Abcesso Technology
To Abcesso's credit, they spend some time on the FAQ section of their website defending both ethanol and the AutoFFV. They claim that neither the fuel nor the product will do any damage to your car. They also visit the ol' cold start problem and say that the system software taps the temperature sensor and adjusts accordingly, so no issues should arise. As for the dashboard warning light problem they say that the "'check engine light' in Dodge/Chrysler vehicle will not occur with the AutoFFV system." Not sure why they don't mention Ford, as it's their flex-fuel cars which are currently under the magnifying glass of the NHTSA and FTC.
In any case, from what I can tell, very little has been done to address the use of ethanol blends as high as E85 in modern engines that weren't designed for them. Most reports I found discuss the benefits and safety of E10 while disregarding any blend much higher. Perhaps, we'll have to wait and see.
Abcesso Exp/Imp.
Av. Alfredo Baltazar da Silvera - Recreio dos Bandeirantes
27122790-710 RJ - Rio de Janeiro - Brasil
Tel: + 55 21 3521-7216
Skype: abcesso
Center of Excellence in Advanced Technologies
To bring technological innovation for the benefit of enterprises through a co-operative effort with universities and R&D Centers, is the CETA SENAI Mission, thus promoting and contributing to the technological and social development of the state o Rio Grande do Sul.
The goal is to implement a paradigm changing in the matter of applied research to the industry, based in the Fraunhofer model, which promotes the integration of science and technology institutions with the industry needs.
The CETA SENAI -RS project is inserted in the agreement between Brazil and Germany about co-operation in applied reasearch and technological development between Universities and R&D Institutions from both countries, in force since 1969. In march of 1999, a Joint Commitee of Scientific and Technologic Cooperation has approved and considered as a priority project the colaboration between RS and FhGin technologic research.
The concept of CETA SENAI -RS has been developed and continuously improved over the last 9 years. It is based on performed industrial and R&D surveys that analysed the industrial demands and the academic capacities for technological innovation in RS. Currently, CETA SENAI performs over 21 innovation projects with applied research projects, technology transfer, and national and international R&D co-operations.
CETA SENAI-RS
Av. Assis Brasil 8450 - 1º
Porto Alegre - RS - Brazil
CEP: 91140-000
Phone: +55 51 3347
FAX: +55 51 3364
E-mail: ceta-rs@ceta-rs.org.br
Petrojarl Cidade de Rio das Ostras
Betting the fazenda
Mar 6th 2008 SÃO PAULO
From The Economist print edition
SETTLE down at one of São Paulo's sushi bars and before long you will overhear a discussion about a start-up business making energy from obscure weeds, or some other bright idea for relieving members of the country's growing middle class of their disposable income. A field study of this kind displays a strong sample bias, but the point is clear: Brazil does not lack go-getters. Yet according to a more thorough survey backed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a sister organisation of the World Bank, Brazilian entrepreneurs are a strikingly different breed to their peers in Russia and China.
Overall, some 82% of entrepreneurs in all three countries came from families with at least one other entrepreneur. They also tended to be taller than the average. But there the similarities end. In particular, Brazilian entrepreneurs seem to have a much lower appetite for risk.
The researchers measured this by offering interviewees hypothetical bets of varying risk and reward, and offering a choice between cash now or more money at a later date. The entrepreneurs in the sample were no more risk-taking than other Brazilians, and were also more likely to retire if offered a windfall than their peers elsewhere.
Perhaps this lack of staying power is because there are many more pleasant things to do in Brazil than work. But why should Brazilians be so risk-averse? Simeon Djankov, one of the study's authors, hypothesises that in real life Brazilian entrepreneurs run bigger risks than those elsewhere. Starting a business takes 152 days and requires 18 different procedures, according to the IFC's annual worldwide “Doing Business” study. It takes 2,600 hours for a medium-sized business to keep up with its taxes each year. The same hypothetical business would pay 69% of its second-year profits in tax, if it played by the rules and did not receive special tax breaks.
