Prefeitura do Rio de Janeiro

Overview of Rio de Janeiro’s City Government

The Prefeitura do Rio de Janeiro serves as the executive branch of municipal governance for Brazil’s second-largest city, a metropolis of approximately 6.7 million residents generating roughly 350 billion BRL in annual GDP. Under the leadership of Mayor Eduardo Paes, who returned to office in January 2021 after previously serving from 2009 to 2016, the city government has pursued an ambitious agenda centered on digital transformation, infrastructure modernization, and climate resilience. The Prefeitura oversees more than fifty integrated agencies, manages a workforce spanning public health, education, urban planning, transportation, and environmental protection, and coordinates with state and federal authorities on projects ranging from port revitalization to data center development.

Rio de Janeiro holds the distinction of being Brazil’s second-largest municipal economy, representing approximately 5.2 percent of national GDP. The city’s economic profile is dominated by the services sector, which accounts for 84 to 86.5 percent of local output, encompassing public administration, commerce, telecommunications, transport, and business services. Industry contributes roughly 11 percent, while agriculture accounts for less than 0.1 percent. The Prefeitura’s economic strategy focuses on leveraging these strengths while diversifying into technology, innovation, and sustainable development. Through agencies such as Invest.Rio and initiatives like the Porto Maravilha revitalization, the city government actively courts foreign direct investment and cultivates the startup ecosystem that now ranks sixth in Latin America according to Startup Genome.

The Prefeitura’s organizational structure includes specialized secretariats for digital transformation, urban development, infrastructure, environment, health, education, and community action. Each secretariat operates under mayoral coordination, with the Centro de Operacoes e Resiliencia (COR) serving as the operational nerve center that integrates data from all municipal agencies into a single command-and-control environment. This integrated governance model has made Rio a reference case for smart city management worldwide, attracting partnerships with IBM, Hexagon, Google, and other global technology leaders.

Mayor Eduardo Paes and Strategic Vision

Eduardo Paes has shaped Rio de Janeiro’s trajectory across two non-consecutive terms, first guiding the city through the transformative period of the 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games, and now steering a post-pandemic recovery focused on technology, sustainability, and inclusive growth. His administration launched the Centro de Operacoes Rio in December 2010 following devastating rains in April of that year, establishing what became the first Olympic facility delivered by the city and a global benchmark for urban operations management.

During his current term, Paes has championed several landmark initiatives. At Web Summit Rio in April 2025, the mayor announced Rio AI City, a hyperscale digital campus developed by Elea Data Centers with a projected full-build capacity of 3.2 gigawatts, positioning Rio to become the largest data center hub in Latin America and one of the ten largest in the world. The administration has also accelerated the Porto Maravilha urban renewal project, where more than 9,129 apartments have been launched with over 80 percent sold, and the Porto Maravalley tech hub opened in 2024 with Google and Meta as anchor tenants. Paes hosted the G20 meetings in 2024, including the Startup20 technology and innovation forum, reinforcing Rio’s position on the global stage.

The mayor’s climate leadership is equally notable. Rio committed to carbon neutrality by 2050, making it one of the first cities in the Global South to adopt such a target as municipal policy. The city will host the C40 World Mayors Summit from November 3 to 5, 2025, just days before COP30 in Belem, spotlighting bold local solutions and mobilizing climate finance. Under Paes, Rio designated a low-emissions district in the Centro neighborhood and enacted Law No. 7,907 in June 2023 to stimulate the voluntary carbon credit market by allowing up to 60 million BRL per year in service tax deductions for companies purchasing carbon credits.

Economic Development and Employment

The Prefeitura has overseen a significant economic recovery since 2020, when unemployment peaked at 15 percent. By the fourth quarter of 2024, the city’s unemployment rate had fallen to 6.9 percent, the lowest level in nine years, representing a 52 percent decline in the number of unemployed residents. The annual unemployment rate for 2024 settled at 8 percent, with projections for 2025 hovering around 7 percent. Between 2021 and 2025, the city added more than 350,000 new formal jobs, with the city accounting for 49.5 percent of all formal employment created in Rio de Janeiro state.

