Edla Lula
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Brasília - This month the Brazilian government, in partnership with the European Union, will inaugurate an international insertion program for small and medium-sized firms. According to Jairo Klepacz, secretary of Industrial Technology in the Ministry of Development, Industry, and Foreign Trade, the goal is "to promote and support the expansion and diversification of company exports, with an emphasis on products with greater technological content."

In its initial phase, which gets underway next week, the project will seek increased exchanges among companies in Brazil and the European Union. 3.6 million euros are budgeted for this phase.

At the same time, the government will spend 4.8 million euros to set up a system of trade information and intelligence to help Brazilian exporters become better acquainted with the European market. There are also plans to invest another 4.8 million euros on facilities to measure and assess product conformity with technical norms and regulations and animal and plant sanitary standards.

"As a result, small and medium-sized firms will learn about international requirements, focused mainly on the European market," Klepacz remarked.

In the second phase, 3.6 million euros will be used to train entrepreneurs, technical staff, and foreign trade agents. "We are striving for this to act in effect as the tool that will prepare this segment, which is the backbone of the Brazilian economy, to compete on the international market."

Klepacz participated, yesterday (1), in the 8th Meeting of the Permanent Forum of Micro and Small Enterprises. At this meeting the minister of Development, Luiz Fernando Furlan, informed that the government is working to increase software exports to US$ 2 billion by 2007.

Furlan said that Brazil is the world's sixth largest producer of goods in this sector, but exports are still very modest. "We intend to surpass US$ 500 million this year and reach a higher plateau in the coming years." He recalled that the informatics sector enjoys a degree of flexibility in production and execution, because all an entrepreneur needs to sell his products is to be "plugged into" a network. "It is also a sector that generates jobs and provides opportunities for young people," he concluded.

Translation: David Silberstein