Brazilian entrepreneurs show an unsurprising willingness to bend the law. “Essentially what determines good entrepreneurship in Brazil is the ability to navigate around the bureaucracy,” suggests Mr Djankov. Eduardo Giannetti da Fonseca, an economist, concurs: “If Bill Gates had started Microsoft in a garage in Brazil, it would still be in the garage.” Harder to explain than why Brazil's entrepreneurs are as they are is why they exist at all.
175 new technical schools in 2008
In 2008, more than 150 technical schools will start being implemented in Brazil. Also forecasted for the coming months is the inauguration of 25 other schools, already under construction. The data were supplied by the Ministry of Education and were disclosed by the press office at the organisation.From 1909 to 2002, 140 technical schools were built in the country. And in the last five years, 39 new units were established. The schools to be inaugurated in 2008 will offer, at first, five intermediate-level technical courses. Each will have capacity for 1,200 students.
The aim of the government is to have 354 new technical schools and 500,000 slots by 2010. "The difficulty faced by companies in hiring trained and skilled workforce is a challenge that is being addressed by the federal government with heavy investment in technical education," says Eliezer Pacheco, secretary for professional and technological education at the Ministry of Education.
The National Industrial Training Service - SENAI is an integral part of the National Industrial Confederation System. It is the largest vocational education complex in Latin America and its purpose is the strengthening of industrial activities through human resources training.
Technology Center with Facilities in the Full Scale Field
The Technology Center with Facilities in the Full Scale Field - CTDUT is a technology center judicially established as a privately-owned, non-profit, service rendering independent membership, having its headquarters in the City of Duque de Caxias, State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and instituted by initiative of Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro PUC-Rio, Petrobras Transporte S.A. - TRANSPETRO and Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. - PETROBRAS, which are effective founding members, with funds from the Fundo Setorial de Petróleo e Gás - CTPetro, related to the Ministry of Science and Technology, through FINEP.A Technology Center focused on the pipeline area, with full scale facilities intended for the research and development of new technologies, tests of products, equipment and systems used in the pipeline network and in the area staff qualification.
CTDUT is open to the participation of companies, research institutions, universities and organizations of the civil society with concerns in the pipeline sector and in the environment preservation.
The CTDUT project emerged from the strategic necessity of developing technology in the pipeline area, aiming to provide more competitiveness to the pipeline conveyance sector industry established in the Country. It is an investment that shall allow the Country to have the largest shared Technological Center in Latin America, besides being the only one in the world having a full scale built pipeline that is intended for research, tests and personnel qualification.
Brazil to promote exports of equipment for oil industry
The Apex - ONIP project was presented today (06) in Rio de Janeiro, to a group of local businessmen, and should be presented to people in the industry in other states as well.
The superintendent at ONIP, Bruno Musso, explained that the project for promoting Brazilian exports, established in late 2006, will be developed over the course of two years (2007/2008) and ensures the presence of participating companies in five international trade shows, and in business missions to 11 different countries. Up until now, 60 companies have adhered to the program, which is accepting new members.
"The project is aimed at increasing exports in 30% in 2007, based on export figures for 2005, and then 35% in 2008. In 2005, the 60 participating companies exported approximately 90 million Brazilian reais (US$ 43,2 million) worth of products. The figure does not correspond to the sector's exports," he explained.
Musso also said that, besides increasing export volume, the program is aimed at generating employment and income as well. "We want to have at least 20 new companies to enter the foreign market."
The program brought the two organizations together for the first time ever to elaborate a project for the sector, and has a budget of 4 million reais (US$ 1,9 million), to be shared by Apex and the sector's companies. Onip is the manager of the project, which will be evaluated halfway through 2008. The idea, according to the superintendent at ONIP, is to propose to Apex the creation of a new program for the 2009/2010 period, based on the results of the experience being implemented now.
