Isaura Daniel*
isaura.daniel@anba.com.br
São Paulo – One of the areas in which Brazil may seek technological advances together with the Arabs is agriculture. This statement was made to ANBA yesterday (23) by the minister of Science and Technology, Sérgio Machado Rezende, soon after the opening of the 2nd Brazilian Congress of Industrial Innovation, which began yesterday and ends today, at Hilton Hotel, in São Paulo (SE Brazil). "Brazil has the Embrapa system, which is very successful. We have many cultures in common with the countries in the region. Agriculture and livestock is an area in which we may work together," stated Rezende. The Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) is an arm of the Brazilian government that works in research turned to agriculture and livestock farming.
According to minister Rezende, Brazil still has little interaction with the Arab countries in terms of technological innovation, but both regions have good chances of advancing in the area. "I was in Egypt last year. There we had many meetings with Egyptian ministers, most of whom would like to have a common agenda in the area, and I believe that we have good chances of establishing them throughout this year," he said.
The meeting whose opening the minister participated in is a large forum for discussion and implementation of new technologies in Brazilian industry. National industrial leaders participated in the opening of the congress, which should bring together 500 people up to tomorrow.
Among the sector authorities that spoke during the opening meeting, one consensus was found: innovation is essential to the insertion of the Brazilian economy on the foreign market. "Innovation is priority for economic and social development and for the elevation of industrial competitiveness," stated Armando Monteiro Neto, president of the National Confederation of Industries (CNI), and promoter of the congress. "It is fundamental for industries to seek improvement in their performance in a market that is more and more competitive," he said. Neto recalled, however, that just 1% of the Brazilian Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is invested in research and science and that a large part of this investment is in the hands of the government, and not the private sector.
He defended the government support for industries to invest more in innovation. Among the measures, he asked for greater access to company lines of credit and tax breaks for the implementation of new technologies within companies. Minister Rezende stated that the government of Brazil is preparing a plan for science, technology and innovation, whose discussions should be completed within the next two months. "It will be expansion of the scope of support to industrial innovation," stated Rezende.
Neto explained to the industry members present that the innovation agenda must be passed on. He mentioned, among other measures, the need to train human capital, like technicians, with a profile turned to innovation, the stimulation to small companies and the incentive to sectors in technological frontiers like biotechnology, nanotechnology, renewable energies and agroindustry.
The president of the Industrial and Technological Development Council at the CNI, Rodrigo da Rocha Loures, stated that the route for Brazilian industry is not specialized, but diversified. "What would be more logical for Brazil would be seeking a diversified industrial structure, as is the case with China, Japan and the United States," he said. Brazil really has varied industry, which ranges from manufactured products, like shoes and clothes, to technology, capital goods and electronic equipment.
According to Loures, the fact that Brazil is a large country also makes it necessary to have regional industrial strategies. Apart from Loures, Rezende and Neto, the opening of the congress also included other personalities like the president of the Brazilian Agency for Industrial Development (ABDI), Alessandro Teixeira, and the president of the Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo (Fiesp), Paulo Skaf.
The meeting
The CNI congress continues today with a series of talks and debates. In the morning there will a roundtable about innovation and competitiveness, with presentations about international experiences and a talk about technological tendencies. Among the participants in the roundtable will be Pere Escorsa, of the Pontifical University of Catalan, Spain, and Carl Dahlman, of George Washington University, in the United States. The talks will include names like Marc Giget, of the National Centre of Arts of France. In the afternoon, the talks will cover financing to innovation, information technology, intellectual property, nanotechnology and renewable energy, among others.
*Translated by Mark Ament
