Desenvolvimento regional no sudeste do Pará: uma fronteira de expansão no centro norte do Brasil

Abstract

This research has analyzed the regional development process of the Southeast of Pará State, comprising the Intermediate Regions of Marabá and the Redenção Counties, identified as the part of the Pará State belonging to the reference region named North Central Brazil. The methodology used was the Regional Development Index, which sought to understand the aspects of the social, institutional, and economic dimensions, by the partial indicators, aiming to evaluate how they happened and at what stage the development is, using as a temporal cut the years from 2000 to 2010. This study is a quantitative and qualitative analysis, and the data interpretation used the Central Place Theory, Growth Pole Theory, and Export Basis Theory. The main results point to a region of development led by large multinationals interests, which had in its local advantages the existence of dendritic network formed by the great regional rivers, the emergence of central places, and that, since military governments, had the sustainability of its regional economy based on the model of Growth Centers. It was demonstrated that the municipality of Marabá stands out as central place and as polo in the region, and Parauapebas, Tucuruí, and Redenção municipalities also have polarization power but in different ways and intensities. In general, all municipalities moved forward in relation to the indicators during the analyzed period, and, in 2010, there were no municipalities classified as late. The region has the capacity for sustained growth in an export-based economy, needing to invest in aggregating value to the regional product, setting the gains, and internalizing its benefits. Considering the social capital, there were improvement in the period analyzed; however, issues such as decrease in the electoral attendance and stagnation in the number of representatives (state and/or federal deputies) show that there is room for strengthening the empowerment of the organized society from the Southeast of Pará State.