BNDES increases Prosoft budget to US$ 2.78 bi
Valor Econômico
The Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) increased from R$ 1 billion (US$ 556 million) to R$ 5 billion (US$ 2.78 billion) the budget of the Program for Development of the National Software and Related Services Industry (Prosoft). The increase in the volume of resources occurred due to the increasing demand generated by the Productive Development Program (PPD, in Portuguese), created last year by the federal government.
In three years, until July this year, the portfolio of the program amounted to projects of R$ 2.8 billion (US$ 1.56 billion), in 300 operations. According to the development bank, the projects for financing within the scope of the Prosoft currently amount to R$ 1.4 billion (US$ 778 million) (among contracted and approved operations, and those under analysis and prospective), which exceeds the projection of R$ 1 billion (US$ 556 million) up to 2010 foreseen in the PPD. According to the BNDES, nearly 85% of the projects in the portfolio are from small- and medium-sized companies.
The focus of the program of the development bank is to provide financial support to the investments and business plans of companies of the segments of software and IT services with headquarters in Brazil, providing support to the sale of their products in the domestic market and in the exports.