Planning is a commitment to the future, and the Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte – RMBH – needs to be thought as a whole, connecting social, economic and environmental dilemmas in the aim of its change into a better place to live, more inclusive, dynamic and sustainable.

To transform this conception into reality, the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais – UFMG – was contracted by the Government of the State to elaborate the Main Plan of Integrated Development (PDDI-RMBH). The construction of the plan counted on a multidisciplinary team composed by specialists of different areas, acting in an integrated and complementary way, involving other academic institutions (PUC Minas and UEMG), as external consultants. With the presuppositions of the building of metropolitan identity and solidarity, the inversion of priorities focused on the social inclusion, the enhancement of diversities, and a new economic insertion for the RMBH, some studies were put in motion to support the elaboration of priority programs and policies, to contemplate structuring projects and actions, and to collaborate for the construction of a permanent metropolitan planning process that shall guide the System of Metropolitan Management.

This shared planning process has as central element the territorial reordering to reduce socio-spatial inequalities of the RMBH, considering as structural the metropolitan mobility and the web articulated centralities. Its main goal is the construction of a metropolitan citizenship, which is believed to contribute for the integration of the 34 municipalities, implying higher cohesion among them, the civil society and the Government of the State, uniting the RMBH with the state’s space and strengthening its plot in Minas Gerais.

History

The construction of the Main Plan of Integrated Development of the Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte – PDDI-RMBH – inserts itself in the new System of Metropolitan Management of the State of Minas Gerais, implemented in 2004 after a wide public debate led by the Minas Gerais State Assembly.

In 2006, with the approval of the complementary laws 88, 89, and 90, it was established the new institutional arrangement for the management and planning of the two metropolitan regions of Minas Gerais: the Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte (RMBH) and the Metropolitan Region of the Steel Valley (RMVA). In the next year, was created the Sub-secretariat of Metropolitan Development within the State Secretariat for Regional Development and Urban Politic – SEDRU, to put in motion the new institutional arrangement.

Other organizations such as the Metropolitan Assembly and the Deliberative Council for Metropolitan Development were also defined as management institutions and, as institution of technical support, the Agency for the Development of the RMBH. The state’s, municipalities’, and inter-municipal institutions related to the public functions of common interest are also part of the system of metropolitan management.

The System includes yet two management tools: one of planning – the Main Plan of Integrated Development (PDDI-RMBH), and another financial one, the Fund for Metropolitan Development. The State and the municipalities provide the resources to the Fund in a proportion of 50% for each part, and the municipal contribution is proportional to their net income. The Fund also counts on budget allocations, transfers from the federal government, internal or external loans, grants and others.

In August 2007, were accomplished the first Metropolitan Conference, the Deliberative Council and the Metropolitan Assembly, and the regulation of the Fund for the Metropolitan Development. During the Conference, also happened the election of the civil society’s permanent members and substitutes for the Council, and the participants seemed so involved in the task that they decided to create the Metropolitan Collegiate to give support to the members of the Council. The Metropolitan Collegiate is composed by 20 organizations of the civil society, ranging from worker’s unions; professionals’ organizations; academic and research institutions; non-governmental organizations; and social and popular movements.

The Agency for the Development of the RMBH (Agency RMBH), established in January 2009, holds responsibility for the planning, assistance, urban regulation and support to the public functions of common interest in the RMBH. This autarchy possess administrative and financial autonomy, legal personality under public law bounded to the SEDRU, and its actions are supported by the Deliberative Council for Metropolitan Development.

In the year of 2009, the financial resources to the Fund for Metropolitan Development from the Government of the State and the municipalities allowed for the contracting of the Main Plan of Integrated Development of the RMBH with the UFMG, under the coordination of the Centre of Development and Regional Planning¹ - CEDEPLAR. The elaboration of the activities began in September 2009, involving also the PUC Minas and the UEMG, and the plan was presented for consideration of the Government of the State in December 2010.

The creation of a permanent System of Metropolitan Planning, in articulation with the System of Metropolitan Management of the Universities, can mean a new and expressive mark in the national planning. The PDDI-RMBH is only a first step of this strengthening of a collaborative and shared metropolitan planning.