Brasília, January 9, 2004 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - In the next few days the Ministries of Finance and Development, Industry, and Foreign Trade will announce debureaucratizing measures on behalf of exporting firms, especially the small ones, which nowadays constitute an important segment of foreign trade. Upon providing this information during an interview yesterday (8) morning, Minister Luiz Fernando Furlan recalled that the government's goal this year is to export US$ 80 billion, as against US$ 73 billion in 2003. He said that this will come about largely through the sale of soybeans, of which 70% of the harvest has already been acquired, and sales by Embraer.

The strategy was discussed on Wednesday (7) at a Cabinet meeting with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on the themes of reactivation of the economy and generation of employment. Each Minister presented his Ministry's plans for this year. Furlan confided that specific measures to these ends will be defined in future meetings with the President.

According to the Minister, one of the ideas to reactivate sectors of the economy is to optimize the use of idle labor, raising the efficiency of the productive sector, together with investments in infrastructure. The government wants to act in sectors where entrepreneurial initiative can be stimulated, and it intends to place a priority on easing credit for the purchase of machinery. In this regard, the Minister said that the Abimaq (Brazilian Association of Machinery Industries) has a proposal on this matter.

The domestic furniture sector, according to the Minister, have been increasing its annual exports by 20%, and, for this reason, is on the government's agenda. Relieving the burdens on capital goods, to facilitate investments, and stimulating production, as announced on Wednesday by Minister Antônio Palocci, are also part of the government's priorities for this year, Furlan added. (DAS)