Job growth has been concentrated in services at 73.6 percent, followed by construction at 10.4 percent, commerce at 10.2 percent, and industry at 5.7 percent. The Prefeitura’s investment promotion agency, Invest.Rio, actively markets the city to international businesses and facilitates market entry, while programs like Start-Up Brasil provide government-backed acceleration and funding for early-stage companies. The administration also supports FIRJAN, the Federation of Industries of Rio de Janeiro State, in its economic research and workforce development initiatives.

The startup ecosystem has become a particular priority. Rio hosts more than 880 startups according to the 2021 census, supported by venture capital firms including Valor Capital Group, Confrapar, Crivo Ventures, and Fuse Capital. Brazil-wide, startup funding reached 10.5 billion USD in 2024, a 35 percent year-over-year increase, with the national ecosystem valued at 117 billion USD. The Prefeitura’s role in hosting Web Summit Rio and the Startup20 forum has amplified the city’s visibility among international investors.

Smart City Infrastructure and Digital Transformation

The Prefeitura’s smart city strategy is anchored by the Centro de Operacoes e Resiliencia (COR), a facility that integrates 50 municipal agencies under one roof with 500 professionals working 24-hour shifts. Originally built with a 23 million USD public-private partnership between the city government and IBM, the COR has expanded dramatically. The current system monitors 10,000 GPS-tracked vehicles, processes 1,200 occurrences per month, maps 80 events monthly, and reaches 1.3 million social media followers for emergency communications.

A major expansion inaugurated on December 31, 2022, and completed by mid-2024 brought the camera network to a target of 10,000 units, with 40 percent equipped for facial recognition. The expansion also connected 3,000 traffic signals, deployed 5,000 WiFi access points serving up to 200 users each, installed 9,000 georeferenced sensors, placed 4,000 solid waste sensors in culverts, and added 5,000 traffic signal sensors. The new COR building spans 1,582 square meters across three floors, featuring a 104-square-meter video wall with 125 screens of 55 inches each, the largest in Latin America, backed by 84 servers with nearly 10 petabytes of storage capacity.

Digital governance extends beyond the COR. The DATA.RIO open government portal provides REST API access to municipal datasets spanning health, education, and transportation. The 1746 citizen service platform serves more than 300,000 residents with direct communication channels. The Rio Agora platform promotes transparency and civic engagement. The Secretariat of Digital Transformation partners with the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data to advance data governance, open data, and AI-driven analytics across municipal operations.

Infrastructure Investment and Urban Renewal

The Prefeitura’s infrastructure agenda centers on the Porto Maravilha revitalization, a 5-million-square-meter urban renewal zone in the historic port district funded through an innovative CEPAC financial model valued at over 8 billion BRL. Managed by CDURP, the publicly traded municipal development company, the project has delivered 700 kilometers of water and sanitation networks, 650 square kilometers of new sidewalks, 17 kilometers of bike paths, and 15,000 newly planted trees.

Transportation improvements have been transformative. The BRT system now covers 125 kilometers with the world’s largest BRT ridership, serving 9 million people and saving 7.7 million hours of travel time monthly. The VLT Carioca light rail carried 13 million passengers in the first half of 2025, an 18 percent year-over-year increase, while reducing bus traffic in the Centro and Port regions by 60 percent and car trips by 15 percent. In October 2025, the Rio City Council approved converting the Transcarioca and Transoeste BRT corridors into VLT light rail extensions, signaling the administration’s commitment to modern, low-emission transit.

Airport development has also accelerated under the Prefeitura’s coordination with federal authorities. Galeao International Airport handled 16.1 million passengers in 2025, a 23 percent increase, while cargo volumes grew 50 percent. The city government has supported the new concession process, with market testing scheduled for March 2025 and 12 or more interested groups. Santos Dumont domestic airport is transitioning from a 6.5 million passenger cap in 2024 toward an unrestricted ceiling by 2028.

Tourism and Cultural Economy

Tourism represents a cornerstone of the Prefeitura’s economic strategy, managed through Riotur, the city’s official tourism promotion agency. In 2025, Rio received 12.5 million visitors, up from 11.4 million in 2024, generating 27.2 billion BRL in tourism revenue. International arrivals surged 44.8 percent to 2.1 million visitors, with particularly strong growth from France at 77.9 percent, Chile at 59.1 percent, the United States at 54.4 percent, and Argentina at 42.6 percent.