Brazilian pharmaceutical companies
Product innovation or business innovation? What should companies follow? Based on products and business innovation concepts and Concurrent Engineering (CE), Integrated Product Development (IPD), Stage Gates and Product Based Business (PBB), this paper presents an innovation reference model developed for Brazilian pharmaceutical companies. Qualitative research was conducted in six pharmaceutical companies in order to better understand their scenario and to compare their reality of innovation processes. The focus of this paper is to understand how thesecompanies identify innovation opportunities (in the pre-development phase) and what constraints they face to implement them. Some comparisons are made among them and some recommendations concerning the innovation process are presented.
Condor flare parachute
The brazilian Condor S.A. Indústria Química developed a flare parachute, capable to help the Navy in nocturnal searches in the sea or the policy to face dealers in mounts. The part illuminates the target for 30 seconds. The company waits authorization of the Army to initiate sells.Condor is the leader and pioneer in Latin America in manufacturing Non-lethal Equipment and high-tech Pyrotechnicals for riots, military signaling and salvaging and it has a privileged position in the world ranking.
Located in Rio de Janeiro, in the municipality of Nova Iguaçú, its factory is installed in a total surface area of approximately 1,000.000 (one million) square meters, next to the biological resort of Tinguá, with 26 thousand hectares, which is the largest resort of the Atlantic Rain Forest of the State of Rio de Janeiro. Condor follows a permanent policy of nature protection by allocating 40% of its total area to preserve the native forest, the water springs, the flora and the fauna, thus turning the factory environment into an ecological island, perfectly fine-tuned with the “Non-Lethal” concept of respecting life and citizenship.
Rua do Carmo, 7 - Gr.1901
Centro - Rio de Janeiro - RJ
CEP: 20011-020
Phone: ++5521 3974-3355
Fax: ++5521 2524-7337
Marshall Casimiro Montenegro
But to build in Brazil an institution inspired in the MIT (Massachussets Institute of Technology, of the United States) would go to cost the Montenegro innumerable other battles. The difficulties were perfectly understandable: at a time where we still imported bycicles and sanitary vases, Montenegro defended that Brazil should be converted into a world-wide aeronautical power - prophecy that he would live to see materialized in the Embraer, a company been born of a rib of the Aeronautical Institute of Technology - ITA1 founded by him.
Between the creation of ITA, in 1945, and the military coup of 1964, the Montenegro life transform itself in a succetion of battles and alliances with brigadier generals, marshals, ministers, entrepreneurs, bankers and even with presidents of the Republic.
The military held power from 1964 until March 1985 not by design but because of political struggles within the new regime. Just as the regime changes of 1889, 1930, and 1945 unleashed competing political forces and caused splits in the military, so too did the regime change of 1964. Because no civilian politician was acceptable to all the revolutionary factions, the army chief of staff, Marshall Humberto Castelo Branco (president, 1964-67), became president with the intention of overseeing a reform of the political-economic system.
Exactly the stubbornness of that Montenegro had determined to construct its dream to any cost only allowed that ITA arrived at XXI century as one of the most respected world-wide centers of technological knowledge production. The divergence of opinion regarding the paper of ITA, however, would produce what decades of conspiracies had not obtained: to bury the relation between Montenegro and one of his best friends Eduardo Gomes. For Montenegro, the Institute would have to be a granary of brains for the society, as a whole. Eduardo Gomes disagreed and defended that the ITA if converted into a center technician of support and maintenance of the Brazilian Air Force - FAB. Eduardo Gomes was stronger, with good relations with the situation government, but Montenegro gained. The ITA was successful. Marshall Montenegro died in 2000, in Petrópolis (Rio de Janeiro) - the city of Alberto Santos Dumont, and although not to have died in combat nor to have been minister, he had a burial with military honors. Its coffin - buried to the side of Eduardo Gomes one - was lead by six ITA students - three military and three civilians. It would have been its last message: civilians and military, side by side.
