The National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) opened on Tuesday (1st) registration for the second round of the Resgatando a História program, aimed at supporting the recovery of Brazilian historical and cultural heritage, which includes material cultural heritage, immaterial and memorial collections from all over the country. Applications will be extended until the 30th.
The program was launched last year to leverage complementary partner resources. In the first cycle of projects, BNDES committed to invest up to R$185.1 million and had R$55.5 million from partners Ambev Brasil, EDP, Instituto Cultural Vale, Instituto Neonergia and MRS Logística.
In this first stage, 21 projects were selected, totaling R$ 309.8 million in investments in historical heritage. From this first cycle, eight new proposals are being called, in addition to the 21 already approved, thanks to an increase in the original budget of up to R$ 107.1 million, coming from the BNDES Cultural Fund. Now, the bank continues the program with the new cycle for receiving proposals.
In the assessment of the BNDES’ Director of Productive and Social and Environmental Credit, Bruno Aranha, with this new opportunity to present projects, “BNDES takes another important step in its strategy of supporting the rescue of Brazilian historical heritage, promoting culture, tourism and education . We want more and more companies to join BNDES to write this story”.
Aranha highlighted that Resgatando a História “is the largest historical heritage preservation program ever carried out in Brazil, bringing together the efforts of public and private initiatives. Considering the increase in the budget for the first cycle and the new round of proposals, we can generate more than BRL 500 million in investments in historical heritage”.
proposals
Each proposal must include between three and five cultural heritage sites, at least one of which is located in the North Region. BNDES support for each project should reach between R$ 1.5 million and R$ 6 million and each project portfolio presented must be up to R$ 15 million. The bank’s financial support will favor locations outside the Southeast Region. Initiatives in the North, Northeast and Central-West regions will receive funding from BNDES of up to 75% of the value of the projects. This percentage will be up to 67% for the South Region and up to 50% for the Southeast.
The criteria for selecting the bank’s financial support include the relevance of the initiative to the preservation of historical heritage; potential for generating employment and income in the economies of local cultures; promotion of actions to engage the local population and heritage education; improvements in the management and governance of institutions that maintain assets; and elaboration of a long-term financial sustainability plan for the institutions responsible for the heritage.
The proposals must also include the training of local agents for the elaboration of projects for the recovery of historical heritage, aiming at increasing the number of future proponents. BNDES will allocate up to R$ 500 thousand per project portfolio for this purpose.
The precondition for final approval and disbursement of funds is that the projects are registered in the Federal Cultural Incentive Law. All proposals will be analyzed by the BNDES’ Committee on Cultural Heritage and Economy of Culture, which is the group formed by bank executives to analyze the merits of projects and compliance with the regulation of the BNDES Cultural Fund.
Participation
Private non-profit entities (association or private foundation) or public entities (autarchy or state, municipal or district public foundation) can participate in the process. Bidders must demonstrate execution and accountability capabilities, as well as a track record of working on historic heritage projects. The result of the selection by the committee will be announced until December 31 of this year. Projects that are not considered suitable in this selection can be improved and resubmitted in the next cycles of receipt and analysis of proposals.
