São Paulo – The Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) and the Studies and Projects Funding Body (Finep), a company under the Ministry of Science, Technology and innovation, should increase disbursements for innovation projects by approximately 50% this year.
“Both the BNDES and the Finep have growing portfolios of innovation-oriented projects. Last year has already seen a significant increase in our portfolios, we have disbursed over 3 billion reals [US$ 1.64 billion] for innovation purposes. This year, we are expecting that figure to grow substantially. We hope to exceed the 4.5 billion real mark [US$ 2.46 billion],” said BNDES president Luciano Coutinho, after meeting with businessmen from the National Confederation of Industries (CNI).
The CNI president, Robson Braga de Andrade, added that in the next two years, the industry, backed by the BNDES, should invest roughly 1.7 billion reals (US$ 932 million) in implementing 32 laboratories and cutting-edge research centres, based on the vocations of different regions of the country. “In [the state of] Acre, for instance, we will have technology centres turned to wood; in Amazonas, [it will be] biotechnology.”
Of that amount, 1.4 billion reals (US$ 767 million) should be financed by the BNDES. The centres will be built in a maximum of two years and are being designed by the German Fraunhofer institute, “the best in the world when it comes to innovation- and technology-oriented laboratories,” said the president of the CNI.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