The author Fernando Morais gets better every time one more of his books hits the shelves. Not only does he put a face to a name (as he did many times before as with Olga and Assis Chatobriand) but in the process he is a masterful storyteller bringing light and truth to otherwise "officialized" history.
1Established as the first Institute of the Aerospace Technical Center (CTA), ITA is considered to be the berth to the modern Brazilian aerospace industry. Located in São José dos Campos, in the State of São Paulo, the CTA campus composes four institutes and spreads over a large area including teaching and R&D laboratories as well as a complete residential facilities for students, professors, researchers, and other professionals.
Nanox Tecnologia
NANOX TECNOLOGIA S/A is a company that develops nanotechnology solutions. Its aim is to develop and produce surface treatment solutions, oxide synthesis and nanometric metals, aiming at improving surface properties. NANOX®’s coatings can be applied to a number of different kindsof surfaces.The company is a spin-off from the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), in the State of São Paulo. It originated at UFSCar’s CMDMC/LIEC, the country’s leading nanotech laboratory, with which it maintains active research and cooperation agreements.
The NANOX® technology for synthesizing nanomaterials has grown from a bottom-up method and more specifically from chemical synthesis methods.
Using its own technologies, NANOX® produces nanometric compounds with a controlled particle size and distribution, elevated homogeneity, controlled stoichiometry, at a low cost and on an industrial scale. Further, these processes allow materials with different characteristics to be made compatible, i.e. polar materials can be chemically transformed so as to incorporate or react with apolar materials, bringing about significant changes to the materials’ properties. Thus, NANOX® creates atomic-scale materials, modeling the properties of the materials and surfaces, and can produce a range of amorphous and crystalline materials, including simple and mixed metal oxides, coatings, nanocompounds and materials for clean energy.
Nanox Tecnologia
Rua Jose Missali, 820 - Planalto Paraíso
CEP 135602-060 - Sao Carlos - SP - Brasil
Phone: +55 16 3364-2235
Website: www.nanox.com.br
CIETEC
CIETEC – The Technology–Based Business Incubator Center - was inaugurated in April of 1998, in São Paulo, within a partnering association with SCTDE-SP - The Science, Technology and Economic Development Secretary of the State of São Paulo; SEBRAE-SP - The Brazilian Support Service for Micro and Small Businesses; USP – São Paulo University; CNEN - The National Commission of Nuclear Energy - through IPEN - The Nuclear and Energy Research Institute , and IPT - The Institute of Technological Research of the State of São Paulo , entities which compose Cietec’s Board of Directors. Later, MCT - the Ministry of Science and Technology - was incorporated to the Board
Cietec’s mission is to promote the development of Brazilian technology and science, by encouraging its members to turn knowledge into innovative and competitive products and services.
In order to do that, CIETEC lies ahead of a national development strategy to encourage entrepreneurship, enhance quality of life and position the country as a creating and exporting base of innovative technologies in the various fields of knowledge.
CIETEC provides its small and micro companies with tools which will increase their survival and competitiveness, offering these technology-based companies the excellence of its infra-structure and human resources.
Amid the differentials that make CIETEC one of the most important incubator centers in the Country, the primary one is its privileged location. Based in Cidade Universitária de São Paulo, CIETEC’S tenant companies have access to the laboratories of IPEN, IPT and USP, fundamental to ensure the quality of their projects.
For being a connection link between education and research institutions, government bodies and private organizations, it is Cietec’s policy to constantly improve exchange of information and support service throughout all the networking made up by entrepreneurs, investors, researchers, scientists, journalists, consultants, students, professors and company owners.
CIETEC
Av. Prof° Lineu Prestes, 2242 - Sao Paulo
Cidade Universitária - Butantã - CEP 05708-000
Phone: (11) 3039.8300
Website: http://www.cietec.org.br/
Movimento Brasil Competitivo
CEP 70041.902 - Brasília/DF
Fone/Fax: +55 61 3326
Wevsite: mbc@mbc.org.br
Pam Membranas Seletivas
Pam Membranas Seletivas is growing for uniting environment protection to cost reduction. The company, who was born in Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) Incubator, manufactures microfiltration membranes to treat effluent and, thus, to reuse water. It finished to deliver two microfiltration units, one for Petrobras and another one for Dupont. Petrobras will use the equipment in the oil field of Fazenda Belém, in Ceará, to separate water from oil.
