São Paulo - Brazilian industry wants to define its role in the country's economic growth. It also wants to ascertain its participation in the international market at present and what its position will be over the next ten years. To define these goals and the means to attain them, the National Forum of Industry, created by the National Confederation of Industry (CNI), met today in the capital of São Paulo. The aim is to formulate a Strategic Map of Brazilian Industry, which will consolidate the goals and the strategies to achieve them.

"The map is the formulation of a medium and long-term strategy," explained the president of the CNI, Armando Monteiro Neto. "We are engaged in a task which has a horizon cast farther into the future and which utilizes tools and methods that will give it an important distinguishing feature: management of the strategic agenda itself," he added. The management tool to which the president of the CNI refers is the "Balanced Scorecard," developed at Harvard University and used in strategic programs by private companies, governments, and organizations throughout the world.

The meeting was the first step in defining the Map, through a survey of trends, macro-objectives, and the conditions for their realization. The economist José Roberto Mendonça de Barros presented the trajectory of Brazilian industry to demonstrate successful experiences that might be used to advantage, and Carl Dahlman, from the World Bank, conducted a panel on the current economic scene. The results of the encounter will be debated by each of the entities that represent industry, after which they will submit proposals and suggestions. Two more meetings will be held to confirm the decisions, and the project is expected to be ready in December.

According to the president of the CNI, this is not the first attempt to determine a long-term agenda for industry, but what makes this one different already is its greater representativeness. In addition to the CNI and Federations of Industry from all over the country, the National Forum of Industry comprises 32 national and sectorial associations, "which are engaged in this task." Among the themes that were discussed, the president of the CNI highlighted what is in his judgment a crucial point: investment in "human capital."

"This involves a strategy that essentially concerns the question of education," Monteiro Neto explained. He added that he is working on a broader concept of investment in human capital, "not just the training of workers, but training in management and research and development."

Agência Brasil
Reporter: Liésio Pereira
Translator: David Silberstein
08/11/2004