On 28 May 2025, Brazilian President Lula launched "Chamada Nordeste" in Salgueiro (Pernambuco) — a BRL 10 billion (~USD 1.8bn) public call for structuring investment projects in the nine Northeast states, run jointly by BNDES, Banco do Brasil, Caixa Econômica Federal, Banco do Nordeste (BNB) and Finep, with technical support from Sudene and the Northeast Consortium. It is the largest project call ever run for the region and sits under the federal Nova Indústria Brasil (NIB) industrial-policy umbrella. Eligible business plans (minimum BRL 10 million) cover storage/renewable energy, bioeconomy with a pharmaceuticals focus, green hydrogen, green data centers and the automotive/agricultural-machinery sector, financed via a combination of credit lines, non-reimbursable economic subsidies and equity participation; the proposal deadline was 15 September 2025. Demand vastly exceeded supply: the call drew 245 proposals totalling roughly BRL 127.8 billion — nearly 13 times the initial BRL 10bn envelope — before BNDES approved 189 projects worth BRL 113 billion in follow-on selection rounds.

Analyst notesShow

Mechanism

Chamada Nordeste is a joint public call for project financing run by five federal financial institutions — BNDES, Banco do Brasil, Caixa, Banco do Nordeste and Finep — under the Nova Indústria Brasil (NIB) framework (2024-01-22-brazil-nova-industria-brasil-nib), targeting the nine states of Brazil's Northeast region. Announced by President Lula on 28 May 2025 in Salgueiro (PE) with a nominal BRL 10 billion envelope, the call combines subsidised credit, non-reimbursable grants and equity participation across five focus areas: energy storage/renewables, bioeconomy (with an explicit pharmaceuticals sub-focus), green hydrogen, green data centers, and automotive/farm machinery. Minimum project size is BRL 10 million, open to Brazilian and foreign-established companies and cooperatives, individually or in consortia. BNDES and partner-bank officials subsequently toured Northeast state capitals (including Recife and Rio Grande do Norte) through June-July 2025 to promote the call ahead of the 15 September 2025 proposal deadline. Oversubscription was extreme: 245 proposals worth ~BRL 127.8bn were submitted (~13x the original envelope), and BNDES went on to approve 189 projects totalling BRL 113bn.

Downstream implications

Extends the NIB pattern of stacking regional development-bank

credit facilities (see also the parallel BNDES/Finep Industria 4.0 line, 2025-08-25-brazil-bndes-finep-industria-4-0-r12bi-credit-line) on top of the national R$300bn NIB envelope — cumulative NIB-aligned commitments are running well ahead of the original 2024 headline figure.

The green-hydrogen and green-data-center focus areas make this

relevant to Brazil's emerging low-carbon industrial base (cf. 2024-08-02-brazil-lei-14948-low-carbon-hydrogen-framework); foreign green-hydrogen and data-center investors bidding into the Northeast should track eventual company-level BNDES approvals.

13x oversubscription signals strong latent industrial demand in the

Northeast and increases the likelihood BNDES/Finep launch follow-on or top-up calls for the region.

Open questions

Company-level disbursement/approval data for the 189 selected

projects has not yet been fully published in English-language or easily machine-readable form; worth a follow-up once BNDES publishes the approved-project list with named recipients.

Sectoral split of the BRL 113bn approved across the five focus

areas is not yet disclosed.

Sources

Primary: BNDES official Chamada Nordeste program page

Secondary: Global Trade Alert intervention record

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Mechanism

Downstream implications

Extends the NIB pattern of stacking regional development-bank

The green-hydrogen and green-data-center focus areas make this

13x oversubscription signals strong latent industrial demand in the

Northeast and increases the likelihood BNDES/Finep launch follow-on or top-up calls for the region.

Open questions

Company-level disbursement/approval data for the 189 selected

projects has not yet been fully published in English-language or easily machine-readable form; worth a follow-up once BNDES publishes the approved-project list with named recipients.

Sectoral split of the BRL 113bn approved across the five focus

areas is not yet disclosed.