- Petrobra's wants to use this recicled and clean water to irrigate a mamona plantation for production of biodiesel - says Ronaldo Nóbrega, Pam Membrana's director, a retired Chemistry Engineering UFRJ Professor who developed the technology with his post-graduate studentsDupont, in Uberaba (MG), uses the filter to recoup a harmful pigment from the nature allowing its recycling and reuse. Pam Mambrana has also made tests in a brewery of São Paulo. And negotiates with the Votorantim Cellulose and Paper the implementation of its first filter of great dimension:
- We wait to close the year with bigger invoicing five times that of 2006, that it was of US$ 125 a thousand.
Pam Membrana has also won two innovation funding projects from the Brazilian innovation agency - FINEP and from the State of Rio de Janeiro Science and Technology Agency - FAPERJ to improve its microfiltration technology.
Pam-Membranas Seletivas
COPPE-UFRJ, Cidade Universitária - Rio de Janeiro
Caixa Postal 68568 - CEP: 21941-972
Phone: +5521-2590-3428
Fax: +5521-2590-4334
E-mail: pam-membranas@inc.coppe.ufrj.br
Vitrogen
This year Vitrogen completes eight years of commercial performance in Brazil commemorating one historical mark: more than 360 a thousand bovine embryos produced by In vitro fertilisation (IVF). Of this volume 305 a thousand embryos had been transferred to receiving cows, an average of 40% of confirmed pregnancies.
Beyond this production increment of bovine embryos in domestic territory, Vitrogen has since 2003 also expanded its action in other South-american countries. Currently the company possesss laboratories in Colombia, Uruguay and Venezuela and Mexico. According to Yeda Watanabe, one of the partners of the Vitrogen, these three countries had already produced more than 50 a thousand embryos. The forecast is that in 2007 Vitrogen must produce between 6 and 10 a thousand pregnancies by IVF only in Colombia. In Brazil four units, installed in Cravinhos/SP, Uberaba/MG, Field Grande/MS and Morrinhos/GO (this in partnership with the Samvet Embryos) are in production.
The Vitrogen also is pioneering in the commercial application of the of bovines, goat and ovinos cloning and is searching partnerships for projects of national and international expansion. Vitrogen develops research projects and it offers other services in biotechnologies for animal reproduction.
Vitrogen
Rua Sete de Setembro, 601 - Alto das Acácias
Cep 14।140-000 - Cravinhos/SP
Phone: 55(16) 3951-9255
info@vitrogen.com.br
Brazilian Space Agency
The Brazilian Space Agency (Agência Espacial Brasileira) is the civilian authority in Brazil that is in charge of the country's burgeoning space program. It operates a rocket launch site at Alcântara. Its location near the equator means that less energy is required to launch into space.The Brazilian Space Agency is the heir to Brazil's space program. Previously, the program had been under the control of the Brazilian military. Because of pressure from the United States over the possible military application of its space program, the program was transferred into civilian control on 10 February 1994.
It suffered a major setback in 2003, when a rocket explosion killed 21 technicians. The first successful rocket was launched on October 23, 2004; it was a VSV-30, or Brazilian Exploration Vehicle, launched on a sub-orbital mission.
A joint venture company for rockets and satellites, established by Brazil and Ukraine, should begin operating this year. The partnership is aimed at launching rockets and satellites from the Alcântara Base, in the northeastern Brazilian state of Maranhão. The first launch should take place by 2009, according to the AEB, which completed 13 years of existence on February 10th, 2007.
Brazil will make available its launch area in Alcântara and the Ukrainians will provide the launching technology developed in Ukraine.
