On January 2 of this year, Luciana Santos was sworn in as Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation in the government of Luís Inácio Lula da Silva. She is the first woman to head the ministry and stresses the cooperation between the two nations in this field.
Brazil and China have deepened their relationship in this area over four decades, since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1974. However, there is still room to expand scientific and technological cooperation between the two countries, according to the newly appointed minister Luciana Santos.
In an exclusive interview with Xinhua, the minister evaluated the Sino-Brazilian partnership in the sector, stating that China is a key partner in the industrialization of Brazilian science and technology and the exchange of experiences will be fundamental in this process.
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“We need to assess the feasibility of forming a specific bilateral working group on this topic, aggregating other Brazilian government portfolios involved in industrialization. For example, create a forum for exchange on public policies for innovation, tax incentives, public procurement, and technological orders”.
About the forty years since the China-Brazil Scientific and Technological Cooperation Agreement was signed, the Minister emphasizes the “good results, such as the satellites of the CBERS series, the Brazil-China Center for Innovation in Nanotechnology, cooperation in the area of energy and climate and in the area of bamboo, in mathematics, and in the innovative entrepreneurship part.
As a reaction to the US government’s measures of imposing a technological blockade on China and criticizing the relationship that the Asian country is building with other countries, the minister praises Brazil’s scientific and technological cooperation relations as being “always with diverse partners.”
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The Brazilian government intends to continue and strengthen this cooperation, not only because of the history between the two powers, but also because “China is a global player with similar problems, whose solutions come through the production of knowledge and the development of innovative products and processes.”
The minister also recalls that Brazil and China have a history of cooperation in the area of climate change very relevant, through the Brazil-China Center on Climate Change and Innovative Technologies for Energy, led by UFRJ in Brazil, with support from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, and Tsinghua University in China.
“We intend to advance even further with this center and stimulate other initiatives in other strategic areas. These are fields in which CT&I has fundamental contributions for improving the quality of life of the Brazilian people and the Chinese people. Environmental preservation must count on the participation of local communities, promoting knowledge and development of technologies and thus contributing to the creation of employment and income generation, in addition to the use of natural resources in a responsible and sustainable way”.
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Finally, Luciana Santos also recalls “some important programs” of her ministry, which encompass “incentive to innovation, directed to companies, such as the Law of Good and the Law of Informatics”.
“Such incentives are directed to national companies, which may have Chinese origin. In addition, there are public calls for innovation that involve support for companies, such as the FINEP and Embrapii calls,” he stresses.
*with Xinhua
