educational question… the fight does not end here, it starts now.We have some achievements ahead and one of them is the agreement between Mercosur and the European Union: from the day it is approved we will have a period of about fifteen years to increase a lot our competitiveness. Rota is a very important step, it structures the companies, but it is not enough to solve the competitiveness issue. Defini- tely not. Rota is a program which must assure that Brazil will keep developing technology, but competitiveness goes through other things. What is, in your view, the main merit of Rota 2030? It is essential from the organization point of view, it gives the example. Many other sectors have sought for us interested in creating their own Rota, they were waiting for this, it determined a logic change, to think about the long term. It Is it possible to define a general reaction in the sector regarding the final paper of Rota 2030? The sector is satisfied. It was a huge chal- lenge, within the original concept, and we knew that. There were, for example, some proposals for a special tax regime, fleet renovation, vehicle inspection… all these topics are out of the program, but the central part, regarding the support to research and development and to the Brazilian engineering, is in the regime. The programwas restricted to this theme but, in our view, it is the main part, which organizes the sector, says what we must have in the next years, where we need to improve, how the cars must be like. This is the inductor factor for the Brazilian industry development. Will the Rota 2030 program guarantee the competitiveness of the Brazilian industry? No, because it is not just the increase in R&D investments that will guarantee