The company is expected to profit the equivalent of roughly 10% of the global satellite launching market, worth US$ 10 billion, over the next eight years, since countries that own satellites will be able to pay to use the base and the launching technology.
Ipiranga Group
Brazilian oil giant Petrobras, Ultra group, in the gas, chemical and transport sector, and petrochemical company Braskem signed an agreement to acquire the businesses of Ipiranga group. The value of the operation will be US$ 4 billion. Ipiranga operates in the oil refining, petrochemical and fuel distribution sectors.
Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. (Petrobras) is a wholly owned enterprise of the Brazilian Government, which is engaged in the energy sector. Petrobras is divided into four business areas: Exploration and Production, Downstream, Gas & Energy and International, and two support functions, which are Finance and Services. The Company has over 100 production platforms, 16 refineries, 30,000 kilometers of ducts and more than 6,000 gas stations. Petrobras is also present in other countries, namely Angola, Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Nigeria, and the United States, as well as having the support of its overseas offices in New York (ESNOR), and Japan (ESJAP). Brazilian oil company Petrobras has signed an agreement with the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources of Jordan that forecasts the viability study for the use of the Brazilian company's technology in the production of oil in the Arab country. The technology is Petrosix, for the production of schist oil, and it should be used in the AUG block, in the Attarat field, in the Arab country.
Braskem S.A. (Braskem) is an integrated petrochemical cracker and thermoplastics producer in Brazil. The Company produces a portfolio of petrochemical products, and focuses on polyethylene, polypropylene and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Braskem operates through four business units: Basic Petrochemicals, Polyolefins, Vinyls and Business Development. The Basic Petrochemicals Unit includes the Company's basic petrochemical production activities, and supply of electricity, steam and compressed air to second-generation producers. The Polyolefins Unit encompasses activities related to the production of polyethylene and polypropylene. The Vinyls Unit is engaged in the production of PVC, caustic soda and chlorine. The Business Development Unit is engaged in activities related to the production of other second-generation petrochemical products. On April 6, 2006, the Company acquired all of the common and preferred shares of Politeno Industria e Comercio S.A.
Ultrapar Participações S.A. (Ultra Group)one of Brazil's most solid conglomerates। It unites three different companies, each with a prominent position in its own segment: Ultragaz, the leader in Brazil's distribution market for Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG), with a 24% market share; Oxiteno, the largest producer of specialty chemicals in Brazil and the only manufacturer of ethylene oxide and its main derivatives in Mercosur area (comprising Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay); and Ultracargo, a leading provider of integrated road transport, storage and handling services for chemicals and fuels.
Petrobras will take over the Ipiranga distribution network in the North, Northeast and Midwest, and will have up to five years to use the Ipiranga brand, after which it will have to be replaced for the Petrobras Distribuidora brand। Braskem will manage 60% of the assets of Ipiranga Group in the petrochemical sector. Ultra will have the Ipiranga fuel distribution network in the South and Southeast of the country, and will continue running it under the Ipiranga brand. Petrobras will keep the other 40% of the Ipiranga group petrochemical activities.
The Ipiranga Refinery, in the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, will be equally controlled by Petrobras, Ultra Group and Braskem, who agree to proceed with the activities.
FAAP
FAAP was a small foundation destined to help and develop Fine Arts in 1947. Today it is considered one of the most important and respected Academic Institutions in Brazil.
The constant investment in culture, is a FAAP "brand" through the Museum of Brazilian Art (MAB), the FAAP Theater, FAAP College (founded in 1988), the library (created in 1959) and the facultieses.
The MAB has a heap of 2,500 works of Brazilian and foreign artists who have settled down here. Promotes workshops, courses and seminars, occupying an important place in the cultural life of the city. It holds international exhibitions with a great number of visitors.
The FAAP counts currently on 8 a thousand students in the graduation level, in seven facultieses: Business, Fine Arts, Communications, Law,Economics, Engineering and Computer Science, beyond 4,5 a thousand students in the level of post-graduation and the Executive MBA, considered one of the best of Brazil and a High School.
It is in the formation of students that Foundation Armando Alvares Penteado stands out in the academic scenario. It is considered as an institution that prepares the elite and future leaders of the country in business, public, cultural and artistic spheres. Its principal mission is to foment teaching that permits the students an all round formation as human beings. In the classrooms, professional specialization meets the requirements of modern production, based on new technologies, concepts of productivity and total quality. Besides preparing the youth to full exercise the citizenship, FAAP is committed to a national project for development and social well being.International Office of FAAP
903 Alagoas Street, Zip Code: 01242-902-São Paulo, Brazil
Phone: 55 11 3662-7159 - Fax: 55 11 3662-7103
Site: http://www.faap.br/ingles/index.htm
National Biotechnology Programme
According to the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, there are currently 1,700 groups in the public, academic and private sectors working in the biotechnology sector in Brazil. The national program will manage and provide support to these activities, as well as facilitate corporate access to research results.
Already in 2007, according to information provided by the minister of Development, Luiz Fernando Furlan, US$ 479.5 million in public funds will be available for biotechnology research in the country. The money will be provided by the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) and by sector funds already managed by the National Innovation Agency (Finep), which are linked to the ministries and consist of tax revenues.
The plan was devised through debates between the private and public sectors, and will receive support from five ministries, all of which are somehow related to the area: Health, Development, Science and Technology, Agriculture and Environment. The goal is to encourage biotechnological applications in five different fields: health, food security, animal health, industrial products and environmental quality.
A national committee will be established, including representatives of the five ministries and of the academic sector, to monitor the development of the program. Biotechnology should foster production, and consequently employment in the country, in addition to opening new doors to the foreign market.
In fact, Brazilian biotech research has already shown promising results. The minister cited as examples the work of the Amazon Biotechnology Center - CBA, which developed natural colouring products for food and cosmetics, and the work of a factory, in the northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia, which produces sterile flies designed to eradicate fruit flies; these sterile flies are now being exported.
Brazilian biotechnology also led to the creation of new strains of sugar cane and soy, capable of thriving both in the country's dry and more humid areas, not to mention ethanol production, another result of biotech. Brazil is currently the leading ethanol producer in the world.
The program launched today should contribute to lessen Brazilian imports of medications, and help the country become an exporter of certain medical products. "In imports of vaccines against rabies alone, Brazil spends US$ 38.8 million a year," said Furlan.
The Ministry of Health already provides support to several programs aimed at innovation in medication. One such program is turned to the manufacturing of pharmaceuticals using marine microalgae. Another program specializes in developing medication to treat neglected diseases, such as malaria. This type of work, as well as biotech work in the agricultural and the industrial sectors, should get a boost from the new government plan.
The Brazilian Association of Biotechnology Companies (Abrabi) estimates the annual revenue of the biotechnology sector in the country to be between US$ 2.5 billion and US$ 4.3 billion. Of the 28,000 job positions created, 84% are in the micro and small businesses.
Foreign resources and participation in biotechnological development is also welcome, according to the consultant for biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and medication at the Brazilian Agency for Industrial Development (ABDI), Adriana Diaféria. Adriana explained that Brazil wants to show how advanced it is in the field, thus encouraging exchange with other countries.
Brazilian automotive companies
Companies with 100% Brazilian capital are entering in the automotive market. That is the case with company Tecnologia Automotiva Catarinense - TAC, from the southeastern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina, which is developing jeep Stark, which means "strength" in German, previously know as Project A4.The 4-wheel-drive jeep of futuristic lines is equipped with a Volkswagen 1.8 dual fuel engine, i.e., which operates both on petrol and alcohol. "This is a differential in the 4-wheel-drive vehicle sector, where the vehicles are generally run on petrol or diesel," stated the company's administrative director, Luiz Alberto Cavalheiro.