Carnival 2025 generated 5.7 billion BRL in economic impact for Rio alone, attracting 6 million participants with hotel occupancy reaching 98.62 percent citywide and 99.37 percent in the Centro district. The Prefeitura has also leveraged major events to boost the tourism economy. The Lady Gaga concert in May 2025 generated 66.2 million BRL in tourism tax revenue, exceeding the Madonna concert of 2024 by 8.2 percent. The cruise port at Pier Maua welcomed 36 ships and 327,000 visitors during the 2024-25 season, including the MSC Grandiosa, the largest cruise ship in history to visit Brazil.

Climate Action and Sustainability

The Prefeitura’s climate strategy integrates the Plan for Sustainable Development and Climate Action, aligning municipal policy with the 2030 Agenda objectives and C40 Cities commitments. Rio’s carbon neutrality target of 2050 is supported by concrete mechanisms including the Neutral ISS law incentivizing voluntary carbon credit purchases, a designated low-emissions district in Centro, and mandatory solar thermal systems for new and renovated buildings since 2008 targeting 40 percent coverage of the city’s hot water demand.

The Rio Resilience Strategy, launched in 2016, sets a goal of becoming a global leader in resilience by 2035 through six key priorities: mitigating severe weather impacts, cultivating green urban spaces, providing high-quality basic services, promoting a circular and low-carbon economy, addressing flooding and drought, and securing safer energy supply by decreasing hydropower dependence. The COR serves as the operational backbone of this strategy, with sirens and shelters deployed against extreme weather events.

Community-level programs demonstrate the Prefeitura’s inclusive approach. The Recicla Comunidade initiative, operated through the Municipal Department of Community Action’s Favela com Dignidade program, allows residents to deliver recyclable waste to collection points and receive social currency credits redeemable at more than 100 commercial establishments. The EcoClima Mare project, established in 2023 in partnership with Redes da Mare, Petrobras, and UFRJ’s Environmental Engineering Department, focuses on circular economy, water reuse, heat reduction, and mangrove restoration.

The BRT TransOeste corridor alone saves 107,000 tons of CO2 per year, while the VLT Carioca reduces emissions across the city center. Six new parks have been created in heat-prone areas, and the Mata Maravilha project within Porto Maravilha is restoring native vegetation and creating regenerative green space. Rio pioneered Latin America’s use of power purchase agreements to supply municipal buildings with renewable energy, further reducing the city’s carbon footprint.

International Engagement and Future Outlook

The Prefeitura has positioned Rio de Janeiro as a leading voice in global urban governance. The city hosted G20 meetings in 2024, including the Startup20 technology and innovation forum that brought panels, technical visits to innovation hubs, and university tours. The upcoming C40 World Mayors Summit in November 2025 will spotlight Rio’s climate leadership just days before COP30, with an agenda to triple renewable energy by 2030, improve public health, and cut emissions. The Prefeitura’s partnership with AFD, the French Development Agency, deepens engagement in global climate finance.

Looking ahead, the administration’s priorities include completing the Rio AI City data center campus, advancing the VLT expansion approved in October 2025, finalizing the Galeao Airport concession, and continuing the Porto Maravilha buildout toward its projected 70,000 new residents. The Sambadrome district redevelopment, launched in 2024 along Porto Maravilha lines, will demolish the Elevado 31 de Marco overpass and create a new urban neighborhood. With the national AI plan committing 4 billion USD in infrastructure, a national data center policy launching in May 2025 with tax incentives and legal security, and Brazil’s startup ecosystem growing 21.7 percent, the Prefeitura is positioning Rio to capture a substantial share of Brazil’s technology-driven future.

The city government’s integrated approach, combining smart city operations with economic development, infrastructure investment, tourism promotion, and climate action, provides a governance model that other cities in the Global South increasingly seek to replicate. Under Mayor Eduardo Paes, the Prefeitura do Rio de Janeiro has demonstrated that ambitious urban transformation is achievable when technology, policy, and community engagement converge around a shared vision